The College Solutions Blog

October 27, 2011

Interested in finding out what the most expensive colleges and universities in the nation are? I wrote a post for my college blog over at CBS MoneyWatch today that listed the top 25 price offenders. I’m patching in the list below. Not surprisingly, most of the priciest schools are located on the East Coast. Why Should We Care? I’m going...

October 13, 2011

In my last blog, I talked about why it’s important to know what your EFC or Expected Family Contribution is. Here is the post: What Is Your Expected Family Contribution? Today, I’m going to show you how you can get a preliminary EFC, which is not as tough as you might assume. You just need to use an online EFC...

October 12, 2011

What is Your Expected Family Contribution? Do you know what the term Expected Family Contribution or EFC means? Most of you probably don’t so I’m devoting the next couple of college blog posts to explaining what an Expected Family Contribution or EFC is and why it’s so important. If you file for financial aid through the Free Application for Federal...

October 7, 2011

I’ve been running into more and more parents, who are curious about sending their children to community colleges. I can understand the attraction. Community colleges are often much cheaper than four-year schools and they can offer a more personalized education than big state universities. Out here in California, for instance, a freshman can take introductory courses with 30 to 40...

September 29, 2011

I invited David Montesano, one of my favorite independent college counselors, to write this guest post after I heard him talk about the challenges that middle-class families face in paying for college. Montesano is the founder of College Match Educational Consultants in Seattle and other cities. By David Montesano The rising cost of college is nothing less than a crisis...

September 27, 2011

When families look at financial aid packages they often assume that a school’s financial aid support will remain the same for four years. That, however, is a dangerous assumption to make. The financial support that some colleges and universities give students will shrink after their freshmen year. Bait and Switch? Why would this happen? I can’t speak for schools that...

September 11, 2011

Have you tried out any college cost calculators yet? If you haven’t, I’d urge to to get started. I experimented with some net price calculators recently and I wanted to share my experience. The purpose of these so-called net price calculators is to help you determine how much a college is going to cost your family by generating a personalized...

August 24, 2011

I wrote yesterday about the hazards of attending high-priced private colleges and universities that can’t support their students with solid financial aid packages. If you missed the post, here it is: Attending Expensive East Coast Universities I think one reason why students gravitate to pricey schools on the East Coast is because they don’t put much effort into finding wonderful...

August 23, 2011

While I was in New York last week, I spent some time with families of students interested in majoring in the performing arts. The parents shared the same anxieties as the moms and dads of other college-bound teenagers. They wondered how they would pay for college. And the kids seemed preoccupied about how they could manage to sing or dance...

August 22, 2011

On Friday I was one of the guests on The Early Show on CBS talking about who should be responsible for paying for college — students or parents. Obviously, the answer for most families is both parents and students. So the CBS segment didn’t break any new ground nor was it particularly illuminating, but it was great to be on...