"In recent weeks, the term “loan limits” has been used mainly to refer to the new, highly contested caps on how much graduate students can borrow. But the cap on master’s degree spending isn’t the only loan limit taking effect this fall," Inside Higher Ed reports.

... "'Many students have been reliant on loans even for part-time study, and now they’re going to learn that they don’t have access to those because alternatives in the private loan market aren’t available to everybody,' said Jill Desjean, director of policy analysis at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. 'The worst-case scenario is someone says, ‘This isn’t enough for me. I can’t come back right now.’ And then they still have the debt that they took on for part of the degree without anything to show for it or the ability to pay it off.'"

... "Desjean also noted that the lack of clarity could tarnish the trust built between students and their financial aid advisers."

"'I don’t think students are going to trust very well if a financial aid adviser says, ’You dropped a class in October and now your spring loan is adjusted,’' she said."

... "Desjean and other financial aid experts say that’s not enough."

"'[Department staff] have been really good about having these office hours, but they’ve also said this is not official guidance and their answers have not been consistent in a lot of cases. Without written guidance, it’s really, really hard for schools to know they’re doing the right thing,' she said."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 7/29/2026