Award letters arrive in March of the year your student starts. Most of the decisions that set your cost come before that. Pick where you are.
Guides to 10 state university systems and cost pages for 224 colleges. Each one works through hundreds of example families, so you can see what your state's rules do for a family like yours. Sometimes the answer is nothing, and we say so.
Some aid stops at an income limit. See how close your income is to each limit in your state, and whether you still have time to act. Add your savings and what you could pay each month, and every school you name is priced for your family and compared with what you can afford.
A payment plan for all four years. It tells you which account to pay from each semester, when to use the 529, how to keep the tax credit, and which loans to take first. We build it from your award letter.
Some aid has an income limit, and colleges check it against what you earned two years before the first bill. Many families are a few thousand dollars from a limit and do not know it. See which limits you are near, and whether you still have time to act.
See what you can afford — freeColleges work out your aid again every year. Each time, they use your income from two years earlier and your savings on the day you file the FAFSA. For a student starting in fall 2028, the first year of aid uses your 2026 income. That covers the spring of sophomore year and the fall of junior year.
From this day, what your household earns counts toward the first year of aid. This is the only time you can still change that number.
After this day your income for the first year of aid is fixed. Your savings are counted later, on the day you file the FAFSA.
State and college deadlines follow between December and February. Many give aid first come, first served.
This is the first day you have the document a plan needs. The decision deadline is six weeks later.
After this you are no longer comparing schools. What matters now is how you pay.
Take the 529 money out in the same calendar year you pay the bill. Paying a December bill in January is a common and costly mistake.
Pick the start year. We email you before the dates that are still ahead, with the one thing to do that month, and nothing else. The exact emails are listed below.
For a fall 2028 start, the tax year that counts is 2026. It ends on December 31.
We'll write to you on the dates that matter, and nothing else:
Then, if you haven't built a plan by then, two follow-ups:
Three dated emails over 18 months, then up to two follow-ups. Each has a one-click unsubscribe; your address is deleted a month after the last one. Nothing else is stored — not your income, not your list. Privacy policy.
These are not rare cases. They happen when a family pays each bill as it arrives, from whichever account is easiest.
The American Opportunity Tax Credit pays up to $2,500 a year for four years. To get it, you must pay $4,000 of tuition each year from somewhere other than a 529. If you pay everything from the 529, you get nothing. Up to $1,000 a year comes as a refund even if you owe no tax, so lower-income families lose cash too.
An unsubsidized loan charges interest while your student is in school. If you do not pay that interest each month, it is added to the loan when school ends. You then pay interest on the interest for as long as you have the loan.
Parent PLUS charges a 4.228% fee up front and 9.07% interest. Nonprofit state lenders often charge less for both. Over four years the difference can reach five figures. Since July 2026, Parent PLUS is also limited to $20,000 a year and $65,000 in total for each student.
Many states give a tax deduction for money you put into their 529 plan. If you pay tuition from monthly cash, put it through the state's 529 first and you get the deduction. Pay the bill directly and you do not. Some states take the deduction back in certain cases, and the plan accounts for that.
We run the same calculations on your actual award letter. The plan compares every order you could pay in, picks the one that costs your family least, and shows you the others it compared.
Answer a few questions about your family and your school. It takes about two minutes. You see exactly how much the plan would save you, worked out from your own numbers.
It shows what to pay from which account each semester, how to use the 529, which loans to take first, your tax and FAFSA dates, and your state's rules. It matches your award letter and shows the other orders it compared. Yours to keep.
Get your free estimate first. It uses the same calculations and your own numbers. If the saving is not clearly more than $99, do not buy.
We update each source on a set schedule. Federal loan rates change in May, the FAFSA tables in June, and the IRS rules in November.
Who can claim the education tax credits, what a 529 may pay for, and why the same dollar cannot count twice. Updated every year.
How the government works out your Student Aid Index, the number colleges use to measure what you can pay. It counts 5.64% of a parent's 529 and 20% of a student's savings.
More than 6,000 colleges. The full yearly cost, and what families at each income level actually paid.
Colleges that cover at least 75% of what a family needs, which of them replace loans with grants, and their income limits.
State-run and nonprofit lenders in 14 states. Their rates are often lower than Parent PLUS.
The new limits of $20,000 a year and $65,000 in total. The new repayment plan that replaces the older income-based plans. Who keeps the old rules, and for how long.
All 50 states and DC. How much you can deduct, whether you must use your own state's plan, and when a state takes the deduction back.
The rate on each kind of federal loan, and how much a student can borrow each year and in total.
The 152 colleges that ask for the CSS Profile as well as the FAFSA. They differ in how they treat a 529 owned by a grandparent.