Keeping track of the many, wide-sweeping and various changes instigated by the Trump administration can feel overwhelming. This article will deal in particular with the changes President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill will have on federal funding and aid for higher education. This is a non-exhaustive summary of some fundamental changes to be on the lookout for in the coming months.
Under the Big Beautiful Bill, federal loans for graduate students will undergo several changes. Grad PLUS loans (which allow you to borrow up to the full cost of your graduate education) have been cut. The only other option for graduate federal loans, the Stafford loan, will now have a new cap. These limits on how much graduate students can borrow depend on whether your program is considered “professional” or not – if your program does fall under the umbrella of professional, then the loan limit will generally be twice as high. Professional graduate degree programs include medicine, law, and theology. It is important to note that there is a transition period for the grad PLUS loans, in which current students can continue accessing their loans for the remaining time of their degree. The bill also introduces limits on the amount that parents can borrow via parent PLUS loans (to $200,000 per year) and there is a new lifetime borrowing cap of $257,500. This is a shift from previously unlimited borrowing.
Part-time students will also be affected by these changes. The financial aid for part-time students will be proportionally affected depending on the percentage of full-time time which they are enrolled. If you are enrolled half of full-time, you can only receive half the federal financial aid of a full-time student.
New accountability measures are also being put into place. The Big Beautiful Bill requires public universities to show that they are putting the federal aid to good use. This metric doesn’t apply to Eastern, because private universities are subject to a different metric system. That being said, if you’re applying to any other graduate program, this information may be pertinent to you in affording your degree. The accountability metric asks: Do graduates of the program earn more than people in their demographic with just a high school diploma? If it’s a grad school program, do graduates earn more than their peers with just a bachelor’s degree? This metric applies to only Title IV federal aid (so, PELL Grants, Federal Work Study, FSEOG, and Federal Loans). This bill will also institute new changes to the Pell Grant. This includes $10.5 billion to fund the program over the two years, and the creation of a new Workforce Pell program.
The Pell Grant will no longer be available to students receiving essentially a full-ride scholarship from the schools already, or for students whose Student Aid Index (SAI) is at least two times the current Pell Grant maximum. Currently, this second change in availability should affect less than 1% of students. However, this would change if Pell Grant maximum were reduced (i.e., more people would be affected).
The federal loan direct program, by July 1, 2026 (for new students) or July 1, 2028 (for current borrowers), will compel students to choose between two repayment plans. Students can either choose Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) (an income-based repayment plan, under which it is likely that payments will be higher for most borrowers, and especially lower-income borrowers) or a new standard repayment plan with monthly payments.
