The College Solutions Blog

Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.

Financial aid

Dirty Secrets of College Admission Officers

If you’ve got a Kindle or a Nook and you haven’t bought a copy of the second edition of my book, The College Solution yet, you are in luck! The publisher is temporarily giving away the electronic version of my new book for free! I don’t know how long this price will last, but I’d jump on it. If...

9 Steps to Finding the Most Generous Colleges

How do you find colleges with the best financial aid? One way to simplify your search for colleges is to look for the institutions that typically meet the highest percentage of financial need. Of course, the best scenario is for your child to get accepted into a school that meets 100% of all its students’ demonstrated financial needs. Here’s an...

A Wealthy Mom’s College Questions

I am sharing an email that I got this week from a wealthy single mom, who is anticipating her college costs for her twins. I comment on her situation below and I’d love to hear from you too. If you have any advice, please share it in the comment box below. Mom’s Email: Lynn, I just finished your new book, ...

Getting Stiffed by Colleges

When students are shopping for colleges, admission representatives typically urge them to ignore the sticker price. Here’s what these college reps routinely say: We’ve got lots of financial aid and scholarships. Just APPLY! I was reminded of why applying blind is such a reckless strategy when a mom contacted me after her husband heard me give a college talk at...

Getting Stiffed by Colleges

When students are shopping for colleges, admission representatives typically urge them to ignore the sticker price. Here’s what these college reps routinely say: We’ve got lots of financial aid and scholarships. Just APPLY! I was reminded of why applying blind is such a reckless strategy when a mom contacted me after her husband heard me give a college talk at...

Is It Okay to Hide Home Equity?

If you missed it, on Monday I wrote a post for my college blog on the dramatic impact that home equity can have on a family’s financial aid package. Here is the link: Will Your Home Equity Hurt Financial Aid Chances: A Case Study If you read the post, you’ll see that even a huge amount of home equity (in...

Will Your Home Equity Hurt Financial Aid Chances? A Case Study

Is your home equity going to hurt your chances of receiving need-based financial aid? The majority of families don’t need to worry about this because most schools don’t consider home equity. These institutions use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The FAFSA doesn’t even ask if the family owns a home. Some of these schools, however, will use an...

Listen to my College Cost Webinar

LLast week I gave a one-hour webinar on shrinking college costs for 100 college consultants. Cyndy McDonald, a friend of mine who is also college consultant and the founder of MyCCA.net, invited me to give the presentation. MyCCA (which stands for My College Consultant Assistant) provides management software for college counselors to help them assist their clients in navigating...

College Choices for Affluent Families

A mom emailed me earlier this week and I’ve somehow managed to stretch out the topic of her concern to three posts. If you’re curious, here are the previous ones: Who Is Stressed Out About College? Do You Really Expect Me To Pay That Much for College? Today I’m going to address her chief question: What do you do if...

Do You Really Expect Me to Pay That Much for College?

I wanted to share an email that I received over the weekend from a mom named Linda, who is questioning whether her bright son’s No. 1 college choice – Cal Tech – is out of reach financially. Mom’s Email Here is what Linda wrote: My son, a rising freshman, has dreamed of attending Cal Tech for years, which others have...