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The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price
This bestseller has been completely updated to provide you with the answers that you need to find wonderful colleges and universities at more affordable prices. The second edition of The College Solution, which contains approximately 90% new material, is aimed at helping parents and teenagers become empowered consumers as they navigate through the college process. Billions of dollars are available to pay for college, but not everybody gets their share. It's not always the families with the brightest students or the parents who are struggling financially who receive the most money. The College Solution shares the secrets of how you can capture some of this money for your own family. The book provides advice on such topics as financial aid, merit scholarships, athletic scholarships, admission hooks, the important differences between colleges and universities, college rankings, the best student loans and the latest online tools to evaluate the generosity of schools. O'Shaughnessy presents an easy-to-use, proven road map for getting past the ratings, and finding the right schools at the right price. No other book offers this much practical guidance on choosing and paying for college now - and no other book will save you as much money!
285 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2008
24 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 30, 2011
As a college admissions consultant, I help my clients focus on the key question: "What unique strengths do you have to offer that this college needs?"
Lynn O'Shaughnessy has taken this question to a new level. Her book adds the financial element to that equation. A student's ability to fill a college's gaps and meet its specific institutional needs, not only drives acceptance, but influences a college's financial generosity as well, when it comes to merit scholarships. This is a simple, intuitive concept that not many families recognize.
As families push their high schoolers to "stretch" themselves to apply to prestigious "reach" colleges, they are overlooking great educational opportunities. If you get into Ivy U by the skin of your teeth, and you feel like they are "doing you a favor" by letting you squeak in, you are unlikely to get any financial incentives for going there. But if you are bringing something special to Under Ivy U, and they really want you for the distinctive contributions you can make (i.e., freshman stats, sports, arts, academic potential), they might feel a little more like you are doing them a favor, and they'll be willing to offer you a financial incentive to do so.
Simple, isn't it? Thank you, Ms. O'Shaughnessy, for pointing out such a clear and brilliant principle. I suggest your book to all my students, and will continue to do so!
Lynn O'Shaughnessy has taken this question to a new level. Her book adds the financial element to that equation. A student's ability to fill a college's gaps and meet its specific institutional needs, not only drives acceptance, but influences a college's financial generosity as well, when it comes to merit scholarships. This is a simple, intuitive concept that not many families recognize.
As families push their high schoolers to "stretch" themselves to apply to prestigious "reach" colleges, they are overlooking great educational opportunities. If you get into Ivy U by the skin of your teeth, and you feel like they are "doing you a favor" by letting you squeak in, you are unlikely to get any financial incentives for going there. But if you are bringing something special to Under Ivy U, and they really want you for the distinctive contributions you can make (i.e., freshman stats, sports, arts, academic potential), they might feel a little more like you are doing them a favor, and they'll be willing to offer you a financial incentive to do so.
Simple, isn't it? Thank you, Ms. O'Shaughnessy, for pointing out such a clear and brilliant principle. I suggest your book to all my students, and will continue to do so!
May 25, 2012
The College Solution - A Great Guide in Understanding How Colleges Provide Aid and Awards
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Author: Lynn O'Shaughnessy
This book is like a reader's digest guide to college costs, aid, awards and maximizing the opportunities to reduce costs. By explaining how colleges manage their finances and the information available on the internet, O'Shaughnessy lifts back the curtain on how colleges must operate to stay in the black, whether private or public, and how knowing these facts can save you significantly on paying for college.
For example, two fundamental keys to managing college costs are calculating and knowing your expected family contribution (EFC) and matching this with a school's net price calculator (NPC). Knowing what factors affect your EFC and how this along with scores from standardized tests can help or hinder chances at awards and aid are critical.
Armed with the facts in this book, students and parents can save significantly and maximize their education dollar. This book also provides insights on how to evaluate colleges, their admission processes, and increasing a students chances at acceptance and financial awards. This edition is a great guide and starting point for those looking forward to their college career.
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Author: Lynn O'Shaughnessy
This book is like a reader's digest guide to college costs, aid, awards and maximizing the opportunities to reduce costs. By explaining how colleges manage their finances and the information available on the internet, O'Shaughnessy lifts back the curtain on how colleges must operate to stay in the black, whether private or public, and how knowing these facts can save you significantly on paying for college.
