One Big Beautiful Bill Act

If you’re an undergraduate student, the biggest impacts to your federal aid will be how your Pell Grant eligibility is calculated and the requirements to receive your full loan amounts.

Important Information Regarding Pell Grant

Pell Grant eligibility is now more closely tied to your Student Aid Index (SAI), which means aid is more strictly based on your family’s financial situation reported on your FAFSA.

What impact does this have?

• You might receive a smaller Pell Grant than expected
• You may no longer qualify for the Pell Grant despite receiving it in previous years
• If your costs are already fully covered by other scholarships, you may not receive Pell funds

Important Information Regarding Loan Eligibility

Another change to pay attention to is your enrollment status. Previously, in order to eligible for federal student loans, you needed to maintain atleast a half-time enrollment status. With OBBBA, your federal loan eligibility is directly tied to the number of credits you are enrolled in.

For the 2026-2027 year, in order to receive the full annual federal loan amount, students must be full-time. If you enroll in less than 12-credits (full-time), there will be a scheduled reduction of your loan.

Keep in mind: Your aid is more closely tied to both your family's reported income and how many classes you take, so small changes can have a bigger impact.

Have questions on how this may impact you? Contact our office today to speak with one of our counselors. 

If you’re planning to attend graduate, the changes under OBBBA will likely have a big impact on how you pay for your education.

With OBBBA, federal loans for graduate students have new lifetime limits based on program type. This means that there is now a maximum total amount you can borrow, no matter how expensive your program is.

What this could mean for you:

• You may not be able to borrow enough federal student loans to cover your full cost of attendance
• Once you reach your limit, you cannot borrow more in federal loans

Keep in mind: Your federal loan eligibility will be based on your program. Use our tool to determine which federal loan limits apply to you. 

To learn more about important updates that Graduate students need to know, please review this handout!

To learn more about important updates that Professional students (Psy.D program) need to know, please review this handout!

New federal rules will change how much parents can borrow through the Parent PLUS Loan program, as well as the repayment options available for those loans. These changes do not affect how much undergraduate students can borrow through their own federal loans.

Under the new law, Parent PLUS Loans will be limited to:

• $20,000 per year, and
• $65,000 total per student

However, there is a temporary exception for families with students who are already enrolled.

To qualify for the temporary exception, the student must:

• Remain continuously enrolled in the same program at the same school they were attending as of June 30, 2026

In addition, one of the following must be true:

• The parent previously received a Parent PLUS Loan for that student’s program before July 1, 2026, OR
• The student received a federal Direct Loan (subsidized or unsubsidized) for that program before July 1, 2026

If the above conditions are met, the new loal limits will not apply right way under the limited exception. Parents who qualify will be able to continue borrowing under the current rules for up to three years or until their student finishes their program (whiever happens first). In order to remain continuously eligible for the limited exception, the student must stay continously enrolled in their program (no full withdraws or unapproved breaks).

Keep in mind: Parent loans are no longer an unlimited backup option for all borrowers, so it’s important to understand costs early and have a plan in place.

To learn more about important updates that parents need to know, please review this handout!