April 2025

We are finding more and more that cost becomes a defining factor in the final decision, especially when graduate school, especially any kind of medical training, is also part of the long-term plan.

Bloomberg published an excellent article, Top Colleges Are Too Costly Even for Parents Making $300,000. The article states, "The squeeze starts at about $150,000 of pre-tax household income, when families are expected to fork over roughly 20%, or about $30,000 annually, for tuition. At $270,000 of income families are expected to pay $61,000 a year. Most schools cut off financial aid at about $400,000 of income, according to the analysis." Here is another article  from CNBC that substantiates cost playing a significant factor.

Our class of 2025 reported scholarships totaling $1,906,528 (note: not all scholarships may have been reported). The largest were $80,000 per year which was based on residency in an adjacent state, $70,000 per year for military, and $68,000 per year for academic excellence and meeting institutional priorities. Several students also benefitted from the WUE scholarship.

The House Education & Workforce Committee just approved a bill that would reshape the federal student aid programs. While this has not passed, we expect some provisions to be successful. Some of the highlights include redefining borrowing limits based on the academic program, holding schools accountable and "risk sharing" the debt held by former students who are delinquent on their loans, limiting the amount parents can borrow, and ending subsidized student loans no longer having the government pay the interest while the student is enrolled in school.

Newsweek published this article about how this could "drastically reshape how Americans pay for college."