For example, two fundamental keys to managing college costs are calculating and knowing your expected family contribution (EFC) and matching this with a school's net price calculator (NPC). Knowing what factors affect your EFC and how this along with scores from standardized tests can help or hinder chances at awards and aid are critical.
Armed with the facts in this book, students and parents can save significantly and maximize their education dollar. This book also provides insights on how to evaluate colleges, their admission processes, and increasing a students chances at acceptance and financial awards. This edition is a great guide and starting point for those looking forward to their college career.
January 18, 2015
Quick, easy containing a wealth of information on how to conduct a college search.
November 13, 2017
This book was really helpful altho I wish there was a newer up to date edition. This book takes alot of the guesswork out of so many mysteries and questions I had about college for my daughter. Everything from the net price calculator and investing money to advice about merit money was extremely helpful. I am a testing supervisor at a college and altho the author discusses the benefits of testing out of classes to save time and money by taking CLEP tests, I think this and other tests such as DSST, Accuplacer and internal school challenge exams could have been discussed more in depth. Still, it was very informative and written so it was fairly easy to understand.
April 9, 2018
Great resource for planning for college. Will be sharing with my husband and high school daughter so we're all on the same page as we begin the college application process. I especially enjoyed learning about the FAFSA and what assets do and don't count in calculating a family's EFC. I also appreciated the list of most stingy schools when it comes to awarding merit aid/scholarships. I think it is very important to go into the college application process with our eyes wide open. I feel much better prepared now!
April 22, 2022
so helpful!!
March 23, 2017
This book is a bit out-of-date but is otherwise a really great resource for families or counselors looking for basic info about college admission and affordability.
August 24, 2020
Learned so much...
As an advisor to pending college families I learned invaluable financial and institutional tips to get the best value for my client families.
As an advisor to pending college families I learned invaluable financial and institutional tips to get the best value for my client families.
June 8, 2009
pretty clearly written, reasonable book about some aspects of finding a suitable college and managing the costs. A lot of it is the same as every other book of the sort, but I've been immersed in this recently via my son and still found a few things I had not known about that were variously interesting (the guy who started freerice.com did it to help his kid with vocabulary words in advance of taking the SAT) or useful (the Common Data Set as a one-stop shopping site for various bits of info re many schools).
the book is long on introducing lots of topics rather than on covering them in sufficient depth (one indicator: there are 54 chapters in this 252-page text). For example, my current issue is how best to take money out of a 529 account to pay for tuition without ruining ability to take education-related tax credits. This book has a chapter on it, says "it can be hellish" to figure out, indicates that the "rules can give you a Slurpee brain freeze" and then refers you to an IRS publication or the idea of consulting a CPA. Well, thanks. that clears it up.
that said, if I weren't familiar with the problem at all, this would have been an eye-opener motivating me to look up more info on it, and that's a service in itself.
the book is long on introducing lots of topics rather than on covering them in sufficient depth (one indicator: there are 54 chapters in this 252-page text). For example, my current issue is how best to take money out of a 529 account to pay for tuition without ruining ability to take education-related tax credits. This book has a chapter on it, says "it can be hellish" to figure out, indicates that the "rules can give you a Slurpee brain freeze" and then refers you to an IRS publication or the idea of consulting a CPA. Well, thanks. that clears it up.
that said, if I weren't familiar with the problem at all, this would have been an eye-opener motivating me to look up more info on it, and that's a service in itself.
February 9, 2015
Excellent book for parents and students who want to be informed about the options for college.
I found this book to be quite thorough and full of good information, resources and straight talk about what you can expect regarding the college admissions process. I appreciate the author's thoroughness in offering information related to all possible choices (e.g. elite schools, private liberal colleges, community colleges) and the pros and cons of each of them. This book is definitely worth a read for parents who want to understand the process of getting into college and who want to help their child find a school that would be a good fit for, in terms of academics, school culture/lifestyle, finances and graduation success.
Though it was written in 2008, the information still seems solid and I have already started to check out some of the websites she recommended, and those are still valid.
A good time to read this book would be before your child enters high school, so you can give him/her good information regarding college, but it can be read at anytime, really. However, you do have to plan ahead if your child has dreams of attending certain colleges and would like to qualify for scholarships.
