The College Solutions Blog

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

Research
Featured image for “Measuring Colleges By Grads’ Salaries”
January 21, 2014

Measuring Colleges By Grads’ Salaries

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 those 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...
Read More
0
Featured image for “Looking For Great College Bargains”
November 8, 2013

Looking For Great College Bargains

Excuse me if this sounds ridiculously elementary, but here goes: One way to cut your college costs is to look for schools with lower sticker prices. My nephew Matt attends Westminster College in Fulton Mo, a liberal arts college, where the tuition and room/board is $30,490. Ninety eight percent of the students at Westminster don’t pay full price. The average...
Read More
2
Featured image for “List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need”
October 28, 2013

List of Colleges That Meet 100% of Financial Need

If your family will need to depend on financial aid to attend college, your best bet is to find a school that will offer an excellent financial aid package to your child. A great way to assess the generosity of any school is to look at the percentage of financial need it typically meets for its students. Teenagers, who earn...
Read More
77
Featured image for “Random Thoughts from a College Conference”
September 23, 2013

Random Thoughts from a College Conference

I was in Toronto for the past several days attending the annual monster conference of the National Association for College Admission Counselors. I was a presenter with a couple of my friends – Paula Bishop and Cyndy McDonald – at a pre-conference, which I hope was beneficial for those who attended. I can’t recall ever sharing the microphone with anybody...
Read More
6
Featured image for “A New College Rankings Darling”
September 13, 2013

A New College Rankings Darling

I am holding one of my rare workshops at University of California, San Diego on Oct. 5 that will focus on how to find and pay for colleges. This will probably be the last workshop that I do at UCSD because I truly hate doing the marketing for it. If you enroll in this 3.5-hour workshop, I promise you that...
Read More
7
Featured image for “Check Out This College Scorecard”
September 11, 2013

Check Out This College Scorecard

Today I wanted to share what you can find by visiting CollegeMeasures.org. I discussed the important work that College Measures is doing in my last post: Measuring College Grads’ Salaries As I mentioned earlier, thanks to College Measures you can look at the actual first-year salaries that students are making at colleges and universities in these five states: Arkansas Colorado...
Read More
3
Featured image for “Measuring College Grad Salaries”
September 9, 2013

Measuring College Grad Salaries

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...
Read More
3
Featured image for “A Change in U.S. News’ Rankings Methodology”
September 5, 2013

A Change in U.S. News’ Rankings Methodology

Next week, U.S. News  & World Report will receive millions of hits on its website when it unveils its new 2014 college rankings for nearly 1,800 schools. U.S. News will release its latest batch of controversial college rankings on Sept. 10. Robert Morse, who oversees the rankings, announced on his blog that the rankings system has received an overhaul. He...
Read More
3
Featured image for “My Favorite Higher-Ed Stories”
August 30, 2013

My Favorite Higher-Ed Stories

Five days a week I start my day reading stories about the higher-ed world. First I digest articles from The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher. I also get links to a long list of higher-ed stories from around the country that somebody at the Lumina Foundation in Indianapolis must assemble early, early, early in the morning. Thanks to...
Read More
1
Featured image for “U.S. News’ Rankings vs. Obama’s Proposed College Ratings”
August 23, 2013

U.S. News’ Rankings vs. Obama’s Proposed College Ratings

On Sunday at 4:30 p.m. PDT Sunday, Michelle Kretzschmar of Do It Yourself College Rankings and I will be holding our last college webinar. I will be demonstrating a valuable online tool that allows you to sort colleges by generosity. Please visit my webinar page at 4:30 p.m. PDT to see the webinar. People who watch live will be able...
Read More
1