On July 4, 2025, the President signed H. R. 1 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) into law and made several changes to federal student aid programs. We are awaiting further guidance from the U. S. Department of Education to better understand the impacts of this legislation, its effects on students, and its future implementation. We will update this page as new information becomes available, and when we receive official guidance from the U.S. Department of Education.
The following changes were made to financial aid programs. These will not go into effect until July 1, 2026.
These will not go into effect until July 1, 2026.
| Calculating maximum loan amount if registering in less than 12 credits: | Calculating annual loan limit if you withdraw from a course |
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Term loan amount * registered credits ÷ 12 |
Reduce your eligibility in the next term by the number of credits withdrawn. |
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A student with $2,750 available for fall semester, and planned to take 7 credits, uses the following calculation: $2750 * 7 ÷ 12 = $1604.17 is the maximum amount available to borrow in the fall term at 7 credits. |
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To determine YOUR maximum loan eligibility for fall term at less than 12 credits using the Financial Aid Awards tab:
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Fall $2,750 *12 credits ÷ 12 = $2750 Spring $2,750 *(12 credits reg spring - 3 withdrawn fall ÷ 12 = $2,063
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Legacy: Parents who previously borrowed for their dependent student prior to July 1, 2026, can borrow Parent PLUS loans for the student for up to 3 years or their student's expected time to credential with no limits other than Cost of Attendance. Students must maintain concurrent enrollment. If they withdraw from a semester or don't attend a semester, they are no longer a legacy student. Expected time to credential is based on full-time enrollment. If a student is going to school part-time, they could lose legacy status due to this.
Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), expected time to credential is used to determine how long certain students can remain eligible for “legacy” federal loan rules for Parent PLUS loans after those regulations are enforced beginning on July 1, 2026.
Expected time to credential is how much time a student should reasonably need to finish their current program, assuming full‑time enrollment, based on the program’s published length—minus the time they’ve already completed. The expected time to credential for a Bachelor’s Degree program is 4 years, attending full-time (12 credits or more) each semester.
Students transferring from one institution to another or from an Associate Degree program to a Bachelor's Degree program will not be considered a legacy student. Undergraduate students will lose the Parent PLUS Loan legacy provision when this occurs and will be subject to the new annual and lifetime loan limits. This means if a parents has previously borrowed the annual or lifetime PLUS loan limits, they will not be able to borrow any more for that year or for that student's remaining time of enrollment.
Students cannot opt out of the legacy provisions. If they follow the guidelines, they will continue to be legacy students under the old rules for the next 3 years beginning Fall 2026.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has tightened the regulations on who can receive the Federal Pell Grant. Below are those changes.
Together, these changes mean some students who previously qualified could lose Pell Grant eligibility.
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