Financial Aid News

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1) was signed into law on July 4, 2025. The legislation introduces significant changes to federal Title IV student aid programs. 

The information provided on this page is subject to change while we await final regulations and Department of Education guidance regarding the implementation of the new rules. Please review this page for updates as we continue to prepare for the upcoming changes. 

The changes to the federal financial aid programs will affect all students. This includes incoming and continuing students at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. It is important to stay informed and to ensure your sources of information are reliable.

Upcoming Changes - A Quick Overview

• Loan reduction for less than full-time enrollment.
• New annual and lifetime loan limit for new borrowers.
• Elimination of the Federal Graduate Plus Loan.
• Legacy Borrower Status for students enrolled in an eligible program of study who had a Federal Direct Loan disbursed prior to June 30, 2026.
• Restricting Pell Awards for students who receive non-federal aid equal to their Cost of Attendance.
• Changes to Federal Direct Loan repayment programs.

Resources

Click here for the Full Legislation Text
Click here for Department of Education Updates
Click here for A Brief Overview of OBBBA Loan Impacts - NASFAA
Click here for Changes to Federal Direct Loan Repayment Programs
Click here for the NASFAA OBBA Web Center
 

Loan Recalculation for Less than Full-Time Enrollment

Requires institutions to prorate annual loan amounts for less than full-time enrollment during an academic year. 

Loan Recalculation applies to all loans except Parent Plus Loans and is a required calculation regardless of a student’s legacy borrower status. 

Students who intend to borrow Federal Direct Loans to help fund their education costs should carefully consider enrollment plans for the full academic year and limit dropping courses after their aid has disbursed. Changes in enrollment after aid has been disbursed may adversely impact loan eligibility for the remainder of an academic year.

Federal Loan Program Lifetime Loan Limits

Legacy Provision: If a borrower has a Federal Direct Loan made before July 1, 2026, while enrolled in a credentialed program, the borrower can continue to borrow under current loan limits for 3 academic years or the remainder of their expected time to credential at full time enrollment, whichever is less. The legacy provision does not continue if there is a break in enrollment. 

Students who continue borrowing after the legacy period ends will be subject to the new loan limits.

Federal Parent PLUS Loans

Click here for Current Parent Borrowers, an overview - NASFAA
Click here for New Parent Borrowers, an overview - NASFAA

Legacy Provision: If a borrower has a Federal Direct Loan made before July 1, 2026, while the dependent student is enrolled in a credentialed program, the parent borrower can continue to borrow under current loan limits for 3 academic years or the remainder of their expected time to credential at full-time enrollment, whichever is less. The legacy provision does not continue after a break in enrollment. 

For Parent Plus Loan Borrowers - The legacy provision is determined by the student the parent is borrowing for. 

Parents who continue borrowing after the legacy period ends will be subject to the new Plus Loan limits.

Parent PLUS Changes to Loan Limits

Federal Graduate Loans

Click here for Graduate Student Borrowers, an overview - NASFAA
Click here for Professional Graduate Student Borrowers, an overview - NASFAA

Legacy Provision: If a borrower has a Federal Direct Loan made before July 1, 2026, while enrolled in a credentialed program, the borrower can continue to borrow from the Grad PLUS program for 3 academic years or the remainder of their expected time to credential at full-time enrollment, whichever is less. The legacy provision does not continue after a break in enrollment. 

Students who continue borrowing after the grandfathering period ends will be subject to the new loan limits.

Graduate PLUS Changes to Loan Limits

Graduate Unsubsidized Loan

*A professional student is a student enrolled in a program of study that awards a professional degree, as defined under section 34 CFR 668.2. Examples of a professional degrees include but are not limited to Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), Dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.), Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.), Chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.), Law (L.L.B. or J.D.), Medicine (M.D.), Optometry (O.D.), Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), Podiatry (D.P.M., D.P., or Pod.D.), and Theology (M.Div., or M.H.L.). 

Graduate and professional student borrowers who DO NOT qualify for grandfathering will not have undergraduate subsidized and unsubsidized loans counted toward their graduate or professional aggregate loan limits. 

For graduate students who were previously professional students, loans taken as a professional student will count toward the $100,000 graduate aggregate loan limit. 

For professional students who were previously graduate students, loans taken as a graduate student will count toward the $200,000 professional aggregate loan limit.

Pell Grant Eligibility Changes

As you may have seen, significant changes to federal financial aid policy were recently passed through legislation on July 3, 2025. These changes will have wide-ranging implications for our financial aid processes and student support. 

We ask for your patience as the Financial Aid Office takes time to fully review and digest the new legislation. We are committed to understanding how these changes will impact our community and will follow up with next steps and more detailed information as soon as it becomes available. 

Thank you for your understanding and continued support. 

The Tulane University Financial Aid Office understands the challenges that students and families may be facing due to the recent Southern California fires.  If you are directly impacted by the recent wildfires – experiencing an evacuation order, a partial loss of your home, or a total loss of your home – then you are encouraged to use the following resources:

FEMA Resources

• Disaster Assistance. Access resources to help you learn how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters. FEMA is distributing vouchers to homeowners and renters who lost their homes, which will cover 90% of rent for the next 3 years, regardless of where you rent.
• If your primary home was affected by the fires, FEMA may be able to help you cover certain costs – like paying for essential items, finding a place to stay, replacing personal property or making basic repairs to your home. However, FEMA assistance is designed to help you if you do not have insurance or if your insurance policies don’t cover basic needs. If you have insurance, you should file a claim as soon as possible and be ready to provide your coverage information when applying to FEMA. 
• There are several ways to apply for FEMA assistance:
• Online at DisasterAssistance.gov and in Spanish language at DisasterAssistance.gov/es.
• Calling the FEMA Helpline at 1-800-621-3362 for assistance in multiple languages.
• On the FEMA App for mobile devices.  
  • To view an accessible video about how to apply visit: FEMA Accessible: Registering for Individual Assistance or en Español. 

State of California Resources

• Department of Insurance – California. Find recovery tips, contact information for your insurance company, or help with questions about how to file a claim. The State of California has placed a mandatory one-year moratorium preventing homeowners insurance cancellations and non-renewals in affected areas of Southern California.
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) – CalWORKs. Determine if you qualify for cash payments to help qualifying families pay for food, clothing, housing, and other essentials.

Tulane Resources

If you incurred unreimbursed expenses during the emergency, you may request consideration for assistance from the Student Resources & Support Services (SRSS), via their Student Affairs Emergency Aid Request program.  Please be aware that due to limited funding availability, SRSS assistance represents a one-time grant that generally does not exceed $500.  To apply for grant consideration, visit the SRSS website (https://srss.tulane.edu) and navigate to the application link near the bottom of the page.

For students with permanent residences impacted by the fires, you may also connect with your designated financial aid counselor to explore alternative funding options.

Incoming full-time undergraduate students:

REMINDER:  Students seeking consideration for federal student aid resources and/or Tulane need-based scholarship funding must initially complete the following:

• The 2025-2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), as this is required for determining eligibility for all federal student aid resources (including federal parent loan programs).  Use Tulane’s federal school code 002029. 
• The 2025-2026 College Scholarship Services (CSS) Profile application, as this is required for determining eligibility for all of Tulane’s institutional need-based scholarship programs.  Use Tulane’s CSS school code 6832. 
• Submission of signed copies of parent 2023 federal income tax returns (including all schedules and appropriate 2023 W-2 forms. 

NOTE: Tulane does NOT participate in the CSS IDOC program, thus all tax documents (and any other documents) should be safely uploaded directly to Tulane using our secure portal (https://finaidforms.tulane.edu/Home/Account/Login).

• For students whose parents are separated/divorced, then the 2025-2026 College Scholarship Services (CSS) Profile application must also be completed by the non-custodial parent (or parent who did not complete the FAFSA), as this is required for determining eligibility for all of Tulane’s institutional need-based scholarship programs.  Use Tulane’s CSS school code 6832.

The Tulane Office of Undergraduate Admission will send notification of admittance and accompanying details regarding any partial merit scholarship that their office determines is warranted.  While the Office of Undergraduate Admissions admits students on a “need-blind” basis, they encourage all prospective students to complete the financial aid application process! 

ONLY AFTER a student is admitted to Tulane will the Tulane University Financial Aid (UFA) Office commence a review of a student’s financial aid application materials.  If any application items are missing, then we will delay review until all is complete.  If during our review we determine that additional documentation, clarification, or corrections are needed, then we will immediately delay further review until all is completed.  Students can check the status of their financial aid applications using the secure Tulane Gibson portal (https://gibson.tulane.edu/), navigating to the Financial Aid tab, and selecting the 2025-2026 Financial Aid Year. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: Tulane’s security protocol will only upload CSS Profile or FAFSA data into the Tulane student records system if we are able to successful match a student’s social security number (SSN) associated with the incoming data to the student’s SSN on record in the Tulane student records system.  Delays will occur if your SSN is not accurately reflected in the Tulane student records system.  When logging into the Tulane Gibson portal, if you are prompted to provide your SSN, then please respond so that your financial aid materials can be received in a timely manner.

 The Tulane UFA Office has commenced receiving completed 2025-2026 College Scholarship Services (CSS) Profile financial aid applications, federal tax returns, and other submitted items.  Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has currently delayed access to the 2025-2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), yet DOE has announced their expectations of making access to the online 2025-2026 FAFSA available at some point during December 2024. 

For Incoming Freshmen Admitted via the Early Decision 1 Process:  

At this time, due to the delayed access to the 2025-2026 FAFSA, Tulane anticipates that initial aid offers extended to those admitted via the Tulane Early Decision 1 process will receive aid notifications solely based on our review of a student’s 2025-2026 CSS Profile application and consist of “estimated” federal student aid eligibility and “estimated” institutional need-based scholarship.  While we expect that our “estimated” aid levels are fairly accurate, it will only be after our receipt and review of a student’s 2025-2026 FAFSA data, that we will issue an updated aid notification detailing all federal student aid and institutional need-based scholarship eligibility levels.  Changes to aid offers would occur if reported FAFSA information did not match comparable information reported on the CSS Profile and/or if federal grant calculations and/or allocation levels change.  We anticipate that for those admitted via the Early Decision 1 process and who successfully completed their aid applications by the suggested deadline will start to receive notifications of their 2025-2026 financial aid offers on or after December 20, 2024.  All should complete the 2025-2026 FAFSA as soon as possible.    

For All Other Incoming Freshmen Admitted via Early Action, Early Decision 2 Process. Or Regular Decision: 

Please complete all necessary aid application materials (including the 2025-2026 FAFSA) and we anticipate that once admitted we will commence reviewing and extending aid offers starting in February 2024. 

Returning full-time undergraduate students: Students continuing their full-time undergraduate enrollment at Tulane during the 2025-2026 academic year and who seek consideration for federal student aid resources and/or Tulane institutional need-based scholarship should plan to complete the necessary 2025-2026 financial aid application materials by April 1, 2025.

Incoming and returning graduate & professional students: All graduate and professional students seeking consideration for federal student aid resources should be completing the 2025-2026 FAFSA (once available).  Students are also encouraged to complete the appropriate 2025-2026 Tulane Financial Aid Addendum (once available) associated with your student population, as this supplement addendum collects additional information used to provide an accurate level of financial assistance based on your expected enrollment and borrowing intentions.

Once your Tulane school confirms their 2025-2026 tuition and fees schedule and academic calendar, we will commence reviewing all completed 2025-2026 aid applications and extending notifications of aid offers.

Incoming and returning SoPA students: All undergraduate and graduate students enrolling at Tulane’s School of Professional Advancement (SoPA) seeking consideration for federal student aid resources should be completing the 2025-2026 FAFSA (once available). Students are also encouraged to complete the appropriate 2025-2026 Tulane Financial Aid Addendum (once available) associated with your student population, as this supplement addendum collects additional information used to provide an accurate level of financial assistance based on your expected enrollment and borrowing intentions.

Once SoPA confirms their 2025-2026 tuition and fees schedule and academic calendar, we will commence reviewing all completed 2025-2026 aid applications and extending notifications of aid offers.

All students seeking financial assistance for 2025-2026: All Tulane students seeking consideration for financial assistance are encouraged to review the details of the aid application process that are available at: https://financialaid.tulane.edu/apply.

Join Tulane Law School for the annual celebration of Constitution Day. 

The event will be held Sept. 17, 2024 at 5 p.m. in the John Giffen Weinmann Hall, Room 110, 6329 Freret Street.

Constitution Day recognizes the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become U.S. citizens. It is observed on September 17, the day in 1787 that delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the document in Philadelphia. 

In honor of this special day, the Tulane University School of Law is hosting the following event:

Constitution Day 2024: Reflections on Brown at 70

Join Tulane Law School for the Second Keynote of a 3-Part Series

Featuring

Victor Jones, Senior Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund

“Access to the Courts as a Vehicle for Social Change”

Tuesday, September 17,2024 at 5PM 

Room 110 at the Tulane Law School John Giffen Weinmann Hall, with Reception to follow in the Multi-Purpose Room (MPR)

The Tulane University Financial Aid Office continues to wait for the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to start accepting school certifications of 2024-2025 Federal Direct Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (also known as Federal Parent PLUS loans).

The Tulane University Financial Aid Office will soon start notifying students about our receipt of a parent PLUS loan for the 2024-2025 academic year.  However, we regret that we currently remain unable to certify parent PLUS loan applications until DOE’s systems are ready to receive our certifications.  DOE hopes that they will be able to process our certification of Parent PLUS loans within the next 45 days (by the end of August 2024). 

Please know that the Tulane Accounts Receivable Office has been notified of this unfortunate delay that is beyond Tulane’s control and they plan to not assess finance charges on 2024 fall semester charges remaining as of 8/15/24 for those impacted by the delay in PLUS loan certification.     

Thank you for your patience with this process, as we optimistically expect for DOE to continue to resolve the many hurdles they’ve faced so far in the 2024-2025 processing year.  We will update this News section of our website as soon as Parent PLUS loan certification commences.

Sincerely,

Tulane University Financial Aid Office 

Financial Aid News Update (7/8/24)

Due to the U.S. Department of Education’s extensive delays with the 2024-2025 aid processing cycle, as of today (7/8/24), several populations of Tulane students who have applied for financial aid for the 2024-2025 academic year have not yet had their financial aid offers finalized.  However, we expect most populations to receive their notifications of 2024-2025 aid offers within the coming weeks.  Below please see a status summary.

Important Information for All Students:

The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has just recently allowed schools to start certifying federal student loans for the 2024-2025 academic year.  While we have commenced certifying accepted 2024-2025 Federal Direct loans (subsidized; unsubsidized; and graduate PLUS loans), we are waiting for the green light to initiate the certification of parent PLUS loans.  We have been informed that parent PLUS loan certification will be allowed to start within the next few weeks.  However, DOE is not yet accepting any FAFSA changes we submit to them for processing, thus if a change is required prior to loan certification, then we regret that this is blocking our ability to certify loans for some individuals. We remain hopeful that DOE will soon be able to accept our FAFSA corrections.  Please continue to check this space for a future update.  We currently anticipate that all federal loans eligible for disbursement will disburse as scheduled prior to the start of the 2024 fall semester. 

Remember that you must accept the aid items offered to you which you wish to receive.  Using the secure Tulane Gibson portal, after accepting the Terms and Conditions associated with your aid offer you can then navigate to accept specific aid items (either at the level offered or at a lower level). 

The acceptance of aid is required for the following:

• Disbursement of institutional scholarship. 
• Certification (and ultimate disbursement if eligible) of a federal loan.
• Commencement of employment if offered Federal Work Study.

The following aid items do not require your acceptance:

• Federal Pell Grants as these funds are automatically accepted on your behalf.
• Returning undergraduates with renewed merit scholarships.
• Medical School scholarships as these are automatically accepted on your behalf.

Important Information for Incoming Freshmen Undergraduates (non-School of Professional Advancement SoPA):

Our staff continue to finalize all previously estimated 2024-2025 aid offers as well as process initial 2024-2025 aid offers for later applicants.

Important Information for Returning Full-Time Undergraduates (non-SoPA):

Our staff continue to review all 2024-2025 financial aid applications in preparation of starting to email aid offer notifications in the coming days.  Our initial focus is finalizing aid for those seeking institutional need-based scholarship and federal student aid and then concentrating on those returning full-time undergraduates solely seeking federal student aid.  Currently, when logging into the Gibson portal only renewed merit scholarships are listed, as all other aid listings will be forthcoming. 

Important Information for Louisiana Students Eligible for Taylor Opportunity Program for Students (TOPS) Funding:

The State of Louisiana will soon be sending confirmation of students eligible to receive 2024-2025 TOPS funding.  For incoming freshmen, we will learn if you also qualify for a TOPS book stipend amount (at an annual level of $400 or $800) and we will amend your existing aid offer accordingly (not all students qualify for the book stipend).  For returning students, your estimated TOPS will be reflected on your 2024-2025 Gibson portal aid listing.

Reminder that the State of Louisiana delays the disbursement of their TOPS funding until several weeks into the start of each semester, as Tulane is required (after the last date to add/drop classes) to send an official listing of enrolled students to the State and only after their receipt and review of this information will they release TOPS funding.  We anticipate that actual TOPS disbursements will occur in late September or early October.  The Tulane Accounts Receivable Office is aware of this delayed disbursement and will not impose finance charges applicable to the delayed payment of these funds.

Important Information for All SoPA (School of Professional Advancement) Students:

For all undergraduate and graduate level SoPA students (both newly incoming and continuing) who have applied for 2024-2025 financial aid we anticipate that aid offer notifications will be available within the next few weeks. 

Important Information for All Graduate & Professional (non-SoPA) Students:

We continue to process 2024-2025 aid for completed applicants who are non-SoPA graduate and professional (newly incoming as well as continuing) students.

Unfortunately, we continue to experience delays from the U.S. Department of Education in being able to successfully complete all aspects of the financial aid process for the 2024-2025 academic year.  Despite these unforeseen obstacles, we are successfully moving forward with the following:

Finalizing all incoming freshmen aid offers (converting from earlier “estimated” aid to “actual” aid).

Completing 2024-2025 aid offers for other incoming student populations (graduate & professional students).

Completing aid offers for the 2024 summer semester.

Preparing to extend 2024-2025 aid offers for all returning undergraduates and graduates.  

Starting to certify accepted 2024-2025 federal student loans.

For returning undergraduates who have successfully completed their 2024-2025 financial aid application process, we expect to send out aid offer notifications (via email) by mid-July 2024.  
Once completed, the details of aid offers will be viewable via the secure Tulane Gibson portal.  Currently, undergraduate merit scholarships are listed for 2024-2025, yet institutional need-based scholarship eligibility and all federal student aid eligibility will be forthcoming (if eligible).  

All students should accept the terms and conditions of their aid offers and then accept the specific aid items they wish to receive.  Tulane is unable to certify a federal student loan until you accept a specified amount.  If offered Federal Work Study (FWS), you will not be allowed to commence employment until you accept the offer of FWS.  New undergraduates must accept their institutional merit scholarships, while returning undergraduate merit recipients can skip this step for the renewal of their merit scholarship for 2024-2025.  

Please remember to use the Tulane Gibson portal to navigate to the Financial Aid tab and review your 2024-2025 “To Do” list to determine if any specific aid application materials are still need by our office.

Thank you!
 

We regret that the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) continues to experience delays in delivering 2024-2025 FAFSA data to colleges and universities across the country.  Tulane University now expects to start receiving 2024-2025 FAFSA data from DOE by the end of April 2024.  If you have completed the 2024-2025 FAFSA, then please ignore your Tulane Gibson portal “To Do” listing that currently indicates that this requirement still needs to be completed.  Once Tulane receives your FAFSA data, then your Gibson records will be updated.  We recommend that those students who have completed the 2024-2025 FAFSA should check Gibson by June 1, 2024, to confirm that DOE has successfully sent your FAFSA data to Tulane.   

Incoming full-time undergraduate students:

The Tulane University Financial Aid Office (FAO) has commenced reviewing completed 2024-2025 financial aid applications for incoming freshmen admitted via the Undergraduate Admission Office’s Early Decision and Early Action portals.

At this time, due to the delayed access to the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), all aid offers currently extended are solely based on our review of a student’s 2024-2025 College Scholarship Services (CSS) Profile application and consist of “estimated” federal student aid eligibility and “estimated” institutional need-based scholarship.  While we expect that our “estimated” aid levels are fairly accurate, it will only be after our receipt and review of a student’s 2024-2025 FAFSA data, that we will issue an updated aid notification detailing all federal student aid and institutional need-based scholarship eligibility levels.  Changes to aid offers would occur if reported FAFSA information did not match comparable information reported on the CSS Profile and/or if federal grant calculations and/or allocation levels change.  

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING 2024-2025 FAFSA Processing (updated 03/29/24) Due to the multitude of changes surrounding the 2024-2025 FAFSA (such as changing access; reducing the volume of questions; and changing the federal methodology used in determining eligibility for federal student aid resources), the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) delayed the access to the online 2024-2025 FAFSA until 12/31/23.  While the 2024-2025 FAFSA is now available for online completion, DOE is now delaying the transmittal of completed 2024-2025 FAFSA data to your designated colleges and universities.  The latest guidance from DOE and the student system vendor indicates that although Tulane may start receiving electronic 2024-2025 FAFSA data by late March, the Tulane Financial Aid Office will be able to upload the data at the earliest at the end of April (NOT mid-February or late March) 2024.  Therefore, please understand that if have already completed the 2024-2025 FAFSA, yet our Gibson portal does not reflect Tulane’s receipt of your FAFSA, it is most likely due to the delay in DOE’s transmission and/or the late ability to configure and upload the transmission into the student system. Once the Tulane FAO receives 2024-2025 FAFSA data in the student system for an admitted applicant offered "estimated" aid, then we will commence our review of the fully completed aid application, reviewing all  "estimated" offers for accuracy.

Returning full-time undergraduate students: Students continuing their full-time undergraduate enrollment at Tulane during the 2024-2025 academic year and who seek consideration for federal student aid resources and/or Tulane institutional need-based scholarship should plan to complete the necessary 20254-2025 financial aid application materials by April 15, 2024.

Incoming and returning graduate & professional students: All graduate and professional students seeking consideration for federal student aid resources should be completing the 2024-2025 FAFSA.  Students are also encouraged to complete the appropriate 2024-2025 Tulane Financial Aid Addendum associated with your student population, as this supplement addendum collects additional information used to provide an accurate level of financial assistance based on your expected enrollment and borrowing intentions.

Once your Tulane school confirms their 2024-2025 tuition and fees schedule and academic calendar, we will commence reviewing all completed 2024-2025 aid applications and extending notifications of aid offers.

Incoming and returning SoPA students: All undergraduate and graduate students enrolling at Tulane’s School of Professional Advancement (SoPA) seeking consideration for federal student aid resources should be completing the 2024-2025 FAFSA. Students are also encouraged to complete the appropriate 2024-2025 Tulane Financial Aid Addendum associated with your student population, as this supplement addendum collects additional information used to provide an accurate level of financial assistance based on your expected enrollment and borrowing intentions.

Once SoPA confirms their 2024-2025 tuition and fees schedule and academic calendar, we will commence reviewing all completed 2024-2025 aid applications and extending notifications of aid offers.

All students seeking financial assistance for 2024-2025: All Tulane students seeking consideration for financial assistance are encouraged to review the details of the aid application process that are available at: https://financialaid.tulane.edu/apply.