I found this book to be quite thorough and full of good information, resources and straight talk about what you can expect regarding the college admissions process. I appreciate the author's thoroughness in offering information related to all possible choices (e.g. elite schools, private liberal colleges, community colleges) and the pros and cons of each of them. This book is definitely worth a read for parents who want to understand the process of getting into college and who want to help their child find a school that would be a good fit for, in terms of academics, school culture/lifestyle, finances and graduation success.
Though it was written in 2008, the information still seems solid and I have already started to check out some of the websites she recommended, and those are still valid.
A good time to read this book would be before your child enters high school, so you can give him/her good information regarding college, but it can be read at anytime, really. However, you do have to plan ahead if your child has dreams of attending certain colleges and would like to qualify for scholarships.
September 6, 2014
This book is extremely helpful to parents who are new to the challenge of finding the right college for their child. The process can be overwhelming and is very different from the days when we were younger and looking to further our education.
Lynn's writing is very easy to read and understand. The chapters are outlined nicely with loads of useful information. We have put some of her suggestions to the test and were rewarded generously! This book is the tour guide for your college search and should not be left behind!
P.S. Don't wait until your child's senior year, start the process much earlier, ideally during their sophomore year.
Lynn's writing is very easy to read and understand. The chapters are outlined nicely with loads of useful information. We have put some of her suggestions to the test and were rewarded generously! This book is the tour guide for your college search and should not be left behind!
P.S. Don't wait until your child's senior year, start the process much earlier, ideally during their sophomore year.
May 9, 2017
I'm giving this five stars not because it's a life changing book that everyone should read, but because it's very good at being what it's trying to be and much better than any of the similar titles that I skimmed. If you have a kid going to college, whether you will qualify for need based aid or not, this book has information you need. Even if you have plenty of experience with the system (as a graduate student, I taught undergrads), this will remind you of things or bring you up-to-date on current trends.
Btw., this edition was updated a few years ago, so the information is reasonably current, but she also has a blog with more recent information about these topics.
Btw., this edition was updated a few years ago, so the information is reasonably current, but she also has a blog with more recent information about these topics.
August 3, 2012
This book was just okay for me. There was not a lot in here that I did not already know or hadn't already gleaned from other sources. It handled many topics but mostly on a surface level, choosing instead to refer the reader to other sources or websites for further information. However, for someone just starting out, who knows little to nothing about the college search process, this might be a good starter book to get from the library.
September 12, 2010
I learned a lot from this book, such as why some colleges have done away with requiring SAT scores (boost # of apps, which lowers acceptance rate, which boosts "prestige"). That colleges advertise 6-yr grad rates, when what matters is the 4-yr rate (your bargain school is no longer a bargain if you have to pay for 6 years).
May 1, 2011
This was a great resource for families getting students ready for college. Not to mention that fact that I got it free on my kindle. She has a great website that will guide you in the right direction as well.
October 12, 2012
Great book on selecting a college and the process for getting into a school. A must read for any parent with a child going to college in the near future. It sheds light on some of the deceptive practices of schools to fill seats.
October 1, 2014
Excellent Book to navigate the daunting task of paying for college. This is an up-to-date guide on all the tricks of the trade. What colleges are really doing. It saved us $4000.00. Also found out my son could go to a top school and pay only $6000 out-of-pocket. Awesome.
May 1, 2014
As a parent of a high school junior who is seeking an atypical college experience from his peers, this read was enjoyable and applicable. The subtitle is perfect! We are a down-to-earth family practicing grandma's ways with money, so I appreciate the author's information and viewpoint.
September 15, 2015
What an education about colleges, made me think about my son's future education and what might be a good fit for him. Also a lot of info about financing college. A must read for high school students and parents!
May 12, 2009
My son is just starting to look at colleges, and we found this book to be very helpful. Even though I have older children that have already gone through this process, I learned some valuable tips.
September 7, 2010
Great for someone just beginning the college search for their children.
June 19, 2013
Very helpful. A well organized introduction and summary of the issues.
February 1, 2013
Lots of very practical, solid advice here!
March 31, 2013
Lots of great information to be aware of when starting the college process.
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June 21, 2013This is an excellent guide to all the resources you need to search for the right school for your child at the right price. Thank you Lynn!
August 17, 2013
Very helpful and fun to read!
July 29, 2015
Excellent. Very practical for choosing colleges.
May 15, 2016
A great starting point. Follow her blog too: http://www.thecollegesolution.com/tag...
November 12, 2012
Very helpful resource, especially regarding financial aid.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews