{"id":41098,"date":"2026-04-27T19:03:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T19:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/?page_id=41098"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:15:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:15:22","slug":"important-federal-loan-changes","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/important-federal-loan-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Important Federal Loan Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The federal government has made changes to policy regarding federal student loans. This page provides an overview of the changes which will go into affect July 1st, 2026.<\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Undergraduate students<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><b>Federal loan program\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Change: <\/b>Loan proration:<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Requires institutions to prorate annual loan amounts in direct proportion to the percent of full-time status the student is enrolled. Full time undergraduate enrollment at Augsburg is defined as 12 credits or more. Effective 2026-2027 academic year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Parent PLUS annual and aggregate loan limits<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Change:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> All parents, whether one parent borrows or both parents apply separately may borrow up to a maximum of $20,000 per year per dependent student. A $65,000 aggregate limit per dependent student (without regard to amounts forgiven, repaid, canceled, or discharged). Effective July 1, 2026.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Legacy provision:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If a borrower has a Federal Direct Loan made before July 1, 2026, while the dependent student is enrolled in a credentialed program, the parent can continue to borrow under current loan limits for three academic years or the remainder of their dependent student\u2019s expected time to credential, whichever is less.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Graduate students<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><b>Graduate PLUS loan program<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Change:<\/b> Effective July 1, 2026 the Graduate PLUS loan program will be eliminated.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Legacy provision:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If a borrower has a Federal Direct Loan disbursed before July 1, 2026, while enrolled in a credentialed program, the borrower can borrow from the Grad PLUS program for three academic years or the remainder of their expected time to credential, whichever is less.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Graduate\/Professional annual and aggregate loan limits<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Change:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Caps the annual loan limits at $20,500 for graduate students and $50,000 for professional students.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The definition for what is considered a professional program and thus eligible for higher loan limits is also changing. Beginning July 1, 2026, the only Augsburg program that will be considered a professional program for loan limit purposes is the following:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"3\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doctor of Clinical Psychology<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (PsyD)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The aggregate limit is capped at $100,000 for graduate students and $200,000 for professional students, and does not include amounts borrowed as an undergraduate. The lifetime borrowing limit for all federal student loans is $257,500, excluding borrowed Parent PLUS loan amounts. Effective July 1, 2026.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Legacy provision:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If a borrower has a Federal Direct Loan made before July 1, 2026, while enrolled in a credentialed program, the borrower can continue to borrow under current loan limits for three academic years or the remainder of their expected time to credential, whichever is less.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Loan proration:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Requires institutions to prorate annual loan amounts in direct proportion to the percent of full-time status the student is enrolled. Full time enrollment for graduate programs at Augsburg is defined as 6 credits or more. Effective 2026-2027 academic year.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">*Please note that this is the best information we have right now. Once the U.S. Department of Education (ED) publishes final rules, this information may change.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We encourage you to make an appointment with Student Financial Services to go over your specific situation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The federal government has made changes to policy regarding federal student loans. This page provides an overview of the changes which will go into affect July 1st, 2026. Undergraduate students Federal loan program\u00a0 Change: Loan proration: Requires institutions to prorate annual loan amounts in direct proportion to the percent of full-time status the student is &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":703,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-41098","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41098"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41102,"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/41098\/revisions\/41102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/studentfinancial\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}