Bloomberg

Betsy Mayotte, founder of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, said she expects delinquency and default rates to continue rising throughout the year. Her organization, which offers free advice on repayment to struggling borrowers, is fielding up to 100 email requests a day — more than double what they received last year.

Mayotte is especially concerned about those with Parent PLUS loans, a previously-unlimited borrowing program for parents paying their children’s college tuition, who will be rendered largely ineligible for income-driven repayment under the Trump administration’s new rules. And for those on Biden-era plans ending July 1, the clock is running out to get the best rates under Trump.

MSN

Don’t overlook state-level programs either. The Institute of Student Loan Advisors (TISLA) maintains a searchable database of forgiveness programs by state (10), and many go underutilized simply because borrowers don’t know they exist.

WFMY News 2

For people that are borrowing for the first time. Two thing have change, the amount you can borrow especially if you are a graduate student or in medical or law school. If you are graduate student it’s only $20,500 a year, and if you’re in a medical or a law school program it’s $50,000 per year. Also, the amount of payment programs available once you’re out of school are significantly reduced.
There’s an additional step in my mind now, if they’re planning for college. A lot of families will think, figure out how to pay this year, and worry about next year next year. You can’t do that anymore with these new limits. You need to caclculate what you need to borrow for the full degree. And if it’s beyond these new limits, you need to find a way to pay for the rest of it.
Congress seems to think so [these new loan limits will put pressure on schools to lower tuition rates]. But whether that happens remains to be seen. What I’m afraid of, from the unofficial chatter I’ve been hearing, is that colleges may drop programs that aren’t going to be affordable to people at with these new loan limits.

Texas Standard

For any body who borrowers a new loan on/after July 1, 2026, instead of having a whole basket of plans available to them, they will only have two — tiered standard plan or a new income-driven plan called RAP the Repayment Assistance Plan. For borrowers who don’t take on any new debt or consolidate on/after July 1 — they will have access to that RAP plan as well as the existing plans.

Under HR1, the budget bill that passed last summer. Congress got rid of a program called Graduate PLUS where they could borrow up to the cost of attendance. The limited graduate programs to $20,500 per year and no more than $100k, and for professional students to $50k per year and no more than $200k. But a judge is putting an injunction on how they are defining what a professional program is.