The College Solutions Blog

March 23, 2012

Over the last 24-hours, I received a lot of great comments and some emails in reaction to this college blog post: An Email from a Disillusioned Mom If you haven’t read the post, I’d urge you to do so. The email came from a mother of a very bright girl from an affluent family, who received little to no merit...

February 27, 2012

The No. 1 way to cut the cost of college is to become an educated consumer. You can learn how by attending my popular online course, The College Cost Lab. Learn more about The College Cost Lab that will start in June, 2017. Lynn O’Shaughnessy Deadbeat Parents Who Won’t Help Pay for College I got an email over the weekend...

February 9, 2012

I was reading my latest copy of The Atlantic last night as I was falling asleep and I noticed that an article that prompted me to write a post last spring was one of the magazine’s most provocative pieces in 2011.  This article generated the fifth most comments from readers: How To Land Your Kid in Therapy I am swamped...

February 9, 2012

I was reading my latest copy of The Atlantic last night as I was falling asleep and I noticed that an article that prompted me to write a post last spring was one of the magazine’s most provocative pieces in 2011.  This article generated the fifth most comments from readers: How To Land Your Kid in Therapy I am swamped...

January 20, 2012

The last  couple of days, I’ve been  exploring why some teenagers can’t emotionally handle their freshman year in college while other students behave worse than toddlers. Here are the posts:  A Nightmarish Experience at an Ohio University Could This Student’s Freshman Year Have Been Saved? I was ready to move on to other topics – some parents have been asking...

January 19, 2012

I want to thank everyone who commented on the plight of a bright young woman, who left the University of Dayton after her freshman year. Her first roommates were pigs and her experience unnerved her and her mother. If you missed the post and the accompanying comments, here is where you can find them: A Nightmarish Experience at an Ohio...

January 18, 2012

I wanted to share with you today a comment that I received yesterday from a California mom, who shared the heart-wrenching experience of her bright daughter, who started college in Ohio. She was prompted to write after reading my college blog posts about students who desire to attend schools far from their homes. Here are two of them:  Snobs, Pushy...

January 12, 2012

If you didn’t read my college blog post yesterday, I hope you do because it focused on a lot of hot-button issues for parents and teenagers trying to navigate the college process. The post, which was actually an email from the mom of a high school senior, touched upon such issues as: Brand name snob appeal Pushy relatives Mistrust of...

January 10, 2012

With crazy amounts of psychic energy being spent on getting teenagers into college, too many students and their parents think getting admitted is the hard part of the college process.  Actually, it’s not. Squeezing as much value out of the college experience once you’re a student is far more important. Unfortunately, however,  many students are graduating from college without learning...

January 9, 2012

I have been writing college blog posts recently about teenagers who have arguably been applying to the wrong colleges. (Scroll to the bottom to see my three previous posts.) All my posts have involved families who required financial aid, but today I’m sharing the plight of a father who is too wealthy to receive need-based help. Anxious Dad’s Email Here...