Grad PLUS / OBBBA heads-up: check your legacy borrower coding now

Most importantly, grad students planning to use Grad PLUS as legacy borrowers: check your records now, because this OBBBA rollout is already giving group project from h*ll energy.

Some university FA offices are telling students that NOT being enrolled in SUMMER, even when summer is **not required by their program…**COUNTS as a “break” in enrollment and WILL knock them out of the Grad PLUS legacy/interim exception.

That’s a huge distinction.
If your program only requires continuous enrollment in Fall/Spring, optional summer non-enrollment should not automatically turn you into a “new borrower”, but that’s the logic being applied by some departments.

Summer not required should not magically become Leave of Absence fan fiction with tuition consequences.

The Big things to check:
Download your raw StudentAid/NSLDS aid data file

Search for Loan Limit Exception Flag

If it says Y, screenshot/save that immediately

Check whether your actual program required summer for “continuous enrollment”

Ask FA if you are coded as a continuing/interim exception borrower

Ask what exact policy they’re using if they say you lost legacy status

The key question is not just “am I eligible?” It’s:
Does my specific program require summer for continuous enrollment, and does my federal aid data show Loan Limit Exception Flag = Y?

Do not wait until August billing to find out your FA office is freestyling OBBBA like nobody read the assignment.