New Federal Study Warns On Grad Loan Access

When Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, it changed a central feature of how graduate education in the United States is financed. For nearly two decades, federal policy allowed graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance through the Graduate PLUS loan program. That option will end in June 2026.

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Consumer Finance Institute (PDF File) offers one of the clearest pictures yet of what that change could mean for students, families, and lenders.

The analysis finds that millions of future graduate students may face a new financing gap — and that private lenders may not be ready or willing to fill it.