The College Solutions Blog

February 1, 2013

Colleges are beginning to realize that high tuition/high discount (scholarship) model is failing. Escalating tuition is leaving more students unable to cover college costs even as colleges continue to offer scholarships to offset costs. In my last post, I mentioned the latest drive by private colleges to rein in merit money, but, as one of the visitors to my blog...

January 30, 2012

I wrote a post for my CBS MoneyWatch college blog on Friday that blew out Antioch College’s server. How did I do that? Actually, it wasn’t me. I was just the messenger for the liberal arts college that had a dramatic announcement to make. For the next three years, Antioch College in Yellow Springs, OH, is offering all its incoming...

November 21, 2011

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 new report from the College Board, Trends in College Pricing 2011,...

October 31, 2010

College costs continue to rise (surprise, surprise), according to the latest statistics released by the College Board. The news is depressing, but not as awful as you might assume. As I’ve discussed in previous college blog posts, roughly two-thirds of college students receive scholarships or other price breaks so the sticker prices are meaningless. 2010-2011 College Tuition Prices Type of...

March 24, 2010

Can the players in the University of California financial crisis agree on the sort of bold reforms needed to save it from its fiscal crisis? So far it doesn’t look like it. The University of California’s Commission on the Future released its first recommendations yesterday and one of the ex-officio commission members called them “admittedly bland.” Here are some of...

January 14, 2010

Close to one out of every three students who attend a state flagship university is affluent. Specifically, 30% of students at flagship universities have parents with incomes in the top 20% of all American households. This is just one of the findings of a new study released this week by The Education Trust, which is a nonprofit that promotes education...

January 1, 2010

Happy New Year. I want to usher in 2010 by sharing 10 of my college blog posts from last year that I think will help you: Cut the cost of college. Find scholarships. Snag better financial aid packages. Locate great schools. Cutting the cost of college with better grades How to Negotiate for a Better Financial Aid Package Will Saving...

December 28, 2009

Want to attend a public university outside your state? Often the out-of-state tuition costs are far greater at state universities, which naturally prefer to keep the costs lowest for their own residents. You can, however, find public universities willing to cut their state tuition for outsiders. Here are five ways to cut the costs of attending a public university outside...

November 22, 2009

Students at campuses across the University of California system rioted last week after the Board of Regents voted to increase undergraduate tuition by 32% next year. You can see video of the fee hike protest at UCLA here. I want to play devil’s advocate and suggest that tuition hikes at UCLA and the other UC campuses is a good thing....

November 20, 2009

Most families do not pay the sticker price for college.  In fact, most parents pay far below the published tuition. About two out of three full-time college students receive grants, otherwise known as scholarships, to attend school. If you just look at private institutions, the number who receive college scholarships is a whopping 80%. I obtained those figures by reading...