The College Solutions Blog

April 13, 2021

As usual, the highly rejective colleges** have attracted the most media attention during this latest admission season. The Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Duke, Northwestern, USC and other highly rejective colleges outdid themselves this year by crushing the college dreams of an historic number of applicants. What gets lost in this slavish attention to the nation’s highly rejective schools is the inside...

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...

October 3, 2013

Should a student apply early decision? Today I am sharing a post written by Peter Van Buskirk, a veteran admission expert, on his take on Early Decision applications. My own cautionary comments are at the bottom. This is a second post on this topic, if you missed the first one, here it is: Should Your Child Apply Early Action or...

July 24, 2013

I heard this week from a father from Southern California whose son will soon be starting his sophomore year at American University in Washington DC. He has a daughter who is also interested in attending college on the East Coast. Here is part of his email: My son loves AU which fits his interest in politics and government, but as...

May 10, 2013

Many parents assume that college is a seller’s market, but except for the elite schools that are perched at the top of US News & World Report’s college rankings, this belief is laughable. Schools are so eager to attract freshmen to their campuses that they are now discounting their tuition at historically high levels. That’s the conclusion from the latest...

March 15, 2013

If you require need-based financial, you should hunt for schools that are generous with their aid packages. This is the advice that I shared in my last college blog post: Where Is the Financial Aid Cash? If you didn’t read it, I’d suggest that you do before continuing on with this post. If money is an issue, students should be...

March 28, 2012

When families look at financial aid packages they often assume that a school’s financial aid support will remain the same for four years. That, however, is a dangerous assumption to make. The financial support that some colleges and universities give students will shrink after their freshmen year. Bait and Switch? Why would this happen? I can’t speak for schools that...

September 27, 2011

When families look at financial aid packages they often assume that a school’s financial aid support will remain the same for four years. That, however, is a dangerous assumption to make. The financial support that some colleges and universities give students will shrink after their freshmen year. Bait and Switch? Why would this happen? I can’t speak for schools that...