The College Solutions Blog

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

Money

The Nuts and Bolts of Stafford Loans

This is the time of year when colleges start sending their bills out to new and returning students. And that’s why this is also the time of year when parents and students begin inquiring about college loans. This is as good a time as any then to answer some questions about Stafford Loans, which are the most popular federal college...

Can This Family Afford Syracuse University?

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 recently...

How College Students Feel About Debt

I read something crazy this week about how young Americans feel about all their credit card balances and the student debt they’ve racked up. Apparently, the majority of them feel “empowered” by all that money they owe lenders. The average student loan borrower, who graduates from college, owes $23,000 or $24,000. And the typical graduating senior with one credit card...

7 Tips For Repaying Your Student Loans

Many college seniors, who are graduating this month, probably thought this day would never arrive. I’m not talking about their graduation day. I’m referring to the time when they would have to start repaying their student loans. With the economy still in a funk and unemployment remaining high, this is a scary time to be contemplating all that student debt....

Attending a College With Lousy Weather

I am answering a question from a mom from Southern California today. Here is what she wrote: Could you comment on choosing colleges that are in different weather areas? After reading your blogs and talking to other parents, a student can get more more merit aid if she applies out of state. My daughter plans on applying to Gonzaga University,...

Cutting the Cost of College by 49%

When you are looking at colleges, don’t believe the sticker price. Why? Because college are priced like airline tickets. Everybody pays a different fare. When I give talks to families with teenagers, that’s one of the first points that I emphasize. It’s your job then to find colleges and universities that are not only great academic fits, but also financial...

What Is the Best Student Loan?

What is the best student loan? I got an email from a dad who was hoping to get the answer to that question. His son needs to borrow for the last year of college. That was an easy question to answer. The best education loan available is the federal Stafford Loan. There are two types of Stafford loans: subsidized and...

Measuring a College for the Right Fit

This week I’m sharing answers to questions posed by my blog visitors that I passed along to college admission officers who attended the annual conference of the Western Association for College Admission Counseling. Here are some answers: Question No. 1: What do admission officers feel are the three most important criteria points for a student and their family to look...

Do I Dare File For Financial Aid?

A couple of days ago I asked my blog visitors to submit questions that I could direct to college admission officers at the annual conference of the Western Association for College Admission Counseling. Now I want to start sharing answers. The admission experts whom I talked to today came from such disparate schools as Colgate University, Carroll College, Chapman University,...

Financial Aid Chances With a 2.9 GPA

I got an email the other day from a mom, whose son is brilliant. I assume he’s brilliant because he will be attending the California Institute of Technology in the fall as a freshman. The acceptance rate at Cal Tech is 13% and many of its student get near perfect SAT scores. This teenage boy applied to 21 schools (way...