The One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed into law on July 4, 2025. Contained within this law was a variety of policy updates relating to the Federal Student Aid programs. We believe the summary of topics below encapsulates the information that has the greatest impact to our campus community. Further details and information can be found on the Federal Student Aid website.
 

• Pell Grants:
  • Students receiving grants or scholarships covering their full Cost of Attendance will not be Pell Grant Eligible
  • Students with Federal Student Aid Index (SAI) twice as high as the maximum Pell Grant will not qualify for the Pell Grant
     
• Student Aid Index / “FAFSA Formula”:
  • Reinstated exemption of family farm and small business assets from need analysis
  • Business or Farm definition updated to include fisheries
     
• Undergraduate Direct Loans:
  • Annual Parent PLUS Loan limit is set to $20,000 per student
  • Aggregate Parent PLUS Loan limit is set to $65,000 per student
  • Families may wish to limit Parent PLUS Loan borrowing to below $15,000 per year to ensure access to funds across 4 years of enrollment
    • Non-Federal (private) student loan programs may be applied for when Federal program limits are not sufficient
       
• Graduate Direct Loans:
  • Annual Federal Loan limit is set to $20,500
  • Aggregate Federal Loan limit is set to $100,000
  • Graduate PLUS Loan Program Eliminated
  • Lifetime borrowing limit on all Federal Student Loans (including Undergraduate borrowing) is set to $257,500
     
• Loan Repayment:
  • Simplified to two options:   “Standard” with up to 25 years to repay and “Income Based”
  • Economic Hardship and Unemployment Deferments eliminated
  • Clarification needed related to impact on “current borrowers” vs. “new borrowers” as of July 1, 2026