Buffalo, NY (WBEN) With the passage of the Big Beautiful Bill, there will be changes in how parents and students borrow for college and then repay student loans.
Jeff Boron of Send Your Kids to College says the bill simplifies the income based repayment plans. "Right now, there's three plans to choose from, and the new bill will eliminate basically a couple of those plans. So you'll end up with the standard repayment plan, which is what everybody knows when you sign up, and then there'll be a new income based repayment plan," says Boron. He says it's going to be based on the balance at the time you enroll, and it'll be based on a percentage of what's considered your discretionary income.
He says a lot of lower income students who qualify for Pell Grants are working outside of school to perhaps support their families, and they're going back to school to better their situation. "The new program will eliminate Pell grants for anyone who is not a full time student. Currently, they have to be enrolled half time, and that is now changing where a student has to be enrolled full time to be eligible for a Pell Grant," notes Boron. He says the Income Based Repayment Plan, being put into effect July of 2026, will allow those with student loan programs that want to explore all the options available today,
One of the big changes says Boron is for parents who take out what's called a Parent PLUS loan. "A Parent PLUS loan is something in the parents name to basically take a loan out for their son or daughter in college, those are going to have limits of $65,000 per student, and currently those are eligible if the parent can sign up for an Income Based Repayment Plan, perhaps their income has come come down, or maybe they even retired. That is being eliminated so parents will not be allowed or be eligible for an Income Based Repayment Plan," explains Boron.
Brian Eldridge of Courier College Prep says the biggest change for students looking ahead is graduate school borrowing, with the biggest changes being the cap on graduate borrowing, which is going to be a total of $200,000 for each professional student. "So med school, dental, law school, and with the average cost of med school being well north of $200,000 in some cases, that arguably could, could result in students just being unable to take that swing, and result in maybe some shortages in some high need areas," warns Eldridge.
Eldridge says the changes are going to have a significant impact on affordability in going to college. "We already are in in sort of a landscape that, at times, just seems detached from reality, with tuition increases seemingly every year," says Eldridge. "Colleges now, cost of attendance, sticker price, if you will, almost at $100,000 in some school. So more than ever. It really. It really whose parents students to check out what they ask themselves, where? Why am I going somewhere? What am I willing to pay?"
Eldridge says take advantage of the resources that are out there and make them part of the college search and selection process and involve your kids in talking about college costs. "I know as the parent of two two daughters that we do that often. It's never too early to talk about saving for college and make them part of make them stakeholders in those conversations," says Eldridge, and make this a family decision.