MANKATO — As Congress passed the Trump administration’s mega-policy package known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” colleges across the region got to work trying to understand the impact it would have on students. One word that came up repeatedly: uncertainty.
“That’s probably, in a lot of cases, the biggest barrier to attending college is uncertainty and complexity around affordability,” said Brian Jones, assistant vice president for enrollment management at Minnesota State University.
“So that’s our biggest priority is scrambling to understand what happened, and what didn’t happen, and to be a knowledgeable resource.”
He notes the bill, which was passed July 3, was not as bad as it could be — pointing to provisions that were taken out such as undergraduate students being ineligible for subsidized loans.
As for what is in the bill, an outline from the American Council on Education lays out some of the new terms and conditions. Among those are a $20,000 per year loan limit for parents, restricting students from borrowing more than the cost of attendance for their institution and eliminating Graduate Direct Plus loans.
All these changes will take place July 1, 2026.
Along with those changes are new adjustments to the Federal Pell Grant, which Ritu Raju, president of South Central College, is hopeful will make attending easier for their students.
“Pell Grants are incredibly important. Many of our students wouldn’t be able to go to college without them,” Raju said, noting about 27% of SCC students are eligible for them.
One of the changes opens up the Pell Grant to part-time students who are also in the workforce. While Raju mentioned that some part-time students were already eligible for Pell Grants, she said this change should have a positive impact not only on their students, but also on the industries they’re preparing their students for.
“Upscaling is a major need for industries, and so one portion of the new Pell Grant guidelines is helping students go to college and the other is strengthening the workforce pipeline,” Raju said.
Jones is slightly less optimistic about the impact of the changes, especially when considering the parent borrowing limit and elimination of the Graduate Direct Plus loans.
“Our average cost of attendance is just over $20,000 a year, but, for example, students in our aviation program could easily exceed that cost just on flight programs alone. So our aviation students are a clear example of students whose parents covering those costs will need to find other avenues,” Jones said.
He also mentioned MSU is preparing to help present their estimated 2,000 graduate students with other financing options since many of them rely on the Graduate Plus Loans.
As for restricting students from borrowing more than the cost of attendance for their institution, Jones said that could have some unforeseen side effects as well.
That’s because a college’s cost of attendance is more than just the tuition, and includes categories like transportation needs, laundry, food and housing. However, there are some areas it doesn’t cover.
“Students from families with low income may have other things like traveling home for the holidays, the inability to not work while in school or needing to contribute to the family budget (that aren’t covered),” Jones said.
With the date of the changes still about a year out, both Jones and Raju are waiting to get a little more clarity on what the impacts will be exactly. Both are hoping that comes soon.
“If the provisions were taking effect this August, I would have concerns. We do expect we’ll get more clarity and information over the course of the next few months,” Raju said. “Me being the eternal optimist, I hope it will make things easier.”