The College Solutions Blog

October 22, 2009

For many families, college will be the second biggest expense they will ever face — right behind buying a house. Choosing colleges and figuring out how to pay for them is complicated, which is why students and parents often seek college advice from high school counselors. It’s typically difficult, however, for families who want meaningful college information to get much...

October 21, 2009

Here’s a shocker:  College costs continue to rise. That is the verdict of the College Board’s annual college cost study. Tuition and fees at state schools jumped 6.5% and the tuition cost at private schools rose 4.4%. A few months ago, an association of private colleges and universities issued a press release congratulating their members for holding down the cost...

October 18, 2009

As usual, I’m sharing with you the posts that I wrote for my college blog for CBSMoneyWatch.com last week.  It was challenging for me to get them done because my son and I were traveling in the Midwest looking at colleges for the last time. Here are my three most recent posts: Want to Succeed in Business? Play Poker. I’m...

October 7, 2009

A high school counselor in Colombia asked me today how she could find American colleges that provide financial aid for international students who want to study in the United States. Actually, there are many schools that provide need-based aid to international students interested in American colleges and universities. Every year a member of the Overseas Association for College Admission Counseling...

September 24, 2009

I made it to Baltimore for the gigantic convention of the National Association for College Admission Counseling that 5,300 college admissions officers and high school and independent college counselors are attending. I’m not completely awake — I got to my hotel room at 2 a.m. today — but I’m excited about bringing lots of news about college to all my...

September 3, 2009

I got an email this morning from a women who had become frustrated after reading my blog post about the usefulness about the Common Data Set. As an example, I mentioned Washington University’s Common Data Set in the post and she tried tracking it down on the Internet. She couldn’t find it and neither could I. “So now what?” she...

August 30, 2009

Don’t have time to track down relevant stories about college admissions, financial aid and important topics for families with teenagers? No worries. You can find lots of them right here at TheCollegeSolutionBlog.com and each weekend I also provide the links to the college posts that I write over at CBSMoneyWatch.com. Here are my CBS stories from the past week: Top...

August 12, 2009

Stories about how students can save and earn money in colleges are a dime a dozen. Sell textbooks, buy a cheap meal plan, blah, blah, blah. I get bored whenever I read (or write) one. Yesterday, however,  Zac Bissonnette, a talented  young guy and student, who writes about college for The Daily Beast and AOL’s WalletPop, sent me his version...

August 5, 2009

I am the guest lecturer this week for an online college counseling course that’s offered through the extension service of the University of California, San Diego. It’s the second time that I’ve taught the class and it’s nice to get a chance to see what high school counselors, who are enrolled in the class, are thinking. Here’s a question that...

August 2, 2009

I told you so! That’s what I was thinking when I wrote one of my college blog posts last week for CBSMoneyWatch.com. With the media writing nonstop about how teenagers could only afford public institutions in this wretched economy, I must have looked like a lunatic when I insisted that private colleges could still be the cheapest alternative for many...