It's early August. The fall bill posted. You did the math, and you're short… maybe by $2,000 or maybe by $20,000 (I hope not on that one).
This happens to a lot of families, and it happens for ordinary reasons. The financial aid package came in lower than the net price calculator suggested. Housing costs more than you budgeted. A scholarship you were counting on went to someone else. Or you simply didn't add it all up until the invoice arrived with a number on it.
You have less time than you'd like, but you have more options than you think. The thing that determines whether this costs you a little or a lot is the order you work through them.
In partnership with Ascent Student Loans, here’s a guide on how to close a college funding gap so that you can enroll in classes on time. Check out Ascent Student Loans here >>
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First: Know Your Actual Number
Before you do anything else, know your numbers. Pull up the bill and work through it:
- Start with the school's certified cost of attendance for the year, not just tuition. Housing, meals, fees, books, transportation.
- Subtract grants and scholarships.
- Subtract federal loans already offered in your student's name.
- Subtract cash, 529 withdrawals, and anything else you've earmarked.
- Subtract Parent PLUS, if you're using it, but read the next section first, because that number changed.
What's left is the gap. Every decision from here should be sized to that number and nothing larger.
What Changed On July 1, 2026
If you were planning on a Parent PLUS loan absorbing the whole gap, run it again.
As of July 1, 2026, new Parent PLUS borrowers are capped at $20,000 per dependent student per year, and $65,000 total for that student's undergraduate career. Before this change, Parent PLUS could go all the way up to the full cost of attendance.
Some schools are even limiting the annual parent PLUS to $16,250 per year so families can stretch it out over 4 years.
Meanwhile, what a student can borrow federally in their own name hasn't moved in more than a decade. For 2026–27, a dependent undergraduate is capped at $5,500 as a freshman, $6,500 as a sophomore, and $7,500 as a junior or senior, with a $31,000 lifetime aggregate.
Those two facts together are why more families than usual are staring at a gap this August. And with Parent PLUS loan rates 9.07% APR this year, shopping for a private loan with lenders like Ascent just makes sense.
The Order Of Operations
Work these in sequence. Steps one and two can reduce what you owe. Everything after that only finances it.
1. Appeal the aid package — this week
If your family's financial situation has changed since you filed the FAFSA, you can ask the school to reconsider. It's called an appeal, and financial aid offices grant them more often than families expect.
Qualifying circumstances typically include a job loss or significant income drop, a divorce or separation, high unreimbursed medical expenses, the death of a parent, or other circumstances. If the FAFSA snapshot no longer reflects reality, that's the case you make.
Write a short, factual letter. State what changed, when, and what the financial impact is. Send it to the financial aid office directly and follow up by phone within three business days.
2. Keep searching for scholarships
Most large scholarship deadlines have passed for fall. But two things are often still live: departmental scholarships within your student's major that get awarded late, and local scholarships from community foundations, employers, credit unions, and civic organizations, which frequently have summer deadlines and very few applicants.
The return per hour is high on small local awards specifically because almost nobody applies. It's not going to close a $20,000 gap, but $1,500 you don't borrow is $1,500 you don't repay with interest.
3. Take the federal loan your student is offered
Accept the full Direct Loan amount, even if you plan to pay it down quickly. Federal loans carry income-driven repayment options and discharge protections that no private loan matches, and you can always pay them off early without penalty.
For 2026–27, Direct Unsubsidized loans for undergraduates are at 6.52% with a 1.057% origination fee.
If you're going to use Parent PLUS, know that it's at 9.07% for 2026–27 with a 4.228% origination fee — meaning a $20,000 PLUS loan disburses roughly $19,155 to the school. That fee is worth comparing against private options.
4. Then close what's actually left
If you've done the first four steps and there's still a gap, a private student loan is the reasonable tool for it.
One of the lenders we work with is Ascent. Their undergraduate loans go from $2,001 up to 100% of the school-certified cost of attendance, capped at $200,000 in total, with no application, origination, disbursement, late, or prepayment fees. You can check your rate in about three minutes with a soft credit check that doesn't affect your credit score or your cosigner's — so you can see a real number before you commit to anything. (Massachusetts residents have a higher $6,001 minimum.)
Whichever lender you use, three things matter more than the brand on the paperwork:
Apply with a cosigner. This is the single biggest lever on the rate a student will be offered. A parent or other creditworthy adult cosigning routinely produces a dramatically better rate than a student applying alone. Ascent lets students apply to release a cosigner after 12 consecutive on-time full principal-and-interest payments, once they can qualify on their own credit.
Choose the in-school payment option deliberately. Ascent offers four — defer everything, pay interest only, pay a flat $25 a month, or pay full principal and interest. Deferring is the default and the most expensive, because interest accrues the entire time your student is enrolled. If you can cover the interest monthly during school, do it. Over four years it's often a difference of thousands of dollars. Repayment terms run 5, 7, 10, 12, or 15 years.
Take Action Now
The most common way this goes wrong isn't picking the wrong option — it's starting too late.
Private student loans are school-certified, which means the financial aid office has to verify enrollment and cost before funds move. That step commonly takes one to three weeks, and it takes longer in the back-to-school crush.
If you’re needing to close that last minute financial aid gap, now’s the time to do it. Check out Ascent student loans and get a quote today. You can see your estimated rate in about 3 minutes online.
Robert Farrington is the founder of The College Investor and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading voices on student loan debt and saving for college. He holds an MBA from UC San Diego Rady School of Management and has spent over 15 years researching, writing, and advising on student loans, 529 plans, financial aid programs, and saving and investing for young professionals.
Robert has been featured in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC News, and Forbes, where he has been a regular personal finance contributor for over a decade. His work combines both professional expertise and personal experience – he successfully navigated his own student loan repayment journey and has helped thousands of readers do the same.
He is committed to making the intersection of personal finance and education transparent and accessible. You can learn more about Robert on the About Page or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.