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

Introduction

For many years, I was a financial journalist who wrote for such national media outlets as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek. I thought that I had covered just about every financial topic imaginable until I realized that I had overlooked one subject.

My daughter Caitlin was in high school when it occurred to me that I knew nothing about what families can do to make college more affordable once their days of saving for this big-ticket item are over. How do parents take what they have managed to accumulate for college and stretch the cash as far as possible?

I began thinking a lot about college costs when Caitlin’s initial plan for college no longer struck me as feasible. My bright, outgoing daughter had assumed that ...