President Bush signed into law the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act of 2008 (H.R. 5715) on May 7, 2008. The bill makes significant changes to federal student aid programs, including several that could help Purdue students and parent loan borrowers this summer and fall.

The law makes these federal student aid changes effective July 1, 2008:

• Increases the additional unsubsidized Stafford annual limits by $2,000 for independent undergraduate students, and for dependent undergraduate students whose parents cannot borrow PLUS

• Increases unsubsidized Stafford limits for dependent students by introducing additional unsubsidized amounts of $2,000

• Allows parents to choose to defer payments on a PLUS loan until six months after the date the student ceases to be enrolled at least half time; accruing interest could either be paid by the parent borrower monthly or quarterly, or be capitalized quarterly
  
  
• Increases aggregate unsubsidized loan amounts for undergraduate dependent students from $23,000 to $31,000 (minus subsidized borrowing)

• Increases aggregate unsubsidized loan amounts for undergraduate independent students from $46,000 to $57,500 (minus subsidized borrowing) .

For more information about the new law, please see NAFSAA's news page.

The Division of Financial Aid will be providing more information to Purdue borrowers in the coming months about any changes to financial aid packages for summer 2008 and the 2008-09 Academic Year.