The College Solutions Blog

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...

August 19, 2011

How do you cut the cost of college? The best way to shrink college costs is to be an educated consumer. If money is an issue – and it almost always is – you need to evaluate schools to determine which ones are generous and which are stingy. Here are 10 ways that can help you shave significant dollars off...

August 18, 2011

If anybody is interested in checking out a webinar that I did earlier this week on shrinking the cost of college — a favorite topic of mine — you can watch it now. I pulled together the webinar for Kaplan Test Prep and it was free and open to the public. I spoke for about 45 minutes on these sorts...

August 16, 2011

Is your family going to qualify for financial aid? Many families I talk to assume that they won’t qualify for financial aid. Why are so many parents pessimistic about their chances for financial assistance? I think a lot of them assume that the money they’ve squirreled away in their college savings accounts will kill their chances. I find it ironic...

August 15, 2011

I think the most misconceptions that people have about the college process revolve around financial aid. With the college admission season about to head into high gear, today I want to share the four financial aid myths that are probably the most common. Here are four of the most stubborn financial aid myths. 1. I make too much money to...

August 10, 2011

It’s hard keeping up with the changes sweeping the textbook industry, which is why I asked Colin Barceloux, the founder of BookRenter, about a hot trend –  renting textbooks. Here is a Q&A with Barceloux, who created his company as a student at Santa Clara University after he began collecting discarded textbooks on his campus. Can you speak about some of...

August 3, 2011

How do colleges decide which teenagers will win their merit scholarships? And, just as importantly, how do schools determine how much each scholarship winner will receive. I was excited to gain some insight into that question yesterday when I talked to Jonathan Burdick, the undergraduate admissions and financial aid director at the University of Rochester. After the latest admission season...

August 2, 2011

If you are a rising high school senior, you probably thought you had all summer to get prepared for the upcoming college admission frenzy. But guess what? You’re running out of time. To avoid the time crunch in the fall, here are five things you can do now: 1. Examine school prices. I think it’s reckless to apply to a...