The College Solutions Blog

October 23, 2016

I wrote this post last year, but wanted to share it again because the messages are equally relevant today!  Lynn O’Shaughnessy Plenty of parents, who enroll in my online course – The College Cost Lab –  are affluent and highly educated. Quite a few of these moms and dads would like to see their children attend elite schools. Not surprisingly,...

August 3, 2015

It’s only natural that many talented students aim for the most selective school that they can gain into. It’s not always a smart idea, however, for applicants to attend the most selective college or university that admits them. Today I am sharing the observations on this topic from Scott White, the head guidance counselor at Morris High School in New...

December 16, 2014

Today I am sharing a guest blog post that Jon Boeckenstedt, an associate vice president for enrollment management and marketing at DePaul University in Chicago wrote on his blog (Jon Boeckenstedt’s Admissions Weblog).  It’s rare that admission administrators speak candidly about controversial aspects of the admission process, but refreshingly Jon doesn’t hold back. People pan eriodically ask me to identify...

January 16, 2013

Do you assume that most teenagers face lousy odds of getting accepted into a good college? Lots of families believe that the admission process is stacked heavily against applicants, but this isn’t true. I largely blame the media’s obsessive coverage of the most elite universities for that misconception. A report from the College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2012, clearly...

September 3, 2012

I received an email over the Labor Day weekend from a father named Mike, whose daughter is unsure about how to handle a couple of typical questions on her college applications. I’m sharing Mike’s first question today and I’ll direct my next college blog post to his second question that involves declaring a college major. Question No. 1: Why do...