The College Solutions Blog

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

Financial aid

Shrinking the Cost of College: Twitter Chat Tonight

If you’d like to learn more about shrinking the cost of college, I’ll be sharing advice on the first edition of #CollegeChat at 6 p.m. PST tonight on Twitter. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to find this one-hour college Twitter chat. You can find the instructions at the bottom of this post. During the live Twitter chat, I...

New York University: Tale of 2 Students

Today I’m going to use New York University as a punching bag. I’m going to use NYU to illustrate how too many well-meaning families muddle through the college process and end up looking for the most highly ranked colleges without considering the price. Some of these families end up like Cortney Munna, a 26-year-old woman, who is facing nearly $100,000...

Financial Aid: How to Find Out If You Qualify

Today I want to share one of the many financial aid questions that I tackle in my new eBook, Shrinking the Cost of College: 152 Ways to Cut the Cost of a Bachelor’s Degree. This question happens to be one that I believe most families worry about: How do you know if you will qualify for financial aid? Here are...

2 Worst Places to Look for College Cash

This week I intend to share with you a few of the money saving tips in my new eBook, Shrinking the Cost of Colleges: 152 Tips to Cut the Price of a Bachelor’s Degree. Inside the eBook, you’ll find the best sources of college cash. Here’s Lesson No. 1: One of the most important things you can do to shrink...

New College eBook: 152 Ways to Cut the Cost of College

Are you worried about how you’re going to pay for college? I thought so, which is why I wrote an eBook that’s packed with ways to cut college costs. The title of my new eBook is Shrinking the Cost of College: 152 Ways to Cut the Cost of a Bachelor’s Degree. Click the book icon on the right to learn...

The States Where College Students Stay Close to Home

In these hard economic times, it’s best to cast a wide net when applying for colleges. But most college students continue to stay close to home. Staying close to home for college can sometimes be a mistake. For some students, the best colleges — financially and economically — will be a time zone or two away. Why aren’t state schools...

Cushy Student Loan Repayment Plan: Will It Boost College Costs for Everyone Else?

Is a generous federal loan repayment program that Congress recently made even better going to increase the cost of college for everybody? It’s an interesting question that’s being posed by Daniel L. Bennett, who is a research and policy analyst at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity. In a Forbes article, Bennett argues that the federal student loan repayment...

College Vacancies: 240 Colleges Where You Can Still Apply

Don’t like where you’re heading to college in the fall? Take heart: There are still at least 240 schools with college vacancies. Most of the schools with college vacancies have room for both incoming freshmen and transfer students. All but one school on the list still has financial aid available and 236 still have dorm space. You can find the...

Private School Loans: 6 Tips to Pick the Right Loan

If you need a private school loan, here are some final suggestions as I wrap up a week of blogging about college loans: 1. First, read this week’s posts on student and parent loans: 5 Things You Need to Know About Private School Loans College Loans: When Parents Need to Borrow 4 Things You Need to Know About Federal Student...

5 Things You Need to Know About Private School Loans

Earlier this week, I talked with Tim Ranzetta, a national expert on college loans and the founder of Student Lending Analytics. Today, I wanted to share some of his advice about private school loans that can save you money! Here are some things that you absolutely need to know about private school loans: 1. Students should max out their federal...