The College Solutions Blog

February 22, 2015

A lot of the parents attending my current online class on how to cut the cost of college are affluent and highly educated. Quite a few of these moms and dads attending my course have indicated to me that they would like to see their children attend elite schools. Not surprisingly, these parents have expressed concern about the cost of...

February 4, 2015

I’ve always dreaded tax season, but when I had children in college there was one aspect of this unwelcome ritual that I actually looked forward to every year. I loved claiming the American Opportunity Tax Credit, which allows qualified parents to knock up to $2,500 off their tax bill for each of their children in college. I felt even better...

January 22, 2015

Like millions of other parents, are you stressing about how exactly you are supposed to pay for college? I can help. Beginning on Feb. 10, I will be offering my online course for parents of teenagers that will focus on how you can cut your college costs. Course for Parents with Teenagers Here is where you can learn much more...

November 10, 2014

If your child is in the midst of applying to colleges, do you have an excellent idea of what each school on your child’s list will cost you? If  you don’t, I strongly suggest that you temporarily halt the admission process and find out. Traditionally, parents couldn’t know what any college was going to cost until their child received his...

June 23, 2014

When you are contemplating how much a bachelor’s degree is going to cost your family, you must keep this in mind: Colleges and universities are high-stakes businesses that want to charge you more than you feel comfortable paying. Your best weapon to make college more affordable is to become an empowered consumer. I am absolutely dead serious when I say...

September 9, 2013

With out-of-control college costs a reality, it’s not surprising that parents and their children are especially interested in colleges that are springboards to good-paying jobs. Unfortunately, it’s hard to know what the schools are. Meaningless Grad Salary Data As I’ve mentioned before, the job statistics that colleges and universities share with prospective students are laughably misleading. Low percentages of graduates...

July 1, 2013

I received this email over the weekend from an anxious father that I wanted to share with you. The dad is having second thoughts about the school that he pressured his daughter to attend. He is already contemplating his daughter transferring next year to a different school. I think his story could generate some interesting discussions about rankings, price, graduate...

June 19, 2013

Does saving for college (or any other savings for that matter) hurt your chances for financial aid? It’s a question that I’ve heard many times from parents who are worried that their home equity, as well as money they have saved for retirement, college and other financial goals will kill their chances for need-based aid. If you’ve been stressing about...

June 3, 2013

On Sunday Michelle Kretzschmar at Do It Yourself College Rankings and I launched our summer college webinar series. We want to thank the hundreds of people who showed up to listen to our webinar and also a big thank you to those who asked questions. Wow. Were there a lot of great questions! If you didn’t have a chance to...

May 3, 2013

Since there is so much interest in sports scholarships, I decided to devote another college blog post to the subject. If you missed my last post, here it is: The Realities of Athletic Scholarships I’ve met many parents who ask about particular sports and the odds of winning an athletic scholarship. I’m afraid a lot of families think that there...