The College Solutions Blog

October 10, 2010

Should colleges continue to give merit scholarships to rich students? The vast majority of colleges and universities in this country dispense money to rich kids through merit scholarships or grants. The higher-ed world isn’t proud of this practice, but it’s pervasive. I ended up talking about this phenomenon this weekend when I was visiting my daughter Caitlin, who is a...

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...

May 26, 2010

I hadn’t planned on writing about athletic scholarships for three days in a row, but a father of a Division I athlete at Indiana University emailed some great observations that I wanted to pass along. I should mention that his daughter is a rower, which is the only sport that I know of where just about any girl who rows...

May 25, 2010

I wanted to share a great response about athletic scholarships that I received after posting, 2 Worst Places to Find College Cash. I heard from Kris Hinz, who is a college counselor at Position U 4 College, who was agreeing with me that too many parents think that their kids are going to win athletic scholarships. Only 2% of high...

April 1, 2010

College costs for many students attending private schools are shrinking. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. That’s because what counts is not the sticker price, but a family’s “net” college costs. What do parents and students really pay after they receive financial aid and scholarships? At private colleges, only about 18% of families pay the sticker price. A new survey by...

February 23, 2010

I heard today from a dad named John, who got Rutgers to quadruple the academic scholarship that it is offering his daughter. After hearing from John, Rutgers scotched the original $10,000 scholarship and replaced it with a $40,000 college scholarship instead. How did he do it? It was simple. On February 17, John sent an email to Rutger’s undergraduate admissions...

February 22, 2010

Where do college transfer students go after they earn their two-year associate’s degree? It’s been a tough question to answer when you consider that colleges and universities have traditionally been focused on high school seniors. The transfer student who graduates from a community college has legitimately felt overlooked. But that reality could be changing for a couple of reasons. Reason...

February 20, 2010

How do you ace a college interview? That’s what my son was wondering this weekend during his visit to Beloit College. About 130 high school seniors were on campus to compete for one of the school’s Presidential Scholarships, which are worth up to $68,000. Have fun and relax. That’s what everyone told the hopeful teenagers, who arrived from places as...

January 8, 2010

Yesterday I wrote this provocative post: Why High School Counselors Don’t Know Much About College.  Today I wanted to follow up with 10 things that the typical high school counselors doesn’t know. Here goes: 1. There are roughly 50 colleges and universities in the country that are no-loan schools, which means they meet a student’s financial aid need with grants...

January 4, 2010

I wanted to share with you an email that I received last night from a high school freshman, who spent her Christmas break stressing out: Dear Lynn, I am a freshman in high school, and I am enrolled in all advanced placement classes. For the first marking period, I received all B’s and one A+. My second marking period grades...