New federal student loan limits
Planning to cover most of your spring bill with federal student loans? The One Big Beautiful Bill Act took effect on July 1, 2026, and could mean lower loan limits for some students and parents who help pay.
Legacy provisions
If you've borrowed a Federal Direct Loan while enrolled in your degree program at CU Boulder, your borrowing limit shouldn’t change. Federal Direct Loans include subsidized, unsubsidized, Parent PLUS and Graduate PLUS loans.
New borrowers:
- Students borrowing a federal loan after July 1, 2026
- Not eligible for legacy loan provisions
Continuing borrowers:
- Previously borrowed a federal loan while enrolled in their program of study at CU Boulder before July 1, 2026
- Eligible for legacy loan provisions
Loss of legacy status
Scroll through the images below to learn how students lose legacy provisions on federal loans and the impact.
New federal loan limits
Effective July 1, 2026 for new student borrowers and parents borrowing on their behalf. Students who lose legacy loan provisions will also encounter the following limits.
Graduate students
Unsubsidized loans capped at:
- $20,500 annually
- $100,000 lifetime borrowing limit
We understand there are potential impacts for our Doctorate of Audiology students following the decision from a federal judge to block some loan limits put in place July 2026. Those federal loan limits classify audiology as a graduate program. Recent legal action, including a lawsuit co-filed by Colorado’s attorney general, challenges the legislation to reclassify audiology back to a professional program. While professional programs have access to higher annual and aggregate federal loan limits, the decision is not final.
CU Boulder has decided it’s in the best interest of our audiology students' long-term success to keep borrowing capped at $20,500 each school year and $100,000 total until the courts decide how to classify your program. We believe this will help more students have access to federal loans for the duration of their program, either way the decision goes.
The grad PLUS program, which lets students borrow up to the cost of their education, ended for new borrowers on July 1, 2026. If this causes a gap in funding, review our other ways to pay at the bottom of this article for additional resources to help you pay your bill.
Law students
Most Law School majors are classified as professional degree programs.
Unsubsidized loans capped at:
- $50,000 annually
- $200,000 lifetime borrowing limit
Parents of undergraduates
Parent PLUS loans capped at:
- $20,000 annually
- $65,000 total per child
The lifetime borrowing limit is $257,500 for all federal student loans combined, excluding Parent PLUS loans. Students with legacy status keep their current limits.
Enrollment requirements & payment resources
Scroll the images below for details about how enrollment impacts your federal student loans, and other ways to help pay for college if these changes have caused a gap in funding.
This information could change as additional information becomes available from the Dept. of Education. We'll continue to update this article as we learn more from the federal government.