The College Solutions Blog

November 20, 2009

Most families do not pay the sticker price for college.  In fact, most parents pay far below the published tuition. About two out of three full-time college students receive grants, otherwise known as scholarships, to attend school. If you just look at private institutions, the number who receive college scholarships is a whopping 80%. I obtained those figures by reading...

October 21, 2009

Here’s a shocker:  College costs continue to rise. That is the verdict of the College Board’s annual college cost study. Tuition and fees at state schools jumped 6.5% and the tuition cost at private schools rose 4.4%. A few months ago, an association of private colleges and universities issued a press release congratulating their members for holding down the cost...

September 24, 2009

I made it to Baltimore for the gigantic convention of the National Association for College Admission Counseling that 5,300 college admissions officers and high school and independent college counselors are attending. I’m not completely awake — I got to my hotel room at 2 a.m. today — but I’m excited about bringing lots of news about college to all my...

August 29, 2009

I want to welcome all my new visitors today, who discovered my blog thanks to the radio show that was broadcast this morning around the country. If you’ve got teenagers and you’re stressing about college, my blog should be a huge help.  You’ll find some of the best stuff in my college blog’s archives. Here are sections of the archives...

June 23, 2009

With state universities overflowing with students and applicants maybe this will be the wave of the future…. The president-elect of the Arizona Board of Regents, just released a report that urges the state’s three public universities — University of Arizona, Arizona State and Northern Arizona University — to launch programs that would allow its students to spend three years at...

May 11, 2009

One morning at a breakfast chat with parents at my son’s high school, the principal mentioned that he is always amazed at how few students at the end of each semester ask teachers how they might improve their grades. It should be a no brainer, the principal suggested, for students to ask their teachers if they can do extra credit...

January 19, 2009

My daughter called me yesterday to complain about the cost of her college textbooks. One of Caitlin’s upper level Spanish books was going to cost her close to $200. She was thrilled, however, when she found a used older textbook edition — missing the CD — for a mere $15 online. Ironically, it’s the frugality of students like Caitlin which...