The College Solutions Blog

March 26, 2014

Along with Michelle Kretzschmar at DIY College Ranking, I am launching a five-week course  – Cutting the Cost of College – on April 16 that will provide you with a step-by-step blueprint on how to make college more affordable. This class is recommended for the parents of teenagers, independent college consultants, high school counselors and financial aid professionals, who want...

March 24, 2014

FInancial aid letters 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,...

March 21, 2014

If you have a child in college or heading there this fall, have you filed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid yet? Many parents never do file it. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Education less than 55% of high school seniors compete the FAFSA. That’s a depressing statistic when you consider that low and middle-income students...

March 19, 2014

Want to know why you can’t obtain the average salary figures for graduates of a particular school? You can direct much of the blame to powerful lobbyists for the nation’s private, nonprofit colleges and universities. That’s the conclusion of a damning new study, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that the New America Foundation released this...

March 14, 2014

When searching for colleges, families should be able to know if the graduates at a particular school have been able to find jobs. And preferably good-paying jobs. As I’ve mentioned before on this college blog, it’s almost impossible to find meaningful numbers because the employment statistics that college reps eagerly recite, with few exceptions,  are almost always bogus. (See previous...

March 11, 2014

This is the time of year when students begin getting offered spots on waiting lists. I wanted to share a previous post I wrote about waiting lists that is just as relevant today. I  have updated the wait list statistics for the University of Notre Dame. Lynn O’Shaughnessy This weekend I heard from old friends who wanted to share with...

March 6, 2014

Get ready. The SAT is going to change in significant ways. The new SAT will probably end up looking more like the ACT. The changes that David Coleman, the College Board’s president, announced today sure look like the College Board is moving the SAT away from being an aptitude test (the “A” in SAT used to stand for aptitude) and...

March 3, 2014

Today I’m sharing an article that Stephanie Hancock, CFP, who is a financial aid expert at College Aid Consulting in Los Angeles, wrote about the potential dangers of  using life insurance to hide assets. What families, who are eager to qualify for more financial aid, don’t understand is that insurance agents, who are suggesting this move, are almost always doing...

February 26, 2014

A new Gallup survey that polled business leaders on higher-education issues revealed that executives hold a low opinion of the ability of colleges to prepare students for the workplace. American adults also  believe just as strongly that higher-ed institutions are not readying students for employment. According to the survey, which was conducted in partnership with the Lumina Foundation, only 11%...

February 20, 2014

If you have a child in college, do you qualify for a federal tax credit or tax deduction? These are valuable tax benefits that can help you defray the rising cost of a college degree and yet some parents have no idea that they exist or whether they would qualify. Edvisor Network just launched a valuable online resource that explains...