The College Solutions Blog

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

Amherst College
Featured image for “Shocking College Graduation Rates”
May 9, 2016

Shocking College Graduation Rates

When building a college list, it’s critical to check graduation rates. Paying for college is hard enough without adding a fifth or six year to the tab! And yet most college students do not graduate in four years. Many, many parents whom I’ve talked to over the years seem shocked by this reality. In fact, when I give talks to...
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Featured image for “Schools That Meet 100% of Financial Need”
July 16, 2015

Schools That Meet 100% of Financial Need

While there are nearly 2,800 four-year colleges and universities in the United States, there are less than six dozen that claim that they meet 100% of the demonstrated financial need of all or most of their freshmen. The list below includes the names of those schools. I’ve also included institutions on this list that say that they meet at least...
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March 5, 2012

Are the Professors Any Good?

Have you ever taken a look at RateMyProfessors.com? I’m assuming that you haven’t. It never occurred to me to head to the extremely popular site when my two kids were checking out colleges, but it might be worth a look. At RateMyProfessors, you’ll find more than 13 million student comments and ratings of professors at colleges and universities across the...
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October 26, 2011

Can a Guinea Pig Be In a College Essay?

Last night my nephew Matt sent me his college essay to check out. We had talked a couple of weeks ago about what might make a compelling topic. I told Matt that he needed to write an essay that conveyed in vivid detail what kind of teenager he is. You can write a college essay that’s humorous, reflective, inspiring…it doesn’t...
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June 11, 2011

8 Tips: Transferring to Another College

Most of the attention during every admission season is on high school seniors, which means transfer students often get lost in the shuffle. That’s a shame since a sizable number of college students end up transferring every year. According to special transfer student report from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, a third of students end up transferring to...
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