The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1), signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025. For students, families, and institutions like JMU, this bill is significant because it changes some rules related to the federal aid (Title IV) programs.
These changes are scheduled to go into effect July 1, 2026, and/or with the 2026-27 Free Application for Federal Student. This means the changes will first go into effect at JMU in the Summer 2026 term.
Current Rules Before 2026-27
- Full-Time Academic Year Definition: To be considered full-time for the academic year
- Undergraduate students: Must take 24 credit hours over the course of the fall and spring terms.
- Graduate/Professional/Doctoral students: Must take 18 credits over the course of the fall and spring terms.
- Half-time Enrollment: Students must be enrolled at least in a half-time load of financial aid-eligible classes to receive a Federal Direct Loan in any given semester. The minimum number of credits per semester to be considered half-time is:
- Undergraduates: 6 credit hours
- Graduate/Professional/Doctoral students: 5 credit hours
- Loan Amount: A student can receive the full annual Federal Direct Loan amount as long as their financial aid eligibility allows them to do so.
- Award Calculation:
Example Student Award Offer:
Full-time Cost of Attendance (COA): $35,142
Grants: $7,395
Scholarships: $10,000
Federal Work Study: $4,300
Remaining Eligibility: $13,447
This student has $13,447 of eligibility remaining before reaching the full Cost of Attendance.
Congress set the maximum annual Federal Direct Loan limit based on a student’s grade level.
For this example, the student is a Dependent Junior with a maximum annual limit of $7,500. Since the student has $13,447 in remaining eligibility, they can receive the full $7,500 in a Direct Loan. Factors such as the Student Aid Index (SAI) will determine how much of the loan is subsidized versus unsubsidized, but the overall amount is capped at $7,500 per year.
If the student dropped from a full-time (12+ credit hours) load of financial aid eligible classes in the fall to three-quarter time (9-11 credit hours), the student could still keep the entire $7,500 as long as the adjusted COA would leave enough remaining eligibility to do so. In most cases, it would.
Changes Effective in 2026-27
- Full-Time Academic Year Definition (No change from the current rules): To be considered full-time for the academic year
- Undergraduate students: Must take 24 credit hours over the course of the fall and spring terms.
- Graduate/Professional/Doctoral students: Must take 18 credits over the course of the fall and spring terms.
- Half-time Enrollment (No change from the current rules): Students must be enrolled for at least a half-time load of financial aid-eligible classes to receive a Federal Direct Loan in any given semester. The minimum number of credits per semester to be considered half-time is:
- Undergraduates: 6 credit hours
- Graduate/Professional/Doctoral students: 5 credit hours
- Less than Full-Time Enrollment: Starting with the 2026–27 award year, which beings with the Summer 2026 term at JMU, Direct Loan amounts for students who are not full-time for the full academic year will need to be adjusted. This is called a Schedule of Reduction, or SOR change. Full-time enrollment is determined by term and by the academic year, whereas, prior to this, the rules were limited to enrollment in a single term. The examples below outline how this works.
- Award Calculation:
- Less than full-time formula for loan eligiblity:
This adjustment rule applies to all undergraduate, graduate, and professional student Direct Loan borrowers, utilizing Direct Subsidized Loans, Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and/or Graduate PLUS Loans. Even those considered legacy borrowers who have borrowed from any of these loan programs prior to July 1, 2026 are subject to this rule.
Since this rule only impacts student borrowing, the Federal Direct Parent PLUS Loan is not subject to these adjustments for less-than-full-time study.
Example Student Award Offer:
Let’s say you’re a Dependent Junior who can borrow up to $7,500 (typically $5,500 in subsidized and $2,000 unsubsidized) in student loans for the school year. You plan to take 12 credit hours in the fall and 12 credit hours in the spring, which makes you a full‑time student (full‑time = at least 12 credits each term).
That means:
- Full-time for the year = 24 credits (12 fall + 12 spring)
- Your loan normally comes in two equal payments:
- Fall: $3,750 ($2,750 subsidized + $1,000 unsubsidized)
- Spring: $3,750 ($2,750 subsidized + $1,000 unsubsidized)
This means a student in this category cannot receive more than these loan amounts for the entire academic year, including summer, fall, and spring (in that order). In the past, students could take as few as six credits per term and still receive the full loan amount. Now, loan eligibility is adjusted based on a student’s scheduled enrollment (SOR).
What Happens When You Drop a Class
If you drop from 12 credits to 9 credits in the fall before your loan is disbursed, your loans must be reduced because you are now on track to complete 21 hours instead of 24 hours.
