The College Solutions Blog

December 30, 2013

Today I’m sharing a guest post from Stuart Nachbar, who is the president of EducatedQuest.com, an excellent college admissions blog and guide to some of the best values in higher education. He can be contacted at stuart@educatedquest. I thought you’d appreciate Nachbar’s advice about how to evaluate an institution’s career placement services. If you haven’t already read it, please see...

November 29, 2013

Hi everyone – I will be launching a six-week, online course called Cutting the Cost of College beginning Feb. 12. Please scroll down to the bottom of this post to learn more and email me at Lynn@TheCollegeSolution.com if you want further notifications! Lynn O’Shaughnessy I have much to be grateful for during this time of thanksgiving and one of my...

September 9, 2013

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...

September 3, 2013

I received an email over the Labor Day weekend from a father named Mike, whose daughter is unsure about how to handle a typical questions on her college applications. Here is the common question: Why do you want to attend this college? After visiting 10 schools this summer the schools are beginning to blur to her.  At a few she...

August 28, 2013

I created a slideshow for my college blog at CBS MoneyWatch today that shares 10 tips for writing a winning college essay. Minerva, my eight-year-old golden retriever, illustrates Tip. No. 3. Please check it out! LO I wrote the following post in August, 2011, but with college students heading back to school, I decided it was well worth running again....

August 21, 2013

According to the just released ACT scorecard for 2013 high school graduates, the composite ACT score has  dropped to its lowest level in five years. The latest composite ACT score is 20.9. That represents a .2 point drop from last year’s scores. The highest ACT score possible is a 36. Scores declined for all four tested areas – English, Reading,...

July 16, 2013

I’ve been getting a lot of questions from parents this month and I’ll share some of them with you in posts this summer. I’m starting with an email from a mom from North Carolina whose son has his heart set on the sort of schools that top students tend to dream about. If you have some suggestions for this teenager,...

July 8, 2013

If you missed our college webinar on Sunday, here is a second chance to listen. This webinar is part of a series that Michelle Kretzshmar of Do It Yourself College Rankings and I have been holding this summer. In this webinar I demonstrate a handy College Board tool that will help you form a good idea about whether a school...

June 19, 2013

Does saving for college (or any other savings for that matter) hurt your chances for financial aid? It’s a question that I’ve heard many times from parents who are worried that their home equity, as well as money they have saved for retirement, college and other financial goals will kill their chances for need-based aid. If you’ve been stressing about...

June 3, 2013

On Sunday Michelle Kretzschmar at Do It Yourself College Rankings and I launched our summer college webinar series. We want to thank the hundreds of people who showed up to listen to our webinar and also a big thank you to those who asked questions. Wow. Were there a lot of great questions! If you didn’t have a chance to...