<p>I know, Mom2, and agree. I see parents preferring to go the cosigned route rather than PLUS with the mistaken idea that it’s more protection for them, not understanding that the benefit is almost all to the lender, not the parent. With PLUS there is an insurance aspect included in the loan–it’s forgiven if either parent or student should die, and there is a lot more flexibility, Usually the interest rate is about the same too. It can terribly hurt a young person’s employment prospects to have a huge loan outstanding on the credit report. There are financial institutions, govt jobs and companies that don’t want to touch some one so terribly in debt without the income to pay it off.</p>