The College Solutions Blog

January 5, 2011

In yesterday’s college blog post, I wrote about a dad who is wondering if he should take a CPA’s  advice and hide his home equity from colleges in an annuity. If you didn’t read the post, here it is: Dubious Financial Aid Advice: Hiding Home Equity After reading my post, Todd Weaver, a college consultant at Strategies for College, Inc.,...

January 4, 2011

It’s the time of year when families of high school seniors start worrying about their home equity and financial aid. That’s why I decided to share an email that I got yesterday from a father who was interested in using the services of a CPA who says he could hide his home equity from financial aid formulas. Here is the...

January 3, 2011

Of all the myths swirling around the college admissions process, the ones involving financial aid myths are probably the biggest whoppers. Financial aid misconceptions can easily hurt families, which is why parents with a working knowledge of financial aid will often have a greater chance of capturing price breaks. With the latest financial aid season just beginning, here are four...

December 5, 2010

This is the time of year when high school seniors and their parents begin reciting this age-old advice:  Follow your dreams. Families tend to use this advice to justify their children attending expensive dream colleges even if these schools will require taking on crushing student debt. I am a huge advocate of families researching schools before hand to see if...

November 8, 2010

Are you wondering if you should apply for financial aid? For most families, the answer will be yes.  You should file for financial aid. Here are three key reasons why families of any income level should apply for aid by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid: 1. The FAFSA is free. The FAFSA won’t cost you anything but...

October 27, 2010

I periodically get emails from teenagers, who are freaking out because their parents plan to contribute little if anything to their college education. Many of these kids are from affluent families, who could afford to kick in far more than they are planning. I don’t understand parents with good paying jobs who have no problem dumping the entire college expense...

October 4, 2010

Should parents help pay for college? For a lot of people who visit my college blog this is going to seem like a no brainer. There are, however, parents who are determined to foist the whole cost of college onto their kids. I can certainly understand why a mom or dad, who makes little money, couldn’t help. But you can...

October 1, 2010

Do you use Expedia, Orbitz or Travelocity when you book a flight or find a rental car? Have you used Zillow when you’re searching for a house or Carfax when looking for a used Honda? Using these website and others like it has made buying all sorts of stuff easier. One big ticket item, however, that’s resisted this kind of...

September 15, 2010

I knew I was in a foreign country today when I looked outside my hotel window and saw a billboard that contained this message: Be health conscience. Eat a coconut every day. I’m in Jamaica, where I’ll be the featured (and apparently heavily promoted) speaker at a first annual college conference in Kingston. What could I possibly tell these Jamaican...

September 5, 2010

How can you tell if a college or university will cut the price for your child? You can get an idea by looking at a school’s Common Data Set. If you don’t know what a Common Data Set is, you’ll want to read the posts that I wrote last week on this valuable document: Researching Colleges With the Common Data...