The College Solutions Blog

October 10, 2009

Every Saturday I share the college blog posts that I wrote for the week for CBSMoneyWatch. As usual, this was an eclectic bunch. Are Elite Universities Discriminating Against Asians The post that I found most fascinating was about a book — soon to be released — that examined the admission practices of seven elite (unnamed) universities. The author, who is...

October 6, 2009

Changes may be coming to  529 college savings plans. I think most parents will like the proposed college savings changes, which could lead to lower costs and more plentiful tax benefits. As a financial journalist, I’ve been writing about 529 plans since states began rolling them out in the late 1990s. During that time I’ve seen too many mediocre 529...

May 7, 2009

Any parent who owns a 529 college plan knows who to  blame for their shriveled-up account balances — Wall Street. But the real story behind the 529 debacle is much more complicated than that. I explain how why we got into this 529 plan mess at my other college blog at CBSMoneyWatch.com. Please check it out today! Lynn O’Shaughnessy is...

March 25, 2009

Are prepaid 529 college plans in trouble? Thanks to the  stock market implosion, it’s a question families are naturally asking. This particular breed of 529 plan — the most conservative of the bunch — typically allows parents to buy all or a part of a college degree at today’s costs. If you bought a year’s worth of tuition, for instance,...

March 17, 2009

Will my chances for college financial aid be hurt if I have saved for my child’s college education? I an always running into parents (usually dads) who worry that their college savings accounts will penalize their chances for financial aid. These parents also tend to be angry at the prospect that colleges will reward families who saved nothing. My response...

December 26, 2008

One of the rules that I always disliked about 529 plans was this one: You can only change the mix of investments within a 529 plan once a year. It’s always struck me as an unfair rule since other investments accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s don’t impose this restriction. In light of the stock market turmoil, the Internal Revenue...

October 19, 2008

I was visiting Wheaton College in Norton, MA, yesterday with my husband and son, who is just beginning to get interested in finding a college. While I was at the beautiful campus during the fall open house, I sat in on a session devoted to financial aid. Lots of parents had showed up to hear the financial aid officer and...

July 29, 2008

A few years ago, I was sitting in an auditorium in Michigan listening to a guy talk up the virtues of a particular 529 college savings plan. The salesmen made the plan sound wonderful. In fact, I was probably the only one in the crowd who knew that the speaker had put lipstick on a pig. The salesman never mentioned...