Your New Plan for the Year
- Fall:9 credits
- Spring (expected):12 credits
- Total:21 credits
Originally, full‑time for the year was 24 credits, but now you’ll only have 21 credits.
Percent of Full-Time You’re Completing
(21 ÷ 24) x 100 = 87.5% (rounded to 88%)
This means you are scheduled to complete 88% of the credits needed to be considered full‑time for the combined fall and spring terms.
How This Affects Your Loan
Since you’re only completing 88% of the needed credits, you can only receive 88% of your $7,500 loan limit:
- $5,500 x 88% = $4,840 subsidized
- $2,000 x 88% = $1,760 unsubsidized
These figures represent the student’s new annual loan limits. JMU will adjust the loans by evenly splitting the reduced amounts between fall and spring, like full‑time awarding. As a result, the student will receive:
- $2,420 in subsidized loans in fall and spring
- $880 in unsubsidized loans in fall and spring
Example Student Award Offer:
Let’s say you’re a Dependent Junior who can borrow up to $7,500 (typically $5,500 in subsidized and $2,000 unsubsidized) in student loans for the school year. You plan to take 12 credit hours in the fall and 12 credit hours in the spring, which makes you a full‑time student (full‑time = at least 12 credits each term).
That means:
- Full-time for the year = 24 credits (12 fall + 12 spring)
- Your loan normally comes in two equal payments:
- Fall: $3,750 ($2,750 subsidized + $1,000 unsubsidized)
- Spring: $3,750 ($2,750 subsidized + $1,000 unsubsidized)
What Happens When You Drop a Class
If you drop from 12 credits to 9 credits in the fall AFTER your loan has disbursed, your total loans for the year will need to be reduced. This may create a bill to repay loan money already disbursed in the fall, or a reduction to loans you anticipate receiving in the spring.
Before giving you the spring portion of the loan, JMU must verify how many credits you are actually going to finish for the combined fall and spring terms.
Your New Plan for the Year
- Fall: 9 credits
- Spring (expected): 12 credits
- Total: 21 credits
Originally, full‑time for the year was 24 credits, but now you’ll only have 21 credits.
Percent of Full-Time You’re Completing
(21
This means you are scheduled to complete 88% of the credits needed to be considered full‑time for the combined fall and spring terms.
How This Affects Your Loan
Since you’re only completing 87.5% of the needed credits, you can only receive 88% of your $7,500 loan limit:
Your new eligibility for the year is $7,500 x 88% = $6,600
How You Could Still Get the Full Spring Loan
If you take 15 credits in the spring, then your total for the year becomes:
- Fall: 9
- Spring: 15
- Total: 24 credits
Now you’re back to completing a full‑time year. If your loans were reduced for the spring term based on the fall enrollment change, this means they can be increased so the sum total of your academic year loan equals the $7,500 limit (assuming you meet the rest of the general eligibility criteria to receive that amount).
SOR Calculator (Less Than Full Time Loan Adjustments)
Schedule of Reduction (SOR) Calculator
This calculator estimates the total Federal Student Loan eligibility when a student is enrolled less than full-time. The results are estimates, based only on the annual limits for the loan programs. They are not intended to show the breakdown between Federal Subsidized and Unsubsidized eligibility or take into consideration other student loan eligibility criteria. That requires an individual review based on a student’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and other eligibility factors.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Department of Education has not published final guidance for implementing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As a result, answers to the FAQ’s are based on our current understanding of the law and are subject to change.
Undergraduate – A minimum of 12 financial aid-eligible credit hours per term is considered full-time in a term; however, 24 hours over the course of the summer, fall and spring terms are needed to be considered full-time over the course of the the academic year.
Graduate/Professional/Doctoral - A minimum of 9 financial aid-eligible credit hours per term is considered full-time in a term; however, 18 hours over the course of the summer, fall and spring terms are needed to be considered full-time over the course of the the academic year.
Summer Enrollment – 12 financial aid-eligible credit hours for undergraduates and 9 for graduate/professional/doctoral students are needed to be considered full-time in the term. As noted above, 24 credits and 18 credits are needed to be considered full-time over the course of the summer, fall and spring terms for the respective academic careers.
Summer is the first term in the academic year. This means the hours enrolled in summer impact the total number of hours a student is enrolled in towards the minimum full-time levels. For example:
- 24 credit hours over the course of an academic year (summer, fall, spring) is considered full-time
- 18 over the same period is considered full-time for a graduate, professional, or doctoral student
Using an undergraduate as an example:
- Summer enrollment of 6 hours
- Fall enrollment of 12 hours
- Spring enrollment of 12 hours
- Total is 30 hours, which means the student is full-time for the academic year as 30 is at least 24
Another example:
- Summer enrollment of 3hours
- Fall enrollment of 9 hours
- Spring enrollment of 6 hours
- Total is 18 hours, which means an SOR calculation is needed as the student is not enrolled in at least 24 hours. Instead, the student is enrolled in 18 / 24 = 75% of the hours needed to be full-time.
