<p>I'm sorry if these questions have been answered elsewhere - honestly I've had conflicting responses anyway, so I thought I'd come here.</p>
<p>1) Are parent PLUS loans deferrable? I.e., so long as I (the student) am in college, can my parents defer payment on their PLUS loans until I graduate? I know Federal Direct loans are deferrable, but I wanted to know about parent loans, too.</p>
<p>2) Will merit-based financial aid I receive rise proportionally to the cost of attendance? Or in other words, if hypothetically I were to receive $30,000 for 2010-2011, would that $30,000 remain constant even if coast of attendance became more expensive? The average inflation rate for COA is ~8%, right?</p>
<p>Any help you could offer would be very much appreciated.</p>
<p>As a side note, I’ve read elsewhere that PLUS loans are deferrable for one year at a time - are there any (parent) loans that let you borrow the full cost of attendance and pay them back after you graduate?</p>
<p>On another note, back to a question that I had above, let alone do merit aid packages increase along with tuition inflation - do colleges let you “lock in” tuition at entering-year prices? Again, I feel like I should know this kind of stuff – but better late than never.</p>
<p>Merit aid may or may not increase every year along with the COA. It really depends on the school and its policies, so you’ll need to check with your school’s financial aid office.</p>
<p>One way to lock in tuition price is via an i529, which is an Independent 529. This is payable at a number of different private colleges, but the catch is that the funds must be invested for at least 3 years before they can be withdrawn. So if you were to invest 100% of this year’s tuition, you could withdraw it in 3 years to pay 100% of that year’s tuition.</p>
<p>[Independent</a> 529 Plan](<a href=“http://www.independent529plan.org/]Independent”>http://www.independent529plan.org/)</p>
<p>There may be some colleges that might guarantee that tuition for the entering freshman class will remain the same for all four years, but I haven’t heard of any specifics.</p>
<p>^ Sounds good. Thanks for the feedback.</p>
<p>I’m still looking for an answer about the PLUS loan – could my parents defer payment on it until I graduate college, or will they be required to pay it back starting the following year?</p>
<p>Yes, Parent Plus loans can be deferred until after you graduate…the interest will be accruing from the time of disbursement though!</p>
<p>Here’s what finaid.org has to offer on this subject:
<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid;