One Big Beautiful Bill Act Information
Federal Student Aid Changes with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
Federal Student Aid is changing significantly for students and parents beginning with the 2026-27 aid year due to the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), also referred to as the Working Families Tax Cut Act, on July 4, 2025. Summer 2026 aid will not be affected by these changes.
Key Changes Include:
Loans are Now Based on Annual Enrollment:
- Students enrolled less than full time (enrolled for less than 24 credits for the academic year – fall and spring terms combined), will see a reduced maximum federal loan amount. Loan eligibility will be calculated based on the total number of credits in which a student is enrolled for the academic year. This change applies regardless of prior borrowing.
- Loan eligibility for all types of Federal Loans is confirmed after course registration and review of Cost of Attendance. Eligibility will be reviewed again prior to disbursement of funds and adjustments will be required with any changes to enrollment.
- Without knowing enrollment status for spring 2027, when initial aid offers are created, full-time enrollment will be assumed for spring and then adjusted upon spring registration, and again, prior to the disbursement of spring funds.
- Less than half time students continue to be ineligible for federal student loans.
Parent PLUS Loan *Annual and **Aggregate Limits:
- The Federal Parent PLUS loans will be capped at a maximum of $20,000 per student per academic year, with a lifetime aggregate limit of $65,000 per student.
- These limits apply to all parents combined per dependent undergraduate student beginning in the 2026-2027 academic year.
*Annual, **Aggregate, and ***Lifetime Loan Limits for Student borrowers:
- There are no changes to annual or aggregate federal loan borrowing limits for undergraduate students, however, loan amounts that have been repaid, forgiven, or otherwise discharged will now count toward lifetime loan limits
PELL Eligibility:
- Students will no longer be eligible for a Pell Grant if their Student Aid Index (SAI) meets or exceeds twice the maximum Pell award for a given year. For the 2026-2027 academic year, with a maximum Pell award of $7,395, any applicant with a SAI of $14,790 or higher will be ineligible to receive Pell Grant funding.
- Students who receive grants or scholarships from non-federal sources covering their entire Cost Of Attendance are ineligible to receive a Pell Grant, even if otherwise eligible for the program.
Student financial aid offers have not yet been created for the 2026-2027 Academic Year. We anticipate aid offers to be available by early June. Delays may be possible due to the Federal Government’s timing in release of the Final Rules and Regulations for this Act. You will receive a notification when your financial aid offer is ready for you to view on your Student Portal.
* Annual loan limit—The maximum loan amount you can borrow each academic year
** Aggregate loan limit—The maximum amount of unpaid principal balance minus any capitalized interest that you can have outstanding at any point in time on all of your subsidized and unsubsidized loans for undergraduate, graduate, or professional study
*** Lifetime maximum loan limit—The maximum you can receive, regardless of amounts paid or discharged, in any combination of loans other than PLUS loans for parents or PLUS loans for graduate or professional students