Federal Loan Changes
Effective July 1, 2026
As a result of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed on July 4, 2025, there are several significant loan changes that could impact you. Below, we break down the changes so you know what to expect going forward.
Loan Eligibility Reduced When Attending Part Time
All students at EWC are considered full-time if they enroll in and attend 12 or more credits per term. If you enroll in less than 12 credits, your loan eligibility will be impacted.
EWC Policy: To determine your Direct Loan eligibility, we will confirm your enrollment at the time that your loan is disbursed. Any changes to your enrollment after that could impact future disbursements.
Examples of a first-year, interdisciplinary studies student (typical loan eligibility if attending full time would be $5500 for the year):
| Fall Credits | Fall Loan (Total Elig) |
Spring Credits | Spring Loan (Total Elig) |
|
| Planned Enrollment | 15 | $2750 | 15 | $2750 |
| Actual Enrollment, including withdrawn courses | 15 (but then dropped 6-credits after midterm) |
$2750 | 12 | $2090 (Even though the student is full-time, eligibility must be reduced because of dropped fall courses) |
Example of a nursing student with 9 credits planned each semester (typical loan eligibility if attending full time would be $6500 for the year):
| Fall Credits | Fall Loan (Total Elig) |
Spring Credits |
Spring Loan (Total Elig) |
|
| Planned Enrollment | 9 | $2438 | 9 | $2437 |
| Actual Enrollment, including withdrawn courses | 9 | $2438 | 12 (added a final course to qualify for graduation) |
$3282 |
Important points to remember:
- You will continue to qualify for the maximum loan amount if you enroll in and stay in 12 or more credits per term.
- Withdrawing from fall courses mid-semester will likely result in reduced loan eligibility in the spring semester.
- Adding summer courses could increase your fall/spring loan eligibility if summeris not a required term for your program and if you enrolled in less than 24 total credit hours in the fall and spring semesters.
Lifetime Loan Limits Are Reduced
Significant total (aggregate) loan changes were made but most of these affect graduate and professional students. However, there are two new limitations that may impact you now or in the future, depending on your educational goals:
Lifetime Loan Limits
The Department of Education will be limiting the total amount that a student can borrow in federal student loans over their lifetime. Going forward, no student can borrow more than $257,500 throughout their lifetime, even if they pay off some or all their loans. This will not allow them to borrow more.
Parent PLUS Loans Now Limited
If your parent(s) have utilized Federal PLUS Loans for you or your siblings, they have never been limited to the total amount that could be borrowed. Going forward, each parent can borrow up to $20,000 per year, per student and a maximum of $65,000 per student. This may not have an impact while you attend EWC but could limit their eligibility should you choose to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree after you graduate.
Timing of Loan Disbursements
Because of the new regulations and many nuanced eligibility details, loan calculations
will need to be highly individualized and could take additional time to calculate. EWC will always award you assuming full-time enrollment but will recalculate your eligibility once the add/drop dates have passed. This could lead to slightly delayed loan disbursements. Please be assured we will work as quickly as possible to disburse loan funds to all borrowers and will notify you once the loan funds have been disbursed to your account.