Grad PLUS Loans

Grad PLUS loans are the federal graduate-student loan program treated in Can the Trump administration make college cheaper? as the key policy turning point. The episode says the program began in 2006 and allowed graduate students to borrow for tuition and related costs without the older caps that had limited federal graduate borrowing.

That expansion made Grad PLUS central to the Bennett Hypothesis debate. Because graduate students suddenly had access to much more federal credit, researchers such as Jeff Denning could test whether colleges responded by raising prices. The Trump administration’s Federal Student Loan Caps are presented as a reversal of that unlimited-borrowing structure.

Key Claims

• The program expanded federal borrowing capacity for graduate students in 2006.
• Its creation turned a previously hard-to-test tuition theory into an empirical question.
• Unlimited borrowing can protect access to expensive programs while also exposing borrowers to higher debt.
• Rolling back the program through caps may reduce some borrowing but can also shift students toