Office of Financial Aid

Dependent undergraduate students (unless your parent is unable to obtain a Direct PLUS loan due to adverse credit)
$31,000 not more than $23,000 can be subsidized. 

Independent undergraduate students (and dependent students, if your parent is unable to obtain a Direct PLUS loan due to adverse credit) $57,500 not more than $23,000 can be subsidized.

Graduate Students: $20,500 annual; $100,000 aggregate

*The individual graduate  limits do not reset when you begin a new degree or program and there is a $100,000 total aggregate limit. For example, a student who borrows the total aggregate $50,000 to complete their graduate degree will only have $50,000 left in eligibility should they later decide to enroll in a professional program.

Beginning July 1, 2026, Parent PLUS loans will be capped at $20,000 per year with a $65,000 aggregate limit. Previously, Parent PLUS Loans had no cap and could be taken out for whatever amount was needed to get the student up to Cost of Attendance.

• These limits are per dependent student, meaning parents with multiple dependent students can take out these limits in total for each student.
• The number of parent borrowers does not change the limits, as they are tied to the student. So if a student has two parents who wish to borrow on their behalf, no more than $20,000 per year and $65,000 total may be taken out.

Effective July 1, 2026, the One Big Beautiful Bill enacts a $257,500 lifetime borrowing limit on all federal student loans; (Not more than $23,000 can be subsidized) and includes subsidized and unsubsidized loans received regardless of grade level. This does not include Parent PLUS loans, which are borrowed by parents on their student’s behalf.

Parent PLUS Loans are now capped at $20,000 per year and $65,000 in total. If you qualify for legacy provisions, your parents may continue to borrow Parent PLUS Loans up to your cost of attendance with no yearly or lifetime limits.

Beginning July 1, 2026, Graduate PLUS loans are no longer available to students who have not previously borrowed federal loans while in their current TAMIU graduate program.  If you qualify for legacy provisions, you may continue to borrow Graduate PLUS Loans up to your cost of attendance.

The following Pell changes take effect beginning July 1, 2026:

Students meeting or exceeding their full Cost of Attendance with grants/scholarships/waiver aid will not be eligible for any amount of Pell Grant.

• This is a change from previous regulations, which allowed students in some circumstances to be fully funded with scholarship aid and still received their Federal Pell Grant on top.

Students whose Student Aid Index (SAI) is at least two times the current Pell Grant maximum of $7,395 will not be eligible for the Pell Grant. Example: For 2024-25, that would equal an SAI of $14,790.

Our office will automatically evaluate your account to determine if you are a legacy borrower. We will notify you of your borrower status later this year.

No, you would not be able to borrow that amount again.

The type of loan does not need to match for you to qualify for legacy provisions. However, you do have to have borrowed within your current program of study.

Example 1: You borrowed a subsidized federal loan while attending TAMIU your sophomore year. You are now a junior. In this situation, you may qualify for legacy loan limits for Parent PLUS Loans, even though your family has never taken out this type of loan.

Example 2: Your parent borrowed a Parent PLUS Loan while you were in your senior year of undergrad at TAMIU. You have since graduated and are now attending graduate school at TAMIU. You are not qualified for legacy provisions as you have changed academic careers.

Transferring schools means losing your legacy status for federal loan borrowing. Even if you were grandfathered into legacy provisions at a previous institution, that status does not carry over to TAMIU. Similarly, if you are grandfathered in while at TAMIU, you will lose that status upon transferring out.