To the delight of President Donald Trump and his supporters, including many college students who believed Trump had their back, his signature piece of legislation, HR1, nicknamed The One Big Beautiful Bill, which he boasted would deliver “huge savings for working families,” was signed into law on July 4.
With over 300 pages of text, the One Big Beautiful Bill has something in store for everyone: Medicaid cuts for the poor whose potentially disabled children need healthcare, food stamp cuts for families that go hungry at night, Affordable Care Act funding cuts for the middle class that can’t get health insurance otherwise, and massive tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy.
But what’s in store for students? Surely this administration values education more than it values giving fat cats another treat. Well, students did get some attention! The largest changes in student aid programs in decades, how exciting!
Changes for all Students
For starters, Repayment Assistance Plans (RAP) and Standard Repayment plans (SRP) will be the only repayment plans available for loans taken after July 1, 2026. The RAP offers borrowers the option to pay a minimum of $10 per month, plus a fixed percentage of their earnings, depending on their income. They will also get a $50 deductible per child, and an option for relief after 30 years.
SRP makes you pay high amounts of debt every month over the course of a decade. If you don’t pay it off, you default, then the government will take a portion of your paychecks, cut you off from government assistance, your credit score will tank, and you will owe even more fees. The other four plans students depend on, such as the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan offered by the Joe Biden administration, which provided $0 minimum payments to low-income borrowers and early student forgiveness, are no longer available. This will make paying off debt, especially for those with lower incomes, even more difficult, and make loan forgiveness further out of reach for millions of students.
Additionally, parent-plus loans were capped at $20,000 annually and $65,000 in total per child. Parent plus loans are money borrowed by parents to help their kids afford an education. This means that students attending Moravian, without outstanding grants and scholarships, will likely need to borrow from more risky private sources or may have to consider forgoing a college education.
Grants also received changes; students whose Student Aid Index (SAI, which is the amount of money the government estimates your parents can pay next year) is twice the maximum Pell grant will no longer be eligible for Pell grants. The maximum next year will be $7,395; therefore, if your SAI is equal to or greater than $14,790 next year, you will not get a Pell grant, even if your parents are not willing to foot the bill. Additionally, part-time students with fewer than six credit hours will no longer be eligible for Pell grants, and those with more than six credit hours will receive less aid in proportion to their credit load.
Graduate Students
Furthermore, the bill involved changes that specifically affect graduate students. For example, Grad Plus is gone, meaning Graduate students cannot borrow the full cost of attendance. Instead, graduate students are limited to Stafford loans, which have a cap at $20,500 annually and $100,000 over a lifetime.
Professional students, such as aspiring doctors, lawyers, and dentists, will face a $50,000 annual cap and a $200,000 lifetime cap. For reference, average law school tuition is about $83,000 at public schools and $159,000 at private schools, while medical school costs roughly $167,000 at public institutions and $275,000 at private ones. Factoring in living expenses, graduate students will find themselves in a difficult situation and may become dependent on predatory lenders.
Conclusion
In classic Trump Inc. fashion, Trump has sloganeered his bill as the key to “huge savings for working families.” But the truth shows a different picture; the majority of families have lost, students, the needy, the middle class, and the hungry are left footing the bill. All the while, the wealthiest families will receive tax relief that covers their tuition a hundred times over. The majority are being told to settle for less, and the fat cats are having another snack. The American Dream, which was once seen as possible to the majority of Americans, has now been further paywalled and reserved for the very few.
