Legacy Borrower Checker

Answer three questions and this checker tells you whether you likely qualify for the interim exception, the rule that lets continuing students keep the pre-July-2026 federal loan limits, including Grad PLUS and uncapped Parent PLUS, while they finish their program.

What the Questions Are Testing

The Department of Education’s criteria are exactly two, plus one way to lose them¹. You qualify if you were enrolled in your program of study on June 30, 2026, and had received a Direct Loan for that program before July 1, 2026. You keep the exception only while you remain in that same program: withdrawing, changing programs, or losing enrolled status, including through academic suspension, ends it permanently, and starting a different program makes you a new borrower under the new limits.

Qualifying does not restore the old rules forever. They apply during your expected time to credential: the lesser of three academic years from July 1, 2026, or the time remaining in your program’s published length. A student halfway through a two-year program gets one year of legacy treatment, not three.

What Each Answer Means in Dollars

If you qualify: graduate and professional students keep the $20,500 annual unsubsidized limit, the $138,500 aggregate, and Grad PLUS up to cost of attendance; parents keep Parent PLUS up to cost of attendance. The comparison of what to use in what order is on Grad PLUS vs unsubsidized.

If you do not: the current caps apply, $20,500 a year for graduate students, $20,000 for Parent PLUS, all of them tabulated on federal student loan limits. If your program’s price does not fit inside them, the gap options in order are on when federal loans are not enough, and the funding gap calculator sizes the problem.

One planning consequence either way: because the exception dies on program changes and withdrawals, a legacy borrower considering a transfer or a pause is also deciding whether to give up Grad PLUS access for the rest of their degree. That belongs in the transfer math alongside credit transfer itself.

This page is educational and is not financial advice, a loan offer, or a solicitation of credit. CollegeNPC.com is not a lender and does not take loan applications. Rates, fees, and eligibility criteria are set by lenders and change; verify current terms directly with any lender and with studentaid.gov before borrowing. The U.S. Department of Education and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau both advise using federal student aid before considering private loans. Advertisements for loan products may appear on this page; see our advertising disclosure.