The College Solutions Blog

June 22, 2015

Many students who aren’t interested in attending a public university in their own state tend to look at state institutions elsewhere. Choosing public universities outside your border can sometimes be a relative  bargain. In other cases, the price you pay as a nonresident will be exorbitant and comparable to private universities that are stingy with financial aid and/or merit awards....

May 26, 2015

Here’s a little known but excellent way to cut the cost of a bachelor’s degree: Attend a college rather than a research university. Nearly all colleges provide discounts off their sticker prices versus research universities, which are far less likely to give families a price break. In the chart below that I pulled from the latest tuition discount study from...

July 6, 2014

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...

April 14, 2014

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...

April 3, 2014

What happens when the financial aid or merit aid package that a student receives from a school is inadequate? Is it possible to extract more money from a college? I’ve been getting questions about this lately from parents who are disappointed by some of the awards their children have been receiving. One parent, for instance, told me that she was...

February 11, 2014

Today I am sharing a guest post by Bradford Pine, a financial advisor in Garden City, NY, who wrote about his experience with his daughter, who has been receiving acceptances and merit aid scholarships from schools. He explains how he lassoed a $14,000-a-year scholarship just by asking. Lynn O’Shaughnessy Here is the link to his entire blog post: My Personal...

January 8, 2014

I wanted to share an email from a dad who is interested in his son getting an athletic scholarship. Goucher College in Maryland is looking for my son to play soccer, but it is expensive. Here is my question: How should I approach the college about an athletic scholarship? The Scoop on Athletic Scholarships There is no need to approach...

December 16, 2013

I recently wrote a post that shared the colleges and universities that say that they meet 100% of financial need for the majority of their families. If you missed it, here it is: List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need The story prompted a mom to email me over the weekend with this question: Have you ever published...

July 24, 2013

I heard this week from a father from Southern California whose son will soon be starting his sophomore year at American University in Washington DC. He has a daughter who is also interested in attending college on the East Coast. Here is part of his email: My son loves AU which fits his interest in politics and government, but as...

April 12, 2013

I am especially happy to share another set of merit scholarship awards that a teenager (this one from Georgia) earned. If you missed the first set of offers from a teenager in the Pacific Northwest that I shared in my last college blog post, you can find them here:  A Teenager’s Merit Scholarship Offers I was particularly psyched to receive...