College · Paying for College · For families

Run the plan through
all four years.

Most families price the first year. Type the whole plan and the page runs every year, then shocks it seven ways, one at a time, and shows which shock breaks it and by how much.

Open the stress testWhat you get
7shocks, tested one at a time
3tests for every run
6years, the longest plan it runs

The stress test

Use the first-year numbers from the college’s cost of attendance and the aid offer. Leave a box empty where the answer is zero.

Loading the stress test. If nothing appears, turn on JavaScript.

Why the first year is the easy one

Most plans are built on the first aid offer. These three things are true in every later year.

$4,782

Prices climb and a flat grant does not

In the example the family’s cost after grants is $17,500 in year one and $22,282 in year four. Prices rose 3% a year, the $10,500 grant stayed where it was and the one-time $2,000 was gone.

$4,000

Federal loans have a ceiling

A dependent undergraduate can borrow $5,500, $6,500, $7,500 and $7,500 across four years: $27,000 of a $31,000 lifetime limit. A fifth year has $4,000 left, however much it costs.

$18,000

A lost scholarship is lost every year after

A $6,000 scholarship with a GPA condition, lost after the first year of four, takes $18,000 out of the plan. That is why the form asks which part of the aid has a condition.

What you get

College · Paying for CollegeFree

What you finish with
A year-by-year picture of who pays what, the total borrowed, any year that comes up short, what the student would owe and pay each month after college, and the same plan under seven shocks with the weakest point named and the monthly or yearly amount that would close a gap. A printout and a spreadsheet of every year.
Who it is for
Parents and families comparing aid offers or about to commit to a college; students who will carry the loans; school counselors and college access staff walking a family through an offer. It is most useful before a deposit is paid.
Format
Browser calculator. Works on a phone, tablet or computer, by touch or keyboard. Prints a two-table summary; saves every year of every run as a .csv.
Access
Free. No account and no sign-in. The plan is saved only in this browser; no names are asked for and nothing is sent to Caveat.
Where it lives
The Paying for College space in Caveat College.
Support
Questions, a correction or a request: team@caveatacademic.com.
The lifetime limit is why an extra year is the shock that breaks many plans: the cost is a full year, and the federal loan room is not.

How to use it

  1. Type the first-year costs and how fast you expect them to rise. The college’s cost of attendance page has both kinds of cost.
  2. Type the grants that renew, the part of them with a condition, and any one-time awards.
  3. Type what comes from income, savings and the student’s earnings, then how much borrowing the family will accept.
  4. Read the verdict, then tap each shock to see its years. The weakest point shows what would close the gap.

Open the stress test

How the stress test works

One plan, run a year at a time, then shocked one way at a time.

How a year is paid for, in order

  • Cost is tuition and fees plus living costs, each growing at its own yearly rate from the first-year figure.
  • Grants and scholarships come off first: the renewable amount every planned year and the one-time awards in year one.
  • Family income and the student’s earnings come next, then savings, spread evenly over the planned years. Savings a year does not need are kept for later years.
  • Federal student loans fill what is left, up to the yearly limit and the lifetime limit for the student’s status. Other loans follow, up to the yearly amount the family set.
  • Anything still unpaid is shown as not covered. The page never assumes money that was not typed in.

The three tests, and what they leave out

Every year covered means no year ends short. What the student owes is the loans the student will repay plus the interest that builds before payments start, compared with a share of first-year pay. The payment is a level monthly payment on that amount, compared with a share of gross monthly pay.

Interest is simple interest on every loan from the middle of the year it is borrowed until six months after the last year, as if every loan were unsubsidized. Subsidized loans build no interest during school, so a real balance can be lower. Loan fees, taxes, and income-based repayment plans are not modeled.

The two after-college limits are rules of thumb that many families use, not law. Change them under After college if yours differ.

What each shock changes

ShockWhat changes in the run
Costs rise 2 points fasterBoth yearly increases go up by 2 percentage points.
A scholarship is lost after year oneThe amount typed under “with a condition to keep” is removed from year two on.
It takes one more yearOne more year at that year’s prices, with no renewable grants in it. Federal loans continue up to the lifetime limit; savings left over are used.
Family income drops 30%The amount from family income falls by 30% from year two on.
The student earns half as muchThe student’s yearly earnings are halved in every year.
The first job pays 20% lessThe starting salary used by the two after-college tests is cut by 20%.
Loans cost 2 points moreThe interest rate rises by 2 percentage points.

Sources

  1. Federal Student Aid, U.S. Department of Education, “Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans”: yearly limits for a dependent undergraduate of $5,500, $6,500 and $7,500 (third year and beyond) with a $31,000 lifetime limit, and $9,500, $10,500 and $12,500 with a $57,500 limit for an independent undergraduate. studentaid.gov
  2. Federal Student Aid, Federal Pell Grant lifetime eligibility (the equivalent of six years of full-time awards), which is why a federal grant may continue into an extra year while a college’s own scholarship often does not. Each award letter states its own terms.
  3. Public Law 119-21 (2025), which limits new Parent PLUS borrowing from July 1, 2026 to $20,000 a year and $65,000 in total for each student, with transition rules; how it applies to a family is for the college’s aid office to confirm.
  4. The level-payment formula for an installment loan: payment = balance × r ÷ (1 − (1 + r)−n), with r the monthly rate and n the number of payments. The run is checked against an exact reference written for this page (guide/suite/ast_ref.py, in fractions).

General information, not financial, tax or legal advice. The page works only from the numbers typed in and from simplifying assumptions it states; it does not know any college’s prices, any award’s renewal terms or any loan’s rate. Federal limits and rates change, so check studentaid.gov and the college’s aid office before borrowing. The example family and its numbers are made up. Support: team@caveatacademic.com.