College Financial Aid, Scholarships & Merit Aid: How Families Avoid the Dangerous 2026 Crisis

The federal government just changed the math on paying for college. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, parents are now capped at $65,000 in total federal borrowing per student — and no more than $20,000 in any single year. In this episode, Andy and Pearl Lockwood walk through what that cap actually does to a four-year payment plan, and why so many families are about to get blindsided in their senior year.

Then the good news: a wave of top schools rolling out income-based tuition. Yale, Harvard, MIT and Penn going tuition-free for families under $200,000. Plus how to write a Common App activities section that sells instead of bores — including the exact before-and-after that turns "I worked at a deli" into an entry admissions officers stop on.

In this episode:
- The $65K federal loan cap and the $20K-per-year limit
- The schools going tuition-free for families under $200K
- Why your application is a marketing document, not a report card
- The cashiering before-and-after that actually gets noticed

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