As had been the case throughout her entire college career, Shelby Brown relied heavily on the Parent PLUS Loan to cover her tuition. However, the implementation of President Donald J. Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) called into question if such resources would be in jeopardy.
“They sent me a notice saying that, based upon the data provided by the national student loan data system and based on my grade level, the U.S. Department of Education determined that [I] may have received a total amount of federal student loans, graduate and/or undergraduate, that exceeds the loan limits established for this federal student loan programs,” Brown told The Informer.
Brown, a fifth-year biology major at Howard University (HU), will complete her last semester this fall before even considering whether, under OBBBA, a public health masters and medical degree are possible.
Standing in Brown’s way is a remaining balance of $20,000 that she’s attempting to get covered by the Parent PLUS loan, Pell Grants and other need-based aid. For more than a month, she’s waited for HU’s financial aid office to process and verify the FAFSA application she submitted in early June. The university has since allowed her to move on campus while she awaits word on whether she qualifies for the full amount awarded under the Parent PLUS Loan.
“I was told that [the bill] would mostly impact graduate loans, so my parents and I weren’t as worried,” Brown said. “I learned that we might fall into [the] limited exception, but until we’re able to get in touch with Howard and have them process my FAFSA, I will not know if I fall into that.”
Changes to federal student loans that took place on July 1, as a result of OBBBA included: the permanent elimination of GRAD Plus loans for new borrowers; limits on graduate-level unsubsidized loans at $20,500 per year for standard programs and $50,000 for qualifying professional degree programs; a lifetime federal borrowing cap of $257,500 across all undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree loan programs except Parent PLUS.
For Brown and other Parent PLUS loan borrowers, annual loans are capped at $20,000 and the lifetime limit stands at $65,000. Brown, a first-generation college student, said such circumstances put her in a situation similar to that which prevented her older brother from finishing his undergraduate studies last year.
“Stress is an understatement,” said Brown, whose parents don’t meet the eligibility requirements for private loans or a payment plan. “It’s always kind of been hard for us… every single year with the rising cost of tuition and funding. I have four other siblings who are older than me, but everyone still lives in the same house. They [my parents] provide for everyone.”
A Word With the Subject-Matter Experts
Last fall, American University’s Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center (PEER) released a report showing that 26% of graduate borrowers take out amounts surpassing the new annual limit for standard programs and professional studies. Nearly half of parents making more than $130,000 annually take out more than $20,000 while only 16% of low-income-earning families, those making less than $30,000 annually, borrow the same amount.
“Among parent borrowers, we see a slightly higher level of impact at private colleges, slightly lower level at public colleges and disproportionately more of [those] borrowing above the new limits is by higher-income parent borrowers who are likely to be able to repay those loans.” said Clare McCann, PEER’s managing director of policy and operations.
Other findings from PEER’s report, titled “How Will Graduate Student and Parent Borrowing
Be Affected by New Federal Loan Limits?” show that 29% of parent borrowers, particularly those in families that don’t qualify for Pell Grants, will feel the worst effects of OBBBA. The report also warns that historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), and other minority-serving institutions whose enrollees often borrow above OBBA limits, will experience a domino effect.
“We do anticipate [that] because HBCUs are often more reliant on parent loans than some other institutions, it may be a harder hit to HBCUs than to other types of institutions,” McCann told The Informer.
As Brown and other HBCU students contemplate postgraduate options, McCann made note of the tough road ahead.
“We have found a handful of HBCUs that will be especially affected,” she said. “Often the ones that have medical schools, law schools, like some of these higher-cost programs. It will just be harder for students to experience more of a financing gap.”
As the Chronicle of Higher Education reported during the earlier part of August, borrowing caps on Parent PLUS loans and a shortage of research grants compelled administrators at HU to offer voluntary separation packages to 600 eligible faculty members. This development follows the unenrollment of 500 students in July, most of whom were depending on federal student loans to meet tuition payment deadlines.
Amid HU’s efforts to re-enroll some of those 500 students, people took to social media in criticism of HBCUs. One HBCU alumna, however, says there’s more to the story when it comes to institutions that have, on average, $150,000 less per student in endowment funds than predominantly white colleges and universities (PWIs).
“The thought is that the institutions have to carry the bill [because] they’re no longer getting this government funding and government assistance,” Skania Florestal, an alumna of Virginia State University (VSU), told The Informer. “You’re going to see classroom sizes being smaller. They can’t enroll as many students. They don’t have as much resources to get the latest computers and books and all of those things.”
For years, Florestal has used her venture HBCUMADE— an alumni social and professional networking app— as a tool to encourage HBCU alumni’s financial support of their alma maters. In 2021, she launched the beta version. Another version that came out two years ago focuses on peer-to-peer networking, authentication, and campus profile creation.
Florestal said her goal ultimately centers on alumni’s emulation of communities that finance students’ college matriculation in advance, and without the help of the federal government.
“A lot of alumni feel like, ‘Oh, I just paid $20,000, $50,000 to go to school, I just graduated, why am I paying more?’” Florestal told The Informer. “It’s not about paying more. It’s about letting the ladder down so the next generation of students can come up. The same way you tithe to your church…it’s on us being stewards of these institutions to…be able to support that.”
While she expressed empathy with the students and families affected by the HU disenrollment snafu, Florestal said that the deadlines imposed by OBBBA gave students a bit more advanced warning about outstanding financial obligations. Much more than she had as a student at VSU in the 2000s.
“I remember us going down to orientation together…and then we all moved in at the same time and by Labor Day, some of them were gone, because their financial aid didn’t come through, or their scholarship fell through,” Florestal said. “So I respected the fact that an institution [was] being efficient, doing this before the school year. I know people are upset about it, but I think about those students who waste all that money traveling, preparing for school.”
Decades later, as another homecoming season fast approaches, Florestal emphasized the need for HBCUs to better engage their alumni as a source of support.
“If each institution has under five people in their alumni offices, whereas these PWIs have over 50 to 70 people…of course we’re always gonna fall short when it comes to alumni giving,” said Florestal, a former board member of VUU’s alumni association. “It’s supposed to be relationship building. It’s simple to create an automation [after] someone buys tickets to your event [that] says ‘Hey, we appreciate you for coming to our event, let’s stay in touch.’”
More importantly, Florestal, in the spirit of promoting HBCUMADE, said she wants to keep encouraging Black people to keep intimate discussion, like that involving historically Black institutions, completely in-house.
“This is a regular occurrence, in terms of students getting disenrolled because of funding gaps,” Florestal said. “It’s not an HBCU problem. As Black people, we continue to voice our injustices when it’s us, rather than when it’s at a PWI.”
What This Means for Recent District High School Alumni
Earlier this year, well before federal student loan borrowing under OBBBA went into effect, District officials celebrated a long-sought-after increase in the DC Tuition Assistance Grant, also known as DCTAG. Instead of an annual amount of $10,000, college students will receive $15,000 to cover the gap between in-state and out-of-state tuition.
The lifetime cap also increased from $50,000 to $75,000. As Kilin Boardman-Schroyer explained, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) has since received the highest number of DCTAG applications among eligible District high school graduates since the 2018-2019 academic year — with the application portal open until Aug. 21.
“Oftentimes we have heard that people have just automatically ruled out post-secondary education,” said Boardman-Schroyer, OSSE’s assistant superintendent of postsecondary and career education. “We have been working very intentionally with our partners … to help students and their families really understand that yes, college is expensive, and yes, there are barriers to it, but we can help them knock down those barriers.”
With District public and public charter school students gearing up for another school year, D.C. native and social entrepreneur Patrice Lancaster is mulling how best to help the Class of 2027 at two District schools attend college without concern about financing their education.
“The rule with the school process is the early bird catches the worm,” Lancaster told The Informer. “I’m going to work with the staff to set some goals and benchmarks … so that all of the young people by Christmas break at least identify two or three scholarships and complete the process to apply for them.”
In her role as founding executive director of the Pursue Foundation, Lancaster has helped first-generation college students enter campus with dorm care packages and school supplies to make their experience easier. Earlier this summer, Pursue Foundation hosted its 10th annual Freshman Sendoff in collaboration with Accenture and National Child Care Foundation; that’s where more than 50 District high school graduates heard from District high school alumni and subject-matter experts about how to tap into financial aid and other resources while on campus.
Lancaster said the most recent iteration of Freshman Sendoff, which included foster youth transitioning into undergraduate life, builds upon similar efforts in years past to help first-generation college families avoid common hurdles.
“The ones that did take our advice, they were able to continue in their education, and the ones that did not would have to struggle for resources. A lot of times, they would be able to pay for the academic side, but then the housing costs, health insurance, and things like that, because those costs went up,” Lancaster told The Informer. “They would not be able to actualize returning to school because they would have to absorb these new costs, or the reduction of the availability of work-study as an option.”
Those hurdles, Lancaster said, have since intensified.
“Traditionally, kids would do work-study, and do a combination of Pell grants and loans, but those things are not as available as they were,” Lancaster told The Informer. “On top of already a financial shock, parents still have to take care of the needs of the youngest siblings at home. They don’t have the extra money to spend on…the academic tools, food, particular activities, clothing, dorm supplies, which is why we try to come in and just offset some of the expected costs.”
The increase in DCTAG amount comes amid a more than doubling of District public and public charter school students who are participating in career and technical education (CTE) over the last six years. A significant number of these youth, Boardman-Schroyer said, have completed at least three courses related to the same industry in the District’s CTE programs.
Other supports that come out of OSSE include dual enrollment, through which the agency leverages relationships with more than a dozen colleges and universities in the D.C. metropolitan region so students accumulate college credit while pursuing their high school diploma. An increasing number of District students, Boardman-Schroyer told The Informer, are also taking, and scoring high enough on, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams to clinch college credit before even stepping foot on campus.
“We have had the number one increase in the country over the last year and over the last 10 years,” Boardman-Schroyer said. “So, we’ve seen really rapid improvement around what’s going on in terms of our students who are in high school, but are preparing for that next step to go into post-enrollment programs.”
The District has also been able to allow adult students to utilize DCTAG, as long as they are D.C. residents and have earned their high school diploma or an equivalent within the last 15 years. These resources are available years after the Georgetown Center on Education and Workforce predicted that most of the well-paying jobs created by 2031 will require at least a bachelor’s degree.
“While we are very excited about getting lots of different pathways to all sorts of different post-secondary opportunities,” Boardman-Schroyer said, “whether it be traditional college, apprenticeship programs, job training programs, industry-recognized credentials, we also know that eventually students — even if you’re a non-traditional student who gets an industry-recognized credential and does some workforce training and enters the workforce for four or five years after high school and you’re on a good career pathway — eventually in the D.C. region, you are going to eventually need to at least get that associate’s or bachelor’s degree.”
