This Week in College Admissions

Elizabeth and I were at the kitchen table a few years back, laptop open, calculator app out, doing the math on Holden’s freshman year. I remember telling her, almost casually, “If we come up short, we’ll just take out a Parent PLUS loan for whatever’s left.” That was the plan. Not a good plan, really — more of a safety net I hadn’t bothered to measure. I just assumed the net would stretch as far as we needed it to.

I think about that conversation every time a family sits across from me and says some version of the same thing: “We’ll figure out the rest with loans.” I understand the instinct. I had it myself. But this week, the ground under that assumption moved — for every family making that same calculation right now. And it’s not the only thing that moved. Testing requirements, rankings, and a data-privacy lawsuit all shifted too. Parents, this one’s for you. Students, stick around — more of this affects you directly than you’d think.

At a Glance

Parent PLUS and Grad PLUS loans just got a lot smaller. New federal caps took effect July 1.
Test-optional is nearly extinct at the Ivy League. Nine of eleven Ivy-tier schools require scores again.
U.S. News released its 2026 rankings — Princeton, Williams, and UC Berkeley hold the top spots in their categories.
A 17-state lawsuit over admissions data is still working through federal court, with real privacy implications.

Admissions PolicyTesting

Test-Optional Is Nearly Gone at the Ivy League

For the 2026–27 cycle, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, MIT, Caltech, Stanford, and Penn all require SAT or ACT scores again. Princeton gets one more test-optional cycle before it joins them. Columbia is the lone holdout with a permanent test-optional policy. And Common App data backs up just how fast this shifted — 52% of applicants submitted scores this cycle, the first majority since before the pandemic.

Here’s the part I want students to hear directly: this isn’t a punishment. A strong test score is one more piece of evidence for who you are as a student — not the whole story, but not nothing either. If you’ve been telling yourself you’ll “deal with testing later,” later just got a lot more urgent.

What this means: If your student is aiming at a highly selective school — anywhere outside Columbia, or Princeton for one more year — testing needs to be on the calendar by sophomore or junior year, not treated as a senior-fall afterthought.

Financial AidFederal Loans

Parent PLUS and Grad PLUS Loans Just Got Smaller

As of July 1, Parent PLUS loans are capped at $20,000 a year and $65,000 over a student’s undergraduate career. Grad PLUS loans are gone entirely for new borrowers. A $257,500 lifetime aggregate federal loan cap now applies as well. New Parent PLUS borrowers also lose access to income-driven repayment plans going forward.

I’ll admit — the version of me at that kitchen table years ago would have been caught flat-footed by this. If “we’ll just borrow the rest” has been part of your family’s plan, it’s worth rerunning the numbers this week, not in April of senior year.

What this means: Build your four-year cost projection now, using the new caps, before you fall in love with a school that doesn’t pencil out. And chase net price — not sticker price. Average tuition discounting at private colleges just hit a record 56.3%.

“The scholarship arms race didn’t end this week — the weapons on the table just changed. Families who adjust their strategy first will be the ones still standing when the dust settles.”

RankingsData

US News Rankings Land — And Mostly Confirm What We Already Knew

Princeton keeps its top spot among National Universities, with MIT and Harvard close behind. Williams again tops the Liberal Arts Colleges list. Among publics, UC Berkeley edged past UCLA for the No. 1 spot. Methodology stayed mostly stable this year, aside from a slightly larger minimum cohort size for graduation-rate data.

Here’s my honest take, the one I give every family in my office: a school moving from No. 14 to No. 16 tells you almost nothing useful about whether it’s right for your kid.

What this means: Use rankings as a rough sorting tool, not a scoreboard. Fit, program strength, and net cost predict a good four years far better than a ranking number does.

LegalLegislative

A 17-State Lawsuit Over Admissions Data Is Still Playing Out

A coalition of 17 states sued the U.S. Department of Education over a mandate requiring colleges to hand over seven years of detailed applicant data broken out by race and sex, tied to post-affirmative-action compliance tracking. The states sought a restraining order; the case remains active in federal court.

This one is bigger than a single headline. However it resolves, it will shape how much demographic admissions data gets collected, reported, and scrutinized for years to come.

What this means: Nothing to act on yet — but this is a case worth watching if you care about how race-neutral admissions compliance gets enforced going forward.

“You are not required to look like every other applicant chasing the same weapons at the Cornucopia. You are required to know, clearly, who you actually are — and let the application prove it.”

What to Do This Week

✓ Parents: rerun your four-year cost projection using the new Parent PLUS and Grad PLUS caps.

✓ Students applying to any Ivy-tier school besides Columbia: put a test date on the calendar now.

✓ Families: compare net price, not sticker price, across every school on your list.

✓ Everyone: build your early-round college list this summer — early applications now outnumber regular decision.

Parents, I know the instinct to smooth every bump for your student is strong — I have it too, every single day. But the families who navigate weeks like this well are the ones who treat the moving pieces as information, not panic. Students, none of this changes the most important truth I know about this process: the schools that are right for you are looking for the real version of you, not a version built to match a headline. That hasn’t changed, and it won’t.

Have Questions About How This Week’s News Affects Your Student?

Every family’s situation is different. Let’s talk through yours.

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— Chris Parsons, College Planning Center

Carpe diem.

Christopher Parsons

Owner & President, College Planning Center

Christopher Parsons is the founder of the College Planning Center and the author of Entering the Arena: Turning the College Admissions Odds in Your Favor. With 25 years in education — including time at The Citadel, the University of South Carolina, and years in the high school classroom — he helps students and families navigate the college admissions process on their own terms.