When to apply for Parent PLUS loans for 2025-2026? Need to take full amount or can we pay during school?

Congrats on your daughter's acceptance! For Parent PLUS loans for 2025-2026, you can apply starting around May-June 2025. You'll need to go to studentaid.gov and complete both the application and the Master Promissory Note (MPN). Regarding the amount: You can actually choose how much to borrow up to the cost of attendance minus any other financial aid received. Many schools will let you take it by semester rather than the full year at once if you prefer. For repayment, you actually have several options: 1. Begin repayment right away while your daughter is in school 2. Pay only the interest while she's enrolled 3. Defer ALL payments (principal and interest) until she graduates Making payments during school will definitely save you money on interest in the long run! The interest starts accruing as soon as the loan is disbursed.

My son is a junior and we've been doing Parent PLUS loans since he started. You don't apply for them until after you submit the FAFSA, usually late spring like April/May for the following fall semester. You can definatly make payments during school - ALWAYS DO THIS if you can afford it!! The interest is killer if you wait!!!! We do quarterly payments and it helps a ton.

Make sure you understand the ORIGINATION FEE before you sign anything!!!!! They take about 4.2% off the top before your student even gets the money. So if you borrow $10,000, only about $9,580 goes to the school. But you still owe the full $10,000 plus interest! Total scam if you ask me. The financial aid offices never explain this part clearly.

i just went through this mess for my son starting fall 2025... the whole parent plus thing is confusing af lol. we applied in may and got approved in like 2 days. took the full year amount at once bc my sons school required that. but yes u can 100% make payments while theyre in school!!!! we pay $350/mo to keep the interest down

Been trying to reach someone at Federal Student Aid about Parent PLUS loans for DAYS and kept getting disconnected. Finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) and got through in under 5 minutes! They have this callback service that holds your place in line so you don't have to stay on hold forever. Totally worth it for getting my questions answered about disbursement timing and repayment options. They have a video demo that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ The FSA agent confirmed we can make any size payment during school, you're not locked into the standard repayment plan until 6 months after graduation.

One more thing - the interest rate for Parent PLUS loans changes EVERY YEAR in July. So your 2025-2026 loans will have whatever the new rate is starting July 1, 2025. Right now they're at 8.05% which is INSANE. No way to know what they'll be by next summer, but just be prepared that they're almost always higher than regular federal student loans.

I work in financial aid, and I'd recommend applying for the Parent PLUS loan about 1-2 months before your tuition bill is due. For Fall 2025, that would be around June-July 2025, depending on your school's billing cycle. Some important points: 1. You can take out just what you need each semester rather than the full annual amount, but some schools have policies requiring annual certification. 2. You have complete flexibility with repayment - you can make payments of any amount during enrollment to reduce interest capitalization. This can save thousands over the life of the loan. 3. Unlike undergraduate federal loans, Parent PLUS loans enter repayment as soon as they're fully disbursed, though you can request a deferment while your student is enrolled at least half-time. 4. The amount you're approved for will be the Cost of Attendance (COA) minus any other aid received, but you can choose to accept less than that amount.

My daughter just finished her freshman year, and we made a HUGE mistake with our PLUS loan. We just accepted the full amount they offered without thinking about it, then realized we could have covered some costs ourselves. Now we're stuck paying interest on money we didn't even need to borrow! So definitely think carefully about exactly how much you want to take out.

As someone who just went through this process for my son's freshman year, I wanted to add a few practical tips that really helped us: 1. **Create a repayment plan BEFORE you borrow** - We calculated exactly how much we could afford to pay monthly while he's in school and set up automatic payments immediately. Even $100/month makes a difference! 2. **Track your disbursements carefully** - The money doesn't all go out at once. Our school split it between fall and spring semesters, so we had to make sure we had enough for both. 3. **Consider borrowing slightly less than the full gap** - We left about $1,000 that we covered with a payment plan directly to the school. The payment plan was interest-free for 10 months, which saved us money compared to borrowing that portion. 4. **Download the Federal Student Aid app** - It makes tracking your loan balances and making payments so much easier than the website. The interest really does add up fast, so definitely start making payments during school if you can swing it. We're paying $250/month and it's helping keep the balance from growing too much. Good luck with your daughter's college journey!

Just want to echo what everyone's saying about making payments during school - it's SO important! We're in our second year of Parent PLUS loans and I wish we'd started payments immediately. The first year we thought we'd wait, and watching that balance grow with interest was painful. One thing I haven't seen mentioned yet - if you're considering making payments while your daughter is in school, try to pay more than just the interest if possible. Even an extra $50-100 toward principal each month adds up. We use a loan calculator to see how different payment amounts affect the total we'll pay over time, and it really motivates us to squeeze out a bit more each month. Also, definitely shop around and see if your daughter's school offers any institutional payment plans before committing to borrowing the full gap amount. Some schools have really generous terms on their payment plans that can be better than taking the loan for smaller amounts.