Students at colleges across the United States have faced weeks-long delays in receiving federal student loan disbursements after new regulations, introduced under sweeping legislation signed by President Donald Trump, required significant changes to the systems institutions use to administer financial aid.
Mikiah Roberson, a graduate student in the University of Maryland Global Campus's digital forensics and cyber investigation programme, expected a $6,700 disbursement between 27 May and 3 June to cover rent and car payments. The money did not arrive until mid-July, more than six weeks late, during her eight-week summer semester.
"It had a major impact on my mental and emotional health," Roberson said. "Just constantly stressing out whether an eviction notice would be coming, if my lights would be turned off, if my car would be repossessed."
The delays followed new rules that took effect on 1 July under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which introduced a lifetime borrowing limit, lowered aggregate debt limits for graduate students, placed new restrictions on Parent PLUS loans, eliminated the Graduate PLUS loan programme, and, from the 2026-27 academic year, will require colleges to prorate loan amounts based on the number of credits a student takes.
Experts, advocates and financial aid administrators say the Department of Education did not have enough time to issue full guidance before the changes took effect, leaving many colleges struggling to adapt. Some institutions have been forced to calculate and administer aid by hand while waiting for third-party software vendors to update their systems.
Ellen Keast, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, said the department worked within the deadlines set by the legislation. "Congress gave the Department less than a year to implement these changes," she said, adding that final rules released in May gave "time for schools to prepare."
Tim Walberg, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce, defended the timeline in a statement, saying the legislation overhauled a "broken system" and that "delaying needed reforms would have negative consequences for students and taxpayers."
Under the Higher Education Act's "master calendar," the Department of Education is normally required to begin rulemaking eighteen months before an academic year starts and issue a final rule the previous November, giving colleges time to prepare. Because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was signed in July 2025 with an effective date of 1 July, the department was unable to follow this timetable.
Sarah Austin, a policy analyst at the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said colleges normally use the months between November and the start of the academic year to understand new regulations, seek clarification from the department and ensure software vendors can update their systems. "What we've seen here is a condensed version of that," she said, noting that as of August some major software vendors had still not caught up.
The association and more than 40 other higher education organisations had called on the department to delay implementation until 1 July 2027 to allow the usual process to take place. Kenneth Ferreira, then-president of the Eastern Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, wrote in an April opinion piece that the disruption was "not a minor inconvenience" but "a fundamental breakdown in the infrastructure that supports federal student aid delivery."
Institutions have also said the department has been slow to issue clarifications, with some details still unresolved. Formal guidance on prorating loans for part-time students was only released in early August, days before many colleges began the autumn term. On 20 August, 16 Congressional Democrats wrote to the department calling for further clarity on the proration rules.
Keast said the final rule should not have surprised colleges, noting that a consensus on proposed rules was reached the previous November. "If institutions waited until the final rule was issued to start preparing, that was their decision," she said, pointing to published guidance, webinars and other resources made available by the department.
The disruption has affected students directly. A graduate student in National University's marriage and family therapy programme, whose name is being withheld over concerns about retaliation, expected a $5,000 disbursement around 1 June to help cover rent, which she supplements with part-time work as a nanny. The funds did not arrive until mid-July, by which point she had paid rent late in both June and July, incurring a $100 late fee each time. National University did not respond to requests for comment.
Roberson said she received conflicting information when trying to find out what had happened to her funds, with university staff directing her to the Department of Education's Federal Student Aid office, and staff there telling her to contact her university. "There was a whole lot of passing the buck," she said. "Nobody had answers for when the funds would be released."
In a statement, Kaitlin O'Connor, vice president of university communications at University of Maryland Global Campus, said the institution had been working on the federally required changes. "The university has continued processing and awarding aid, reviewing individual student cases and working closely with federal and higher education partners to ensure compliance with applicable requirements while supporting students throughout the process," she said.
While waiting for her funds, Roberson negotiated partial rent payments with her landlord and entered payment plans for other bills. "You have to start to decide between do I pay a bill or do I get groceries? Do I get gas or do I get food?" she said. She added that the stress affected her ability to study, describing conversations with classmates about how difficult it was to focus on coursework while bills mounted.
Nick Prewett, executive director of financial aid and scholarship services at Stony Brook University and current president of the Eastern Association of Financial Aid Administrators, said delays so far had mostly affected medical students who began courses over the summer. With the autumn semester under way at most institutions, he expects wider disruption. "I think we're going to see some delays in aid getting out to students... particularly graduate students," he said. He added that Stony Brook plans to wait until the end of the add/drop period before adjusting loans for part-time students based on final enrolment, which he said "is going to cause a little bit of confusion and maybe a little bit of panic on behalf of the student."
Roberson eventually received her summer disbursement in mid-July. She is due to receive a further $6,700 in early September but said she is not confident it will arrive on time. She has taken on additional work as a delivery driver, despite back pain linked to her disability, to cover potential gaps. "I'm nervous because I don't know if we're going to hit this situation again," she said. "It's very nerve-racking just trying to prepare ahead of time for if an issue arises, which is unfair when you're trying to focus on class."
