The College Solutions Blog

Valuable insights from Lynn O’Shaughnessy
a nationally recognized college expert.

Scholarships
Featured image for “An Inside Scoop on Athletic Recruiting”
August 13, 2014

An Inside Scoop on Athletic Recruiting

To learn more about the recruiting process, I talked with Avi Stopper, a former college athlete and a co-founder of CaptainU, which could be called an athletic LinkedIn that helps student athletes to connect with athletic coaches. Stopper, who is a former men’s soccer coach at the University of Chicago, launched CaptainU when he was in the school’s MBA program....
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Featured image for “The Moneyball Approach to College”
July 18, 2014

The Moneyball Approach to College

The following guest post was written by my friend Michelle Kretzchmar, who created an incredibly helpful college blog called DIYCollegeRankings. Michelle, a data analyst by trade, created her own college rankings when she was looking for a college for her son. She is launching a four-week course in mid August that will help you discover great value schools by using...
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Featured image for “A Quick Way to Find Generous Colleges”
July 6, 2014

A Quick Way to Find Generous Colleges

How can you find the most generous colleges and universities? I’m talking about the institutions that meet 100% of financial need or close to it? And what about the schools that provide merit scholarships for affluent students who don’t qualify for need-based aid? How can you find schools that provide a large number of these scholarships? In the six-minute video...
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Featured image for “A Great New Financial Aid Website”
June 30, 2014

A Great New Financial Aid Website

If you’ve ever spent time  on FinAid, the popular website stuffed with information about financial aid, you’ll definitely want to bookmark a new website called Edvisors. Mark Kantrowitz, the founder of FinAid, and a nationally recognized financial-aid expert, left the site last year to create a new online resource at Edvisors for anyone interested in how to pay for college....
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Featured image for “Seriously: The Best Way To Cut College Costs”
June 23, 2014

Seriously: The Best Way To Cut College Costs

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...
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Featured image for “Advice for the B Student”
June 3, 2014

Advice for the B Student

If your child is a “B” student, he or she may have more options than you might assume. Don’t believe me? Here is a story of a young woman – I’ll call her Katie – whose mom is a friend of mine. Katie attended a private high school in California where she earned a 3.0 GPA. She applied to these...
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Featured image for “A New Tool to Measure College Costs”
May 13, 2014

A New Tool to Measure College Costs

Today I’m sharing with you a new online tool that you can easily use to generate quick cost estimates and comparisons at individual colleges. All you need is to start playing with the universal net price calculator that you’ll find on the website of the Cost of Learning.  This new website aims to make it easy for families to retrieve...
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Featured image for “Saying No to Northwestern University”
May 5, 2014

Saying No to Northwestern University

A highly effective way to make college more affordable is to enroll in my upcoming course, The College Cost Lab. You can learn more about the class and enroll here. Lynn O’Shaughnessy Will your child end up going to his or her dream school? The odds are that your child won’t if the college or university is a rankings alpha...
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Featured image for “Different Scholarship Results for National Merit Finalists”
April 16, 2014

Different Scholarship Results for National Merit Finalists

The No. 1 way to cut the cost of college is to become an educated consumer. You can learn how by attending my popular online course, The College Cost Lab. I’ll be relaunching the course in June 2016 and if you’d like to be notified when I have more details, please click here! As promised, today I am sharing my...
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Featured image for “An Angry Mom Rails Against Elite Colleges”
April 14, 2014

An Angry Mom Rails Against Elite Colleges

Don’t become a victim of the college process like the angry mom you’ll read about below! A highly effective way to make college more affordable is to enroll in my upcoming course, The College Cost Lab. You can learn more about the class and enroll here. Lynn O’Shaughnessy I am sharing with you today an angry comment sent to me...
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