The College Solutions Blog

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

Money

Losing a Full-Ride Scholarship

Today I want to share a cautionary tale of a student who lost her full-ride scholarship. Her dad wrote and asked me for advice because the family can’t handle the out-of-state tuition at Louisiana State University. Frankly, this should never have been an issue for his daughter because she won a full-ride scholarship to Southeastern Louisiana University. I’ll let the...

Will Your Child Graduate from College in 4 Years?

One of the best ways to cut the cost of college is to graduate in four years. This might seem like a no-brainer, but most college students can’t pull it off. Just over 50% of students, who started out as full-time freshmen, end up graduating in six years. In general, private schools do a better job than state schools of...

2 Colleges: Which One Is Stingy?

How do you know if a school is going to be generous to your child? Here’s a quick answer: Check the numbers. Or as I like to say, check the financial fingerprint of any school that’s on your teenager’s list. There are many ways to determine whether a school is generous or not, but today I’m going to focus on...

Asking a College For More Financial Aid

When you appeal a college’s financial aid award what happens to your request? The Chronicle of Higher Education provided an inside glimpse on how a financial aid appeal is handled internally in a fascinating article today entitled: When Families Ask Colleges for More Money A Chronicle reporter observed a financial aid deliberation that took place among senior admission and financial...

How Grandparents Can Safely Help With College Costs

I got a question this week from a mom about grandparent contributions to college. It’s great to have generous grandparents who want to help with college costs, but you don’t want any gifts to backfire. Here are five things to keep in mind when grandparents want to help with college: No. 1. If your family isn’t going to qualify for...

Will a Student Job Shrink Your Financial Aid Package?

I’ve been writing posts for this college blog since the summer of 2008 and I figured I’d written about every topic imaginable, but there was at least one that I had overlooked. Even though plenty of parents are worried about it, I had never addressed this issue: If a student has a job will this hurt his or her chances...

17 Ways to Reduce Your Dependence on College Loans

How can reduce your dependence on college loans? Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of FinAid and FastWeb, sent me this article today that includes his suggestions on how families can reduce their dependence on college loans. I couldn’t resist adding some links to college blog posts that I’ve written on the same topics. Here is Mark’s advice: 1. Borrow less for...

The True Cost of a Borrowing for College

Most families haven’t saved enough to pay the full college tab, which can lead to some uncomfortable conversations about how much college debt parents should assume versus their children. It can be hard, however, to get a true picture of how onerous that debt will be for parents and their children in the future. There is a free online tool...

When You Don’t Have Enough Money for College

I’ve had a lot of parents asking me lately about whether they should give the green light to their children, who have been accepted into expensive schools without enough financial aid. In response, I want to share a cautionary post that I wrote for my other college blog over at CBS MoneyWatch. Here is part of that post: Here is...

Financial Aid and Divorce

In the financial aid process, many schools treat students with divorced parents differently. As someone who has been married for more than 26 years, I don’t think this is always fair, but it’s the reality. Today I’m going to illustrate how schools can treat families of divorce differently by using the story of a girl, who I’ll call Sophia. Sophia...