MPR Forum: How to Get a Good, Affordable College Education

I'm sure you've read everywhere (including here), how complicated the college selection-and-finance game is.

Students have to:

• find the college that fits their needs and personality;

• get an education that both broadens their intellectual horizons;

• earn a degree that helps them get a rewarding job out of school; and

• do all that without breaking the bank -- or going insane.

So MPR is bringing you some helpful Bright Ideas -- for free.

On Tuesday evening (Sept. 27) in the station's UBS Forum here at our headquarters in St. Paul, host Stephen Smith will be chatting with admissions expert Carol Stack about how to juggle all that.

Among other things, Stack -- a former Macalester and Augsburg admissions director who now works at the consulting firm Hardwick-Day -- assesses admissions and recruitment operations, develops new enrollment management strategies and provides admissions and financial aid staff training.

And she's internationally savvy. From her Hardwick-Day bio:

In 1991, Carol relocated to Brussels, Belgium, with her family. She spent four years as a college counselor at St. John’s School in Waterloo, Belgium, and then became director of guidance at the International School of Brussels. Her time abroad included managing advanced placement programs; counseling students wishing to study in the U.S., U.K., continental Europe or Asia; and conducting pre-departure training and orientation for Belgian and Luxemburgian Fulbright Scholars prior to their enrollment at U.S. universities.

Carol and Hardwick-Day's Ruth Vedvik are writing The Financial Aid Handbook: Getting the Education You Want for the Price You Can Afford by Career Press.

The forum runs 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and you can click here to get more information and reserve your free tickets.

• How Augsburg is going all Mark Twain
• How past U of M presidents view higher-ed today
• Metro State data breach affected 160,000 students