Category Archives: Guest Posts

Guest Posts, parenting, recruiting, Resources, sports recruiting

College Sports Recruiting Changed in 2026: What Parents of High School Athletes Need to Know

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college sports recruiting

If you’re the parent of a high school athlete, the college recruiting rules you remember are mostly gone. In the past two years, Division I traded scholarship limits for roster limits, the NCAA stopped using SAT and ACT scores for eligibility, a five-year eligibility clock replaced redshirts, and most states began letting high school athletes earn NIL money.

The basics still hold: your athlete needs the grades, the film and real conversations with coaches. What changed is which questions to ask, and when. Here is what is different for the Class of 2027 and younger, and what to do about it this year.

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admissions, college guidance, college planning, college prep, essays, Guest Posts, parenting

What Parents Need to Know About an AI-Built College List

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AI-Built College List

Your teen may have already assembled some of their college list using AI. About half of high school students have used an AI tool at some point in the search process, up from around a quarter six months ago, a survey of more than 5,000 students by education consulting company EAB found. Most parents learn of it too late.

That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A chatbot will answer a question at 11pm that a teenager would never think to ask a counselor at 11am. But the same survey revealed that 18 percent of students had already started ruling out colleges because something a bot told them. That’s a real choice based on unverified data.

Here’s what to look for before that list is set in stone.

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college costs, financial planning, Guest Posts, Student debt, student loans

Your Parent PLUS Loan Is Capped—Here’s the Lever Parents Can Still Pull

parent plus loan

If you’re using the Parent PLUS loan to plan your finances around your student’s college this fall, you’ll notice the new upper limit that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act now enforces.

As we covered when the hard caps took effect, from July 1, 2026, onward, the bill limits borrowing to $20,000 per student per year, with a total limit of $65,000 per student over the course of the whole degree.

The change will become apparent once the 2027-28 FAFSA opens on October 1, and it’s worth starting to plan for it already.

Our earlier piece delves into how you can find more sources of money for college, including scholarships, aid appeals, borrowing conservatively, and net price comparisons.

Here, we’ll look at a complementary strategy: how you can reduce the amount you have to pay for your student’s college fees.

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financial aid, financial planning, Guest Posts, Student debt, student loans

Managing College Debt: Student Loans and Retirement Goals

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Your child gets into a college they love. Then you open the financial aid offer and realize how much the family would still need to borrow.

Before accepting those loans, decide what you can contribute while keeping up with essential bills and retirement savings. Leave emergency money available. Your child needs a clear budget, including how much debt each of you could reasonably repay, before the family commits to the school.

For U.S. families considering loans for the 2026–27 academic year, that conversation also needs to account for new Parent PLUS borrowing limits and repayment restrictions.

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college housing, dorm life, Guest Posts, move-in day

Small Dorm Room Ideas: Make a Shared Room Feel Like Home

dorm room

College move-in season brings plenty of excitement—but making a small dorm room feel comfortable, functional, and personal can be a challenge.This is especially true when sharing space with a roommate. Between two beds, desks, wardrobes, and everything else needed for the school year, there may not seem to be much room left for privacy or personality.

The good news: Creating a space that feels functional and personal does not require expensive furniture or permanent changes. With a little planning, students can establish healthy boundaries, create dedicated zones, and make even the smallest shared room feel more like home.

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college majors, college planning, college prep, Guest Posts

Best Colleges for Pre-med? How Future Pre-meds Should Actually Choose a College

best colleges for pre-med

When you are finalizing your high school experience and trying to apply for college, this can become quite the stressful process. That stress can easily be doubled if you are on a pre-professional track such as pre-med or pre-PA, which can make college essentially a three-year proving ground. If you are a parent, you may also be feeling this because you want what’s best for them. When I was younger, my parents were definitely on this journey with me through both the highs and the lows.

Today, I’m going to explain how you as a parent can help your student pick the best pre-med school for them without fixating on which schools have the “best” reputation or ranking. As you work through that decision, Parenting for College has a helpful guide on how to help your teen make the final college decision that looks at the bigger picture of fit, cost, and long-term success.

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Guest Posts, Student debt, student loans

Restoring Education’s Promise with Responsible Student Loan Borrowing

Today’s guest post is by Bob Collins, VP of Financial Aid at Western Governors University.

student loan borrowing

WGU students graduate with half the debt of their peers nationwide

Education is linked to the eradication of poverty and the promotion of prosperity, but evidence that college students graduate with excessive debt continues to pile up year after year. With student interest rates at their highest in the last decade, our current economy serves as a reminder that students should make informed decisions to borrow wisely.

Western Governors University (WGU) was established in 1997 with a mission to expand access to high-quality, online and affordable higher education. WGU serves more than 150,000 students nationwide and has more than 340,000 graduates in all 50 states.

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financial planning, Guest Posts, Student debt, student loans

Back to School: 9 Tips for Managing Your Finances

finances

With consumer finances facing further turbulence following the announcement of the August resumption of U.S. student loan repayment, young Americans are bracing themselves for a financial squeeze in advance of the holidays.

With evidence that shoppers are already showing caution – the savings experts at SimplyCodes have put together some practical money advice for young consumers on how to navigate an increasingly compressed disposable income and how to better manage student loan repayments being back on the list of monthly expenses.

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college prep, essays, Guest Posts, parenting

Supporting Your College-Bound Student Without Going Crazy

Today’s guest post is from Brad Schiller, an MIT graduate, as well as the CEO and Co-Founder of Prompt, the world’s most respected and fastest-growing college essay coaching and feedback company.

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college-bound student

There is a secret to successfully helping your student with their college essays. 

Before we get to it, we have 4 questions you should consider to help alert you to pitfalls that often plague parents who “just want to help” during college application season.

But before we even get to those questions, let’s begin with the bottom line: the best thing a parent can do for their college-bound student is to be loving, supportive, and simply there for them. And that’s not easy. 

Applying to colleges is stressful and often emotionally draining. As college essay coaches, we see this all the time. Make it your top priority not to correct grammar, improve writing, or get your kid into a “better” school, but to make this year as good as it can be for you and your teen. 

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college costs, college planning, Guest Posts

5 Changes Parents Should Make When Paying for College

paying for college

Your children are going to college. You may think it will be easy because you’ve been saving for it. But seeing the college fee structure, you’ll know it will not be easy. Coming out of the stress-induced fog might help you manage the costs. 

Here are five things you can do to help you on this journey of paying for college:

Understand your financial situation

Now that your child is off to college, as parents, you’re now left with taking care of the expenses like tuition, housing, and school supplies. Sitting down and looking into your finances is step one for parents. The next step is to make a budget, reevaluate your finances, and look into every savings account because the college costs are now added to your other expenses. 

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