The Katalyna blog
The questions everyone asks, answered straight.
Every cycle, the same worries fill admissions forums: how many schools, whether to apply early, what to do about aid. Here are practical answers, with no guarantees and no hype.
9 posts in Paying for college · Show all
Draw what you think college costs. Then see the real line.
Before you read another word about tuition, draw the price a family at each income level actually pays. Almost nobody gets it right, and the direction of the error costs people money.
Does your major matter more than where you go?
Federal earnings data is published per program, not just per school — and the gap between majors inside one university is usually wider than the gap between universities.
The sticker price is not the price: how to find what college actually costs you
Published tuition is a list price almost nobody pays in full. Here is where the real number comes from, and the order to check it in.
How much can you actually borrow? Federal student loan limits, in plain numbers
Federal loans are capped by year and by lifetime total, and the caps are lower than most families expect. The exact 2025–26 figures, and what the gap between them and a tuition bill really means.
Should you apply early decision if you need financial aid?
Early decision can raise your odds, but it takes away your ability to compare aid offers. How to weigh the trade-off, and what being released from ED actually requires.
How to appeal a college financial aid offer (and what to actually say)
Aid offers aren't always final. What an appeal can change, the documents that make one persuasive, and how to structure an honest, specific letter.
The financial aid calendar: FAFSA, CSS Profile, and the deadlines that cost real money
Aid forms run on their own schedule, ahead of most admissions deadlines. What opens when, whose income counts, and the mistakes that quietly cost families thousands.
How to find merit scholarships (and the schools that actually give them)
Merit aid isn't spread evenly. Which colleges use it, how to tell automatic awards from competitive ones, and why the most selective schools rarely offer any.
Put the advice to work on your own list.
Katalyna turns these answers into a plan: matched schools, deadlines, aid comparisons, and honest essay feedback.