The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price

As a mother of a HS junior who attends a local school in France, I have to take a more active role with the US college search since his school has no guidance counselor and there are no college road shows in the vicinity. I find myself reliant on word of mouth and written sources : guidebooks, blogs ,, newspaper articles, books /websites & advice and have invested the better part of son's junior year compiling information for the college search. I ordered this book after reading a reference on a college admissions blog. I finished it during a train ride - and found it so riveting that I missed my stop. Based on the title, I had expected to find just tips for affording college education but was pleasantly surprised by the author's insistence on quality -how to get your money's worth. So often the writers authoring these books report from the hallowed halls of academia. This author is a parent - and bases her experience as a mother of a college freshman while wearing her financial reporter thinking cap. How many college admission books are written from this point of view? One innovation is that the book reverses the criteria for the college search by starting with match schools , not reach, where the student has more chance of obtaining scholarship money. The bottom up approach also instructs on how to find the best fit academically with several chapters on grading academic departments and discussions on professor ratings. Not stopping with the college admissions process, she addresses another under looked category - undergraduate research. And thanks to the author's chapter on freebies & best buys, I have added another school to the list. The book closes with a list of informational websites, helpful cheat sheets and timelines in the appendix. The author has packed an enormous amount of information here but has addressed the most salient points in a practical college admissions and quality education search. I could have saved a considerable amount of time and money had I read this book first and feel more empowered now for the final year of the search.

I am a college counselor at a large, racially diverse, urban high school. I am going to recommend "The College Solution" to my student's parents beginning at Freshman orientation. There is so much useful information contained within the book's pages,of which most lay people are not aware. It is also time to look away from US News and World Report rankings. There are many other ways to search for colleges, and Ms. Lynn Shaughnessy points out many!! There is also great advice, and strategies for maximizing financial aid. Kudos to you , Ms. Shaughnessy for condensing everything a parent needs to know between two bookcovers. Sharon Drell College Counselor Cleveland HS Reseda. CA 91335

This is a most helpful guide. As we make college videos, I was particularly interested in what you had to say in chapter 36, Visiting Campuses. You made two excellent points: one is usually wrong in newspaper articles and the other is almost never mentioned. First, I hate being told that summer is a great time to visit the colleges. Yes, the students may be off from school, but small colleges are deserted and even the large state universities have only limited students on campus. The campus itself, however, will look better than at any time during the academic year. Very important too is the need to have the college build a file on the student. The best way is to visit the college itself. It shows real interest. Admissions counselors say that all things being equal, a "stealth" candidate (one where the college first learns about your interest when the application arrives) has a lower chance of acceptance than one who has shown previous contact with the college. You are a realist in saying that because of financial and time consideration, an actual visit may not be possible, and you urge your readers to show their early interest "through a request for literature, a call to the financial aid office, or a conversation during a college fair." That advice alone could justify the cost of the book.

As a college counselor, I really appreciate the concise, no-nonsense information contained in The College Solution. Ms. O'Shaughnessy's practical advice will let you breathe a bit easier as you work your way through the process. I originally picked up the book to use as a resource for the financial info, read it straight through in a day and have anointed it the single most useful book I have read on college admissions in general. I highly recommend it to other counselors, as well as students and their families.

This book covers it all in the college search to include both the academic side as well as the financial side. Most college books focus on how to get in - this book teaches you how to pursue the schools that value your student's profile and rewards them financially for being a good fit for their college. The author goes into depth on how to find the best academic programs for the majors your student wants to pursue, and how to evaluate these programs and the professors. She discusses the importance of undergraduate research opportunities, leading to active student engagement, and consequently a more successful college experience. Lynn understands the financial aid process, and addresses both the FAFSA form as well as the CSS Profile, a much more comprehensive form that many private colleges use to dig deeper into the financial lives of families. Very few financial aid books cover the Profile form with such useful information in an easy to understand and interesting manner. This book is recommended for parents, students, high school guidance counselors and independent college admissions advisors. 'College Solutions" is the current #1 leader of the college search books, and highly recommended!