The College Solutions Blog

May 7, 2015

I am inviting you to attend my webinar on Tuesday or Thursday that will explain four ways that you can cut your college costs. For your convenience, I am offering two webinar dates: May 12 (Tuesday), 5:30 p.m. PDT   Register here. May 14 (Thursday), Noon PDT  Register here. Everyone who registers for one of the webinar dates will receive the...

May 5, 2015

If you’re like millions of other parents with teenagers, you are stressed about your child’s college choices and how you’re going to pay the tab. Beginning May 19, I will launch my next online course for parents that will teach you, step-by-step, how to become an incredibly smart college shopper in just eight weeks. Benefits of Taking the Course Taking...

April 20, 2015

Last week at the exercise boot camp that I attend on Sunday mornings, I saw a mom who hadn’t been coming to the workouts for several months. The mom is divorced and is trying to support herself as a manicurist. Her son is a high school senior so I had been giving her some college advice before she stopped showing...

April 2, 2015

I wrote this post last year, but it’s just as relevant today for families who are upset with puny merit awards. What happens with the merit scholarship that a student receives from a school is inadequate? Is it possible to extract more money from a college? I’ve been getting questions about this lately from parents who are disappointed by some...

February 16, 2015

Financial aid awards are often confusing. I believe many colleges and universities intentionally make financial aid awards hard to decipher to trick families into thinking that their institutions are being generous even when they aren’t. Obfuscation is an effective way to keep parents off balance. Since this is the time of year when students are receiving their financial aid letters,...

January 22, 2015

Like millions of other parents, are you stressing about how exactly you are supposed to pay for college? I can help. Beginning on Feb. 10, I will be offering my online course for parents of teenagers that will focus on how you can cut your college costs. Course for Parents with Teenagers Here is where you can learn much more...

January 5, 2015

For families who struggle the most with college costs, some notable Catholic universities are among the nation’s stingiest. This has been one of my long-standing pet peeves so I was intrigued when I saw that Time magazine published the following article over the holidays that highlighted this discouraging reality: Catholic Colleges Tell Poor Kids to Go Elsewhere The Time article...

November 10, 2014

If your child is in the midst of applying to colleges, do you have an excellent idea of what each school on your child’s list will cost you? If  you don’t, I strongly suggest that you temporarily halt the admission process and find out. Traditionally, parents couldn’t know what any college was going to cost until their child received his...

September 29, 2014

If your family will need to depend on financial aid to attend college, your best bet is to find a school that will offer an excellent financial aid package to your child. A handy way to assess the generosity of any school is to look at the percentage of demonstrated financial need it typically meets for its students. Teenagers, who...

September 14, 2014

If you have a teenager who will be heading to college some day, you probably are frustrated and confused. It’s hard to find answers when you are looking for ways to cut your college costs. It’s equally frustrating for financial advisors, high school counselors and independent college consultants who would like to assist their families make college more affordable, but...