How Students Can Avoid The Full Cost of College

For many parents scrolling Facebook, the same comment keeps appearing under college-related posts: “I don’t know how we’re supposed to pay $30,000 a year for college.”The fear is understandable. Sticker prices at four-year colleges have climbed for decades, and tuition figures are often presented as unavoidable facts. But the assumption behind those comments — that most families really do pay $30,000 a year out of pocket — is usually wrong.In reality, the typical college student pays far less than the published price, and many pay very little or nothing at all. A mix of public policy, institutional aid, employer programs, and academic shortcuts quietly lowers the bill for millions of families each year. And even when it comes to actually writing a check, families pay for college using multiple strategies. 

Starting in 2026, Grad PLUS loans are ending, and there will be new borrowing options for graduate and professional education. The new borrowing limits ($20,500 annually for graduate students and $50,000 for students in designated professional programs) represent a sharp break from the prior model that allowed borrowing up to the full cost of attendance.The line between “graduate” and “professional” is now tied to detailed federal definitions and CIP codes, placing programs like physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant studies, speech-language pathology, and social work under the lower graduate limit despite tuition that often exceeds $40,000 a year.As these changes take effect, a second shift is underway: private lenders are not ready to replace what Grad PLUS once provided. The hesitation is rooted in uncertainty about risk, credit, and the behavioral response of students and institutions.

The vast majority of student loans in the United States remain effectively paused, and delinquency rates are climbing again, according to new data from the nonpartisan California Policy Lab (PDF File). The analysis, released Wednesday and based on credit bureau records through the third quarter of 2025, offers one of the clearest pictures yet of a repayment system strained by policy whiplash, legal uncertainty, and the lingering effects of the pandemic-era payment pause.CPL finds that only 33% of outstanding student loans are being repaid on time, the lowest on-time repayment rate in two decades outside of the formal pandemic pause. The rest are in deferment, forbearance, delinquency, or an income-driven repayment plan requiring no payment.The share of loans in deferment or forbearance alone has more than doubled since mid-2023 and now accounts for 49% of all loans.

The Department of Education has filed its first status report (PDF File) since the government shutdown in response to its lawsuit with the American Federation of Teachers. The report offers a snapshot of how income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness backlogs are moving — and where they remain stuck.The report filed on December 15, 2025 in federal court was delayed by the October–November government shutdown and covers activity through the end of November. It follows a series of monthly disclosures required by the court after borrower advocates sued, alleging widespread delays and failures in student loan forgiveness processing. The previous report was filed back in September.The new filing shows that while application processing has picked back up, hundreds of thousands of borrowers are still waiting for decisions about changing repayment plans, and the backlog of those waiting for PSLF buyback has continued to grow.

Tipping during the holidays isn’t about keeping score — it’s about showing appreciation to the people who help you all year. Whether that’s your babysitter, delivery driver, or building staff, a thoughtful tip or small gift can mean a lot.Every year, as it gets closer to Christmas, I see more and more stories about holiday tipping etiquette and who I should tip. I understand tipping in the hospitality industry. For example, waiters make most of their money on tips, and they have an established custom on what to tip. I don't always agree, and if the service was poor, I tip less, and if the service was great, I tip more.But with higher inflation, workers having to do more with less, and simply showing your gratitude, let's talk about holiday tipping (and some food for thought on tipping in general).

Millions of federal student loan borrowers are entering a new repayment era. After years of uncertainty (payment pauses, injunctions, administrative forbearances, and changing policy) the United States is preparing to consolidate repayment options, ending multiple plans (including SAVE, PAYE, and ICR) and replacing them with the Repayment Assistance Plan, or RAP.The challenge is that many borrowers are still fixated on their old payments from 2022 or 2023 and are concerned about what the cost will be in 2025 or 2026.During SAVE’s administrative forbearance, payments were $0 and before that , they were based on older income data from as early as 2019. That anchoring has left many borrowers with expectations that no longer match current options. Interest has resumed, SAVE is no longer accepting new enrollees, and for new borrowers in 2026, RAP will be the only income-based option.RAP has many perks, but the transition isn’t simple. Understanding how RAP compares with SAVE, PAYE, and IBR can help borrowers plan for the next several years.

The latest national data on college completion shows a stark picture: the cohort of students who started college in fall 2019, only 61.1% earned a degree or certificate within six years. That figure has hovered between 61.1% and 61.4% since the 2016 cohort.While the pattern of stability shows a trend - it's also a reminder that one-in-three college students never finish.The slight 0.3% dip from the previous year was not driven by a surge in students leaving college altogether. Instead, more students remained enrolled at the six-year mark (9% of the cohort, up 0.4%) suggesting that a portion may still complete in later years. The findings come from the latest Yearly Progress and Completion Report, which tracks all first-time students (full-time and part-time) who entered a U.S. degree-granting institution in fall 2019. Completions at any institution count, including after transfer, offering one of the most comprehensive national views of student outcomes.

A long-running legal battle over the Biden administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan reached a conclusion on Tuesday, when the U.S. Department of Education and the State of Missouri announced a proposed joint settlement agreement (PDF File) that would terminate the program, pending final court approval. The announcement, which has been expected for months especially in light of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act also terminating the plan, brings borrowers another step closer to some timelines for resuming payments.The agreement, filed in federal district court, comes after nearly two years of legal challenges from Missouri and several other states, which argued that the administration exceeded its authority by redesigning the federal income-driven repayment system through executive action. Courts repeatedly halted portions of SAVE and, earlier this year, blocked the program in its entirety, throwing borrowers into a prolonged period of confusion.Under the proposed settlement, the Department of Education will:Stop enrolling new borrowers in SAVEDeny all pending applicationsShift existing enrollees into other legally authorized repayment plans.The department would also undertake a negotiated rulemaking process to formally repeal SAVE and address related regulatory questions, such as how, when, and where the borrowers in SAVE will be moved.The settlement still requires judicial approval, but that's expected shortly. It's important to note that the negotiated rulemaking process will determine how and when SAVE is formally removed from federal regulations.

Getting an inheritance is the epitome of a mixed blessing. You receive a financial windfall, but the cause is the death of a loved one. On top of complicated emotions, you may be dealing with the largest sum of money you’ve ever seen.Nobody is born knowing how to handle an inheritance, and few people are prepared to handle one. But if you’ve received an inheritance, you can take a few steps to use the money wisely.

Students today are worried about whether AI use is allowed in college admissions essays, whether schools use AI detectors, and if an application can be rejected over suspected AI content.As AI increasingly weaves its way into our lives, we are entering a new phase of college admissions.More and more, AI has become second nature for students in their schoolwork while concerned teachers and professors try to play catchup. These are major concerns, and bring up issues related to academic integrity, the nature of learning and even fundamental questions like “what is the goal of an education?”. These concerns are now front and center in the college admission process, and as a college consultant I hear about them almost daily from concerned students and parents. Freaked out students reach out to me all the time with questions like these: “I am not using AI to write but when I plug my essay into an AI checked it says very high levels of AI so I’m nervous :-(““I wrote my essay about the hardships about my surgery and an ai detector said it was 96% ai, now I’m worried idk what to do.”There are extremely important questions at the heart of this:Can a student use AI in their college essay or other parts of their application?What is appropriate versus inappropriate use of AI?Do colleges use AI detectors?If so, are they reliable?And central to it all, can a college reject me if they think, correctly or incorrectly, that I used AI inappropriately on my college application?