{"id":21224,"date":"2026-06-01T00:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T00:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/?p=21224"},"modified":"2026-06-03T15:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:13:09","slug":"examining-the-impact-of-new-federal-student-loan-limit-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tamus.edu\/data-science\/2026\/06\/01\/examining-the-impact-of-new-federal-student-loan-limit-regulations\/","title":{"rendered":"Examining the Impact of New Federal Student Loan Limit Regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)<\/a> by the US Congress in July 2025 introduced a number of sweeping changes affecting colleges and universities in the United States. One of the primary components of the OBBBA was an overhaul of federal student loan borrowing limits for graduate students. Codified as the Reimagining and Improving Student Education (RISE) Rule<\/a>, the RISE Rule was published on May 1, 2026 and takes effect on July 1, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central to the new regulations are revised caps for new student borrowers in graduate and professional programs, as well as limits for Parent PLUS borrowers who take out federal loans on behalf of dependent undergraduate students (RISE Rule Fact Sheet<\/a>). For the purpose of this summer blog post series, we will initially concentrate on the more broadly impactful changes in the RISE Rule, specifically the adjustments to annual loan limits for new student loan borrowers in graduate ($20,500) and professional ($50,000) programs. Note<\/em>: A list of new regulations and the definition of professional programs can be found at the end of this blog post, including an interim exemption for existing loan borrowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Share of <\/span><\/strong>Loan Borrowers Above New Limits: State-by-State Data<\/strong><\/u><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using data published by the US Department of Education’s Office of the Chief Economist<\/a>, the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research (PEER<\/a>) Center created estimates<\/strong><\/em> for more than 58,000 graduate and professional academic programs across more than 2,200 institutions that received federal Title IV funding. The emphasis on “estimates” is due, in part, to suppression in the OCE data related to small sample sizes. Thus, the following data should be treated as “informative” rather than “definitive.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the loan caps outlined above as cut points, the PEER Center calculated the number and percentage of students who acquired federal loans in excess of the new loan limits, as well as determined the volume of loan amounts that were in excess of the new limits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n