<p>[Standards</a> tightening for federal PLUS loans | Inside Higher Ed](<a href=“http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/12/standards-tightening-federal-plus-loans]Standards”>http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/10/12/standards-tightening-federal-plus-loans)</p>
<p>During the 2010-11 academic year, 80 percent of PLUS loan applicants who were denied were able to pay for their college education in other ways, Hamilton said.</p>
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<p>Those turned down for PLUS do find other ways … they get a co-signer for the PLUS or they borrow from other sources. They do not suddenly “find” money somewhere. It would be naive to believe that being denied a PLUS and subsequently being able to pay for college in other ways means that the person finds a way to pay that doesn’t involve borrowing. Until college becomes less expensive and/or people save more for college, PLUS remains a very helpful way for parents and grad students to pay for college.</p>
<p>Advice we received when considering how save for college: no matter how
much you save, it likely won’t be enough. We took that advice and put our money into our retirement accounts instead…with the idea that IF we needed to, we would reduce or stop contributing to retirement accounts.</p>
<p>Taking out a PLUS loan was never an option for us. We didn’t want to do it.</p>
<p>I think folks need to find colleges that are within their means. They, in my opinion, should NOT be taking out loans in excess of the Stafford loans. </p>
<p>If someone is taking a lot of the cost of attendance annually in PLUS loans…it is my opinion that they are funding a school they really cannot afford.</p>