Check what you can actually borrow before the list is final

The borrowing rules changed, and this is the first class they fully apply to

What changed

For any Parent PLUS loan first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, federal borrowing is capped at:

• $20,000 per year per dependent undergraduate student
• $65,000 in total per student across all years

If two parents borrow, the combined total counts against the same cap.

A student starting college in autumn 2027 is inside these limits from their first term. Parents who borrowed for an older child before July 1, 2026 keep the previous rules for that child only.

Why this belongs in October, not April

Before the caps, a family facing a $35,000 annual gap could close it with Parent PLUS. That option no longer exists at that size. The gap now has to be closed by the college's own aid, by merit money, by a lower-cost school, or by private borrowing at worse terms and with a credit check.

Which means the shape of the college list — how many financial safeties are on it, whether the merit-aid schools are represented — is a decision to make now, while there is still time to add schools. It is not a discovery to make in April when the offers arrive.

Do this week

1. Run the net price calculator on every school on the list. It is on each school's own site and takes about fifteen minutes with a tax return to hand. It estimates what your family will actually pay, not the sticker price.
2. Write down the estimated annual gap for each school: cost of attendance, minus expected grant aid, minus what the family can pay from income and savings.
3. Compare each gap against $20,000 plus the student's own federal loan eligibility ($5,500 in the first year).
4. Any school whose gap exceeds that is currently unaffordable unless its aid comes in materially better than the estimate. Decide deliberately whether to keep it, and add at least two schools where the numbers work comfortably.

The conversation to have now

Tell your student the real number the family can contribute each year, before applications go in. Students who find out in April that a school they have emotionally committed to is unaffordable take it far harder than students who knew the constraint from the start. This conversation is a kindness, and postponing it is not.