- This means the student’s full-time loans will be adjusted to 75% of that amount, which will serve as the new annual maximum.
- It should be noted the half-time requirement to receive a loan disbursement is still in effect, so this student would not be able to receive a summer loan since they are only enrolled in 3 hours during the summer.
The same scenarios can be crafted for graduate, professional, and doctoral students, using 18 hours as the full-time level (instead of 24) and 5 for the number of hours required to be considered at least half-time in a term (instead of 6).
If you are an undergraduate enrolled for 12 financial aid-eligible credit hours in the fall term and reduce your schedule to less than full-time before your fall loan is disbursed, JMU will have to reduce your fall loan based on the new rules.
For example:
- You enroll in 9 hours in the fall, or reduce your enrollment to 9 before your is disbursed.
- JMU anticipates you enroll in 12 hours in the spring
- This is 21 hours, or 88% (rounded) of 24
- Your fall and spring loans will be reduced to 88% of their full-time amount and awarded evenly over those two terms (half in fall and half in spring)
If you are also enrolled on a least a half-time basis in summer and the total of your summer, fall, and spring hours will be less than 24, then your revised loan limit will be divided equally and awarded over those three terms.
In this example, if you end up taking more than 12 hours in the spring, then your spring loans could be increased if the total of your fall and spring hours equals at least 24.
This example serves as general guidance. Individual loan eligibility can vary depending on other eligibility factors associated with a student’s record.
The same rules apply to graduate/professional/doctoral students, but the financial aid eligible hours are based on 9 in the fall and spring terms and 18 between the two.
Loan reductions for less than full-time enrollment are calculated based on the academic year minimum, not the term. Undergraduate students who complete 24 financial aid-eligible credit hours between the fall and spring terms are considered full-time for the academic year. Those who do not, are subject to having their loans reduced.
For example, purposes, let’s say you are an undergraduate who enrolled for 12 hours in the fall and we assume you enrolled 12 hours in the spring, for a total of 24 hours, which is 100% of the minimum requirements to be full-time in an academic year. Let’s also assume you are a sophomore, and the fall portions of your loans disbursed. At the time of disbursement, your loans looked like:
- Fall subsidized of $2,250 disbursed
- Fall unsubsidized of $1,000 disbursed
- Spring anticipated subsidized is $2,250
- Spring anticipated unsubsidized is $1,000
After the fall disbursement, you drop or withdraw from 12 hours to 9 hours. That means you are now on pace to complete 21 hours (9 in fall and 12 in spring) of 24, or 88% (rounded) of the minimum full-time hours. You are subject to the Schedule of Reduction (SOR). The adjustments will be as follows:
- Fall disbursed subsidized of $2,250 x 88% = $1,980 (disbursement reduced by $270)
- Fall disbursed unsubsidized of $1,000 x 88% = $880 (disbursement reduced by $120)
- Spring anticipated subsidized adjusted to $2,250 x 88% = $1,980
- Spring anticipated unsubsidized adjusted to $1,000 x 88% = $880
You may receive a bill from JMU to repay the reduced loan amounts from the fall term.
If, in the spring you end up actually enrolling in enough hours to bring your total between the two terms back up to 24, then you may be eligible to receive an increase in your spring loan disbursement so the total loan for the entire year equals the original full-time amount.
Students who are less than full-time often have a Cost of Attendance that is lower than that of full-time students. A reduced Cost of Attendance can impact Parent PLUS Loan eligibility. The new rules and legacy rules for Parent PLUS Loan eligibility can be viewed on our website.
With that backdrop. Parent PLUS Loans are not reduced the same way as Direct Subsidized Loans, Direct Unsubsidized Loans, and Graduate PLUS Loans for less than full-time enrollment.
Graduate PLUS Loans are considered student loans, which means they are subject to the Schedule of Reduction (SOR). Once a student’s full-time eligibility is calculated, it will be adjusted based on the SOR and how many hours the student is on pace over the course of the academic year (summer, fall and spring in that order) to complete compared to the 18 hour minimum.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act introduces significant changes to federal student aid programs, and while some provisions are clear, many others require further clarification from the U.S. Department of Education.
We understand that students, families, and staff have questions—and so do we.
As we receive more guidance and official updates, we will continue to revise and expand this webpage to reflect the most accurate and actionable information available.
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