{"id":15548,"date":"2025-07-30T16:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T20:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/?page_id=15548"},"modified":"2026-05-07T12:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T16:22:21","slug":"changes-to-federal-financial-aid-programs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/changes-to-federal-financial-aid-programs\/","title":{"rendered":"Changes to Federal Financial Aid Programs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was signed into law, creating significant changes to access to federal financial aid programs.<\/li>\n<li>Multiple provisions impacting higher education -federal student aid and beyond, most effective 7\/1\/2026 for award year 2026-27<\/li>\n<li><em><strong>The Department of Education finalized the provisions in the law and will be effective July 1, 2026.<\/strong><\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Please note: as information changes from the Department of Education, updated messaging will be provided here<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Federal Loan Borrowers Before 7\/1\/2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you borrowed a Federal Direct Loan (Unsubsidized and\/or Graduate PLUS) that disburses before July 1, 2026, you will be entitled to borrow loans at the current borrowing levels (both annual and lifetime) for a prescribed period of time.<\/p>\n<p>Below are tables outlining the length of legacy borrowing protection for students in two-and-four-year programs. Please be advised that this information could be updated:<\/p>\n<table width=\"640\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\"><strong>Four-Year Programs<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"355\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\"><strong>Year or enrollment Fall 2025<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"355\"><strong>End of Legacy Borrowing Protection<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\">First Year<\/td>\n<td width=\"355\">Spring 2029<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\">Second Year<\/td>\n<td width=\"355\">Spring 2028<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\">Third Year<\/td>\n<td width=\"355\">Spring 2027<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\">Fourth Year<\/td>\n<td width=\"355\">Spring 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\"><\/td>\n<td width=\"355\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\"><strong>Two-Year Programs<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"355\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\"><strong>Year or enrollment Fall 2025<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"355\"><strong>End of Legacy Borrowing Protection<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\">First Year<\/td>\n<td width=\"355\">Spring 2027<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"285\">Second Year<\/td>\n<td width=\"355\">Spring 2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Other considerations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Students enrolled less-than-full-time may not be eligible to borrow Graduate PLUS Loans past the expected time of credential in above metric<\/li>\n<li>Students who take a leave of absence will not be able to borrow past Spring 2029, even if they have not completed their program at a full-time enrollment by that time.<\/li>\n<li>Students in programs beyond four years will lose legacy protections after three years (Spring 2029)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Leaves of Absences or Withdrawals from Programs<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Any students who are on a leave of absence (LOA) or withdraw from their program on or after July 1, 2026, will lose any legacy borrowing protections, even if they return to the same program during the window of legacy borrowing protection.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>Program Specific Guidance<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Graduate PLUS Loans <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No new Graduate PLUS Loan borrowers will be allowed after July 1, 2026<\/li>\n<li>Legacy protections will be extended to Graduate PLUS Loan borrowers who meet the following stipulations:\n<ul>\n<li>A student is enrolled in a graduate\/professional program AND;<\/li>\n<li>Has borrowed Federal Direct Loans for the same program before July 1, 2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Students granted legacy protection will be able to borrow Graduate PLUS Loans for \u201cexpected time to credential\u201d or three academic years, whichever is shorter<\/li>\n<li>Expected time to credential is the difference between program length (at full time enrollment, as published by your school\/college) and period of study completed by the student<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Federal Unsubsidized Loans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Effective July 1, 2026, new annual and lifetime borrowing limits will be enacted:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Graduate Unsubsidized (GMS\/SPH\/GSDM Post-Doc):\n<ul>\n<li>$20,500 annual<\/li>\n<li>$100,000 lifetime<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Professional Unsubsidized (Chobanian &amp; Avedisian School MD\/GSDM DMD\/GSDM AS)\n<ul>\n<li>$50,000 annual<\/li>\n<li>$200,000 lifetime<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Lifetime Aggregate -excluding Parent PLUS borrowing: $257,500\n<ul>\n<li>This does include Graduate PLUS Loan, Graduate Unsubsidized Loans, Undergraduate Unsubsidized and Subsidized Loans<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Legacy Federal Unsubsidized Loans borrowers will be granted protection to borrow the same annual and aggregate limits as before, as long as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A student is enrolled in a graduate\/professional program AND;<\/li>\n<li>Has a disbursed Federal Direct Loan (Unsubsidized or Graduate PLUS Loan) for the same program before July 1, 2026<\/li>\n<li>Legacy annual limits vary per program, and year of study. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/resources\/types-of-aid\/loans\/fedstuloans\/\">SFS Federal Student Loan<\/a> webpage provides full legacy limits per program<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Students can utilize Private Credit-Based Loans to cover any expenses not covered by federal loans (unsubsidized or PLUS). Please visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/resources\/types-of-aid\/loans\/creditbasedloans\/\">Credit-Based Loans<\/a> page for further information on how to research and apply.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Less Than Full Time Registration<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Students enrolled less-than-full-time will likely require proration of their loans according to their less than full-time enrollment<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Loan proration will be in \u201cdirect proportion to enrollment status\u201d rounded to nearest percentage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For example, if a graduate student is registered half-time, a student\u2019s eligibility for federal student loans will be reduced by half or 50%<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$20,500 maximum FT borrowing<\/li>\n<li>$10,250 maximum half-time (50%) borrowing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Final rules for the implementation of less-than-full-time loan proration has not been published by the US Department of Education<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Background On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) was signed into law, creating significant changes to access to federal financial aid programs. Multiple provisions impacting higher education -federal student aid and beyond, most effective 7\/1\/2026 for award year 2026-27 The Department of Education finalized the provisions in the law and will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13751,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":19,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13751"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15548"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16082,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15548\/revisions\/16082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/osfs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}