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

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

by Lynn O’Shaughnessy
Released April 2012
Publisher(s): Pearson
ISBN: 9780132944700

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Book description

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!

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication Page
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. About the Author
  7. Introduction
  8. Part I. Shrinking the Cost of College
    1. 1. Making College More Affordable
    2. 2. Show Me the Money
      1. The Largest Sources of College Cash
    3. 3. The Colleges with the Best Financial Aid
      1. Behind-the-Scenes: Enrollment Managers
      2. Prestigious Schools and Rich Students
      3. Rich Schools and Poor Students
      4. Motivation of Most Private Schools
      5. Other Scholarship Factors
    4. 4. Who Gets Financial Aid?
      1. What Do You Do with Your EFC?
      2. A Different EFC
    5. 5. Winning the Educational Lottery
      1. New York University
      2. Finding Your Own Statistics
    6. 6. Calculating Your Expected Family Contribution
      1. Where to Find EFC Calculators
      2. EFC Questions
    7. 7. A Revolutionary Calculator
      1. Using a Net Price Calculator
      2. Net Price Calculator Accuracy
      3. How to Use the Calculators
      4. Playing Hide and Seek
    8. 8. The Allure of Out-of-State Public Universities
      1. Chasing Dollars
      2. Percentage of Students Who Are Nonresidents
      3. Fewer High School Graduates
      4. Chasing Prestige
      5. Rich Student Favoritism
      6. Your Opportunity to Attend a Flagship
    9. 9. Looking Across State Lines for a Bargain
      1. Looking Where Others Aren’t
      2. Educational Compacts
      3. You Must Ask
    10. 10. Capturing Private Scholarships
      1. Hidden Danger
      2. Finding Private Scholarships
    11. 11. Will Saving for College Hurt Your Financial Aid Chances?
      1. The Assets That Don’t Matter
      2. Parent Assets Enjoy Favorable Treatment
      3. Parent Asset Allowance
      4. Teenager Assets
      5. The Other Financial Aid Application
    12. 12. Maximizing Financial Aid
    13. 13. More Ways to Shrink the Cost of College
    14. 14. Appealing the Verdict
      1. What To Do When Appealing an Award
    15. 15. Getting Grandma to Help
  9. Part II. Increasing Your Admission Chances
    1. 16. Boosting Your Chances
    2. 17. Finding the Right Match
      1. Selecting Schools Strategically
      2. The Hazard of Reach Schools
      3. Reach School Exceptions
      4. Weighing the Odds
    3. 18. Ditching the Test
      1. Excellent Test-Optional Colleges
      2. What Is Test Optional?
      3. What the Supporters Say
      4. The Cynical Reasons Behind Test-Optional Policies
      5. Test-Optional Naysayer
    4. 19. Showing a College Some Love
      1. Don’t Be a Stealth Applicant
      2. Checking a School’s Common Data Set
      3. Showing Your Interest in a School
    5. 20. When Talent Is the Hook
      1. Talent Scholarships Can Be Overlooked
    6. 21. The Realities of Athletic Scholarships
      1. Athleticism Won’t Make Up for Poor Grades
      2. Different Types of Sports Scholarships
      3. The Odds of a Getting an Athletic Scholarship
      4. Is Beating the Odds a Good Thing?
      5. Sports As a Time Hog
      6. An Alternative to NCAA Scholarships
      7. Getting Discovered
    7. 22. The Geographic Hook
      1. Growing Interest in Students from Elsewhere
      2. A Geographic Advantage
      3. Staying Close to Home
    8. 23. Why Being Rich Helps
      1. A Common Advantage
    9. 24. The Legacy Hook
      1. Legacy Admission Advantage
    10. 25. Playing the Gender Card
      1. Gender Tipping Point
      2. Advantage for Teenage Girls
      3. Using Gender as a Hook
    11. 26. Diversity Blueprint
      1. Reasons for Diverse Campuses
      2. Looking Beyond the Obvious
      3. Minority Test Advantage
      4. Where Minority Students Attend College
      5. Paying for College
      6. Minority Resources
    12. 27. The Asian Student Dilemma
      1. There’s Hope!
  10. Part III. Knowing Your Academic Choices
    1. 28. What’s The Difference Between a College and a University?
      1. Four Categories of Colleges and Universities
      2. Why Do You Need to Know?
    2. 29. The Ivy League Myth
      1. Pursuit of the Most Prestigious Universities
      2. Ivy League Grads Versus Everybody Else
      3. Researching the Ivy League Advantage
      4. Bottom Line
    3. 30. What Is a Research University?
      1. The Missions of Research Universities
    4. 31. What University Professors Do
      1. Why Research Is King
      2. Indoctrinating Grad Students
      3. How Students Get Shortchanged
    5. 32. The Beauty of Liberal Arts Colleges
      1. What Is a Liberal Arts College?
      2. The Priorities of Liberal Arts Colleges
      3. Graduate School Chances
      4. Finding Liberal Arts Colleges
      5. Baccalaureate Colleges
    6. 33. What Is a Medium-Sized University?
      1. Public Regional Universities
      2. Private Master’s-Level Universities
      3. Evaluating Master’s-Level Universities
    7. 34. Why Community Colleges Are Popular
      1. The Downside of Community Colleges
      2. The Best Community Colleges
      3. Community College Survey of Student Engagement
    8. 35. Nine Ways to Generate College Ideas
  11. Part IV. Evaluating the Academics
    1. 36. Are Students Really Learning?
      1. A Higher-Ed Bombshell
      2. Why Aren’t Students Learning Enough?
      3. Measuring Student Learning
      4. Tuning College Disciplines
      5. Some Other Resources
    2. 37. What’s Wrong with US News & World Report’s College Rankings
      1. College Rankings’ Collateral Damage
      2. A High Stakes Beauty Contest
      3. College Rankings Hazards
    3. 38. The Right Way to Use College Rankings
      1. Looking at College Rankings
    4. 39. College Rankings: An Alternative
      1. Forbes College Rankings Results
    5. 40. The Hallmarks of a Student-Centered University
      1. Collegiate Best Practices
    6. 41. Staying in College Too Long
      1. College Results Online
      2. A Flagship University’s Grad Rate
      3. Grad Rates at Private Colleges
      4. How Happy Are the Freshmen?
      5. How Graduation Rates Are Calculated
      6. The Graduation Disadvantage
    7. 42. Grading Academic Departments
    8. 43. Kicking the Tires
  12. Part V. Admission Nuts and Bolts
    1. 44. What You Need to Know About High School Counselors
      1. It Goes Beyond the Numbers
      2. Inadequate Counselor Education
      3. Counselor Feedback
      4. What Colleges Think
      5. Counselors at Private High Schools
      6. Consequences of Uninformed Counselors
    2. 45. What You Need to Know About Independent College Counselors
      1. Protests from Elite Schools
      2. Why Use an Independent College Counselor?
      3. The Ideal Independent College Counselor
      4. What Independent College Counselors Can Do
      5. Finding an Independent College Counselor
    3. 46. Knowing What to Do When
      1. Freshman Year
      2. Sophomore Year
      3. Junior Year
      4. Senior Year
    4. 47. Writing Your Way into College
    5. 48. Visiting College Campuses
      1. Eight Things to Know Before Visiting a College
    6. 49. Acing the College Interview
      1. What You Need to Know About Interviews
    7. 50. Transferring to a Different College
      1. Transferring Chances
      2. What You Need to Know
      3. Making the Most of Your New School
    8. 51. Getting Credit for Your Work
      1. Preserving Credits
      2. Transferring from a Four-Year Institution
  13. Part VI. Borrowing for College
    1. 52. The Best Student Loans
      1. The Smart Way to Borrow for College
      2. Direct PLUS Loan for Parents
      3. Be Realistic About What You Borrow
    2. 53. Private College Loan Perils
      1. The Hazards of Private College Loans
      2. When Considering a Private Student Loan
  14. Index

Product information

  • Title: The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price, Second Edition
  • Author(s): Lynn O’Shaughnessy
  • Release date: April 2012
  • Publisher(s): Pearson
  • ISBN: 9780132944700