This Month’s Highlights
• Will Early Decision Really Cost Me?
• What Is Fair?
• Nurse Practitioners, Physical Therapists, Physician Assistants No Longer To Be
Considered Professionals
• Financial Aid Insider: PLUS Loan Holders Must Consolidate
Date: December 2025

Dear Parent(s),
Before we get into the college stuff, how much do you know about the last month of the year? Instead of talking politics at the Christmas table, here are a few fun facts you can distract your family with:

December’s birth flower is the narcissus. Its birthstones are turquoise, zircon, and tanzanite, which is a rare blue-violet gemstone, a variety of the mineral zoisite, found exclusively in a small area of Tanzania near Mount Kilimanjaro. It is a thousand times rarer than diamonds.

December’s name derives from the Latin word decem (meaning 10) because it was originally the 10th month of the year in the calendar of Romulus c. 750 BCE, which began in March. The Winter days following December were not included as part of any month. Later, the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name. Cool, huh?

“Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight”. OK, they may not be real stars, but there are lots of opportunities to see some shooting ones this month.

• Meteor showers occurring in December are the Andromedids (September 25th – December 6th, peaking around November 9th)
• The Canis-Minorids (December 4th – 15th, peaking around December 10th and 11th)
• The Coma Berenicids (December 12th – 23rd, peaking around December 16th)
• The Delta Cancrids (December 14th – February 14th, the main shower from January 1st – 24th, peaking on January 17th)
• The Geminids (December 13th – 14th)
• The Monocerotids (December 7th – 20th, peaking on December 9th. This shower can also start in November.
• The Phoenicids (November 29th – December 9th, with a peak occurring around December 5th or 6th)
• The Quadrantids (typically a January shower but can also start in December)
• The Sigma Hydrids (December 4th – 15th)
• And last but not least, the Ursids (December 17th – 25th or 26th, peaking around December 22nd).

OK. To business.

Will Early Decision Really Cost Me?
If a student is accepted Early Decision (ED), a financial aid offer will be made around that same time. Will it be enough to afford them the chance to accept?

I can’t answer that question. It’s up to the parents to determine what they can commit to, whether it’s a small amount, say less than $10,000 per year, or the full amount of $100,000.

As you know, when a student is accepted ED, you lose the opportunity of comparing other financial aid offers. But the good news is that most of the elite colleges offering ED will make what they consider to be a fair offer of aid. But what constitutes “fair”?

The FAFSA determines financial need using a complex formula that calculates the minimum of amount of money you will pay at any college. This is known as the Student Aid Index (SAI). But the SAI is only a number relating to federal student aid, which is limited to a few grants, including the Pell, and student loans. It’s up to the colleges to determine your actual contribution. It will likely exceed this minimum.

This is because each college has their own aid policies and budgets. Most that offer ED also use the CSS/Profile to apply the information provided to determine whether the student will receive any institutional grant money. That’s why when comparing offers from different colleges, you will sometimes see vast differences in the amount of aid being offered.

What Is Fair?
By and large, colleges offering ED are likely to offer fair aid packages. Of course, fair is how the college defines it.
Because income information submitted to the school is from two years prior to the start of the Fall semester, finances that have changed for the current year, or will the next year and are not accurately represented, should prompt a parent to write an appeal.

If a family’s financial need is low (income and assets being too high to qualify for need-based financial aid, like grants) applying ED causes the loss of being able to compare. Many Ivies and other elite universities don’t offer merit scholarships, so you could end up being what is known as a Full Pay. If you had the opportunity to compare offers, you could try to persuade the college to sweeten the pot (insider’s language) with more free money.

Given the extremely high sticker price of college, most parents paying for college do not want to pay full price. If your student doesn’t get accepted ED, you could count yourself lucky, because now you can be in a better position to pay less than you might otherwise.

Because colleges that use the CSS Profile still call the SAI the Expected Family Contribution (EFC), the results of what figure these colleges use are variable, so we’ll use the standard Federal SAI in this example.

The example is a family of four with a $140,000 Adjusted Gross Income and normal assets.

Cost of Attendance (gross) $94,286
SAI/EFC                                 – 28,166
Financial Need                     = 66,120
Need-Based Grant                – 48,300
Loan                                           – 5,500
Work-Study                              – 2,500
Remaining Need or GAP    = 9,820
add back in SAI/EFC          + 28,166
Out-of-Pocket Cost              = $37,986

However, a similar college could have an Out-of-Pocket Cost of $45,000 or more.

For all intents and purposes, this is fair. It could be better, but there are variables at play, like how much a college wants to invest in a particular student.

Nurse Practitioners, Physical Therapists, Physician Assistants To No Longer Be Considered Professionals

Big changes to the Federal Student Loan System (FSLS) will have major negative impacts on students seeking what used to be considered “professional degrees”.

As part of a sweeping overhaul of the FSLS, the Trump administration’s Department of Education (ED) has proposed
narrowing the definition of “professional degree programs,” a move that could significantly restrict graduate student’s access to federal aid.

ED is redefining what qualifies as a “professional degree,” leaving out professions like nursing and physical therapy from higher borrowing limits.

Under the proposal, only select fields such as medicine, law, and dentistry would explicitly retain the higher borrowing limits tied to professional study. All other graduate programs, like those required for high-demand careers in nursing, social work, and physician assistant, will be subject to lower loan caps, while Grad PLUS loans will be eliminated. This change would begin affecting new borrowers in July 2026.

This means that with fewer borrowing options, the United States will have fewer health care providers to take care of us. With Grad PLUS loans, students wishing to become a nurse, nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, physical therapist, physician assistant, speech pathologist, or a nurse with a master’s or PhD in nursing (needed to teach) could borrow more than the $100,000 now proposed to obtain necessary degrees. The lifetime limit is now $100,000.

Even those seeking the newly defined professional status of MD, DO, OD, DDS, DVM, JD, PharmD, and a few others can borrow only $200,000. Who can go to medical school for $200,000?

The ED gives two reasons for these limitations. One is to force colleges to bring down the cost of graduate tuition. The other is to prevent students who want to go into lower-wage fields like education and social work from winding up with debt they can’t afford to repay.

There is a real problem here. Colleges can’t lower their prices any more than most businesses can.

The majority of students have no choice but to borrow. Many students seeking advanced degrees don’t have the income to pass the credit checks that private lenders use to determine who gets a loan. Students will need to have a co-signer. The FSLS only checks for adverse credit history: bankruptcy, tax lien, credit card delinquency, or loan default.

The real danger is that the fewer health care providers, educators, and social workers we have will likely force the United States health care system into what no one wants: rationed care.

Each month, we provide you with tips on your best ways to pay for college regardless of your financial situation.

The clock is ticking on consolidating Parent Loans to Undergraduate Students known as PLUS Loans.

Consolidate PLUS Loans Before April
1. It Takes Time To Consolidate: I’m worried about parents with Parent PLUS who have NOT consolidated their student loans at least once. Anyone who tries to consolidate Parent PLUS loans after April 2026 might not make the cut-off of June 30, 2026 in time. Parents who have consolidated loans at least once don’t have to worry in 2026.

2. Missing Out Can Cost You. Missing the deadline and not consolidating Parent PLUS at all means losing access to ALL Income Driven Repayment plans forever.

3. There’s Real Money At Stake. Parent PLUS borrowers who owe six figures and who have never consolidated need to be warned in time for the 2026 deadline. If you’re a parent with PLUS loans that haven’t been consolidated, let this serve as your wake-up call. If you know of someone who has a PLUS Loan, this would be a nice thing to mention when writing a note in their Christmas card.

Saying Good-bye to 2025

This is our last issue of the year. We’ve enjoyed providing you with information that is both practical and effective. Many of our parents have been empowered to make better, more informed decisions about choosing colleges, and paying for them all because of our newsletter. College affordability is a problem even for those who think they can most afford it. It’s possible they may not be able to afford it without help. Who amongst us discusses money with friends? So please share this newsletter. I’m certain they will be highly appreciative.

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

P.S. If you find this newsletter helpful, please share it with others like yourself!