Beyond Parent PLUS: What Families Should Be Doing Instead
Why understanding financial aid formulas is becoming more valuable than borrowing money.
If there’s one lesson to take away from the recent Parent PLUS loan changes, it’s this:
The era of borrowing your way through college is slowly coming to an end.
For years, many families treated Parent PLUS Loans as the backup plan. If financial aid wasn’t enough, parents could simply borrow the difference.
That strategy was never ideal, but it became normalized.
Now, with new borrowing limits in place, families are asking a different question:
“If we can’t borrow as much, what do we do instead?”
My answer surprises people.
You start planning much earlier than senior year.
The financial aid award letter is not where strategy begins.
One of the biggest misconceptions about financial aid is that the application itself determines what you’ll pay.
It doesn’t.
The application reports your financial picture. The strategy comes from understanding how colleges interpret that picture years before you ever submit the FAFSA or CSS Profile.
That’s why I often tell families that the most important financial aid decisions are made long before the forms are completed.
Income is only one piece of the puzzle.
Many parents assume that if they earn a high income, there is nothing they can do.
That’s not always true.
Institutional aid formulas, particularly at colleges using the CSS Profile, look at much more than annual income. Depending on the institution, they may also evaluate:
How income is earned.
The types of assets a family owns.
Business ownership.
Retirement savings.
Home equity.
Family size.
Household circumstances.
Cash flow and unusual expenses.
Two families with similar incomes can receive dramatically different institutional aid offers because their overall financial pictures are very different.
This isn’t about hiding money or exploiting loopholes.
It’s about understanding that financial aid formulas don’t treat every dollar the same way.
The trend I’m seeing in 2026
One of the most interesting shifts I’ve noticed is that higher-income families are beginning to ask different questions.
Rather than asking:
“How much financial aid will we receive?”
They’re asking:
“How should we make financial decisions over the next several years if college is on the horizon?”
Some families accelerate retirement contributions.
Others evaluate whether maintaining exceptionally high taxable income still aligns with their broader family goals.
Some reconsider business distributions or major financial decisions that affect how their finances appear during the aid years.
Others decide that one parent reducing work hours or stepping away from full-time employment makes sense for reasons that go well beyond college planning, while also recognizing that those choices may influence future aid eligibility.
These are not decisions that should be made solely to receive more financial aid.
They are family financial planning decisions that can also affect how colleges evaluate a family’s ability to pay.
That’s a very different conversation from asking, “How much can we borrow?”
College planning is becoming financial planning.
This is the biggest shift I expect to see over the next decade.
Families who once relied on borrowing will increasingly rely on planning.
That planning may include:
Building a college list based on affordability, not just prestige.
Understanding institutional financial aid policies before applying.
Timing major financial decisions thoughtfully.
Evaluating the long-term impact of retirement contributions, investments, business income, and reportable assets.
Comparing four-year net costs instead of focusing only on freshman-year aid offers.
In other words, college planning is becoming a long-term financial planning exercise, not simply an admissions process.
The question I wish more families asked
Instead of asking:
“How do we pay for this college?”
I wish more families asked:
“How do we build a financial plan that gives our child the most opportunities without compromising our own future?”
Those are two very different questions.
One starts with debt.
The other starts with strategy.
As Parent PLUS Loans become less available, I believe more families will discover what many financial planners and college affordability advisors have known for years:
Borrowing was never the strategy.
It was simply the tool families reached for when they didn’t know they had other options.
Every family’s financial picture is different. That’s why, as a paid subscriber, I’d love to help you apply these concepts to your own situation.
Your subscription includes one complimentary 30-minute College Affordability Strategy Session.
Reserve your session here: Schedule here