<p>Swimcatsmom - great solution! And fair. I didn’t think that giving the money, even to the parent, could be overlooked as an asset, but personal loan forgiveness shouldn’t violate any rules and let families better calculate their true cost.</p>
<p>Extended family assistance aside, are there calculators that will give a parent an idea of when they’ve maxed out their PLUS loan availability? I’ve read they’re approving many parents who didn’t think they’d get approved, but how do they know if they’d get approved a second year? It seems risky to me to go forward if this is at all in doubt, but perhaps two years in there is some change of circumstance (sale of property etc) that would make the maybe affordable option into something doable. Again, the higher price tag that is now the norm makes this a much more complicated equation…</p>