Less Than Full-Time Loan Adjustments

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1), as signed into law by President Trump on July 4, 2025. For students, families, and institutions like GVU, 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 Grand View in the Fall 2026 term.

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 begins with the Fall 2026 semester at GVU, 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.

Example SOR Adjustments Before a Fall Loan is Disbursed

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 fall, spring and summer (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, you were full-time for the year with 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% = $2,766 subsidized
  • $2,000 x 88% = $1,760 unsubsidized

These figures represent the student’s new annual loan limits. GVU will adjust the loans by prorating the reduced amounts between fall and spring. As a result, the student will receive:

  • $2,074 in subsidized loans in fall semester and $4,840 in spring semester
  • $754 in unsubsidized loans in fall semester and $1,066 in spring semester
Example SOR Adjustments After A Fall Loan Is Disbursed

Example of 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, GVU 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, you were full-time for the year with 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 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
  • Since your fall loan has already been disbursed to your student account, GV will leave your fall loan intact at $3,750 and adjust your spring loan to $2,850

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 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).

If your enrollment is less than 24 credits in the fall and spring semesters, you can enroll in summer credits to get you to the 24 credit limit and you would receive the full loan amounts to be disbursed in the fall and spring semesters.  If you enroll in at least half-time status in the summer term, you will receive the remaining loan funds applied to your summer account.