The College Solutions Blog

December 16, 2008

The double whammy of the recession and the stock market implosion is making the college matchmaking ritual even more tense. Is there anybody out there who is in better shape to pay for college today than a few months ago? I didn’t think so. Ways still remain to shrink the cost of college, but you have to toss aside at...

December 12, 2008

With today’s economy drawing comparisons to the Great Depression, plenty of students will be working longer hours to underwrite the costs of their degrees. But how many hours can a student work without jeopardizing his or her grades? In an analysis of studies on this question, the American Council on Education determined that college students who work more than 15...

July 24, 2008

Millions of parents across the nation hope that their children will someday win an athletic scholarship to college. That might explain why so many parents start yelling at referees when their kids are barely out of preschool. My son, who is a soccer referee in a rec league, tells me that he’s been yelled at by dads of kids who...

July 16, 2008

When parents and teenagers start contemplating college costs, they often assume that applying for private scholarships is their ticket to shrinking costs. Unfortunately, they’re usually wrong. Frankly, only 7% of college-bound high school students win a private scholarship. Okay, okay. Admittedly, most teens don’t bother to apply, but even if a teen is an eager beaver and willing to pursue...

June 26, 2008

Traditionally college and universities reserved their academic scholarships for a handful of their brightest applicants. But today, schools are handing out merit awards to far more students. At plenty of schools, even teenagers with “B” averages can cash in on this scholarship bonanza. These academic prizes are definitely worth pursuing. The average private school, for instance, is awarding academic scholarships...

June 16, 2008

If you want to attend a public university outside your state, the price tag can often be outrageously high. It’s easy to understand why. States are usually only interested in holding down the costs for their own residents. You might, however, be able to capture a higher-ed bargain if your state maintains a reciprocal agreement with its neighbors. States commonly...

October 30, 2007

I was visiting my daughter, who attends Juniata College in Pennsylvania, for several days, which mercifully allowed me to escape the tragic San Diego fire, the miserable air and those cursed Santa Ana winds. Now that I’m back, I’m furiously trying to finish my book, The 99.8% College Solution by December. The book is focused on helping the kids, who...

October 6, 2007

Last week I talked about how it’s important to determine whether your family will qualify for financial aid or not before you embark on that great college odessey. Once you’ve got a pretty good idea of where you stand on that score, you’ll want to look for schools that are either generous with financial aid, merit aid or both. A...

September 29, 2007

I graduated from college back in 1978, but I’ve got college on my brain every day because of the college book that I’m writing. My desk and the couch in my office are covered with stacks and stacks of college material that I’ve gathered from my interviews, as well as from such places as The Chronicle of Higher Education, InsideHigherEd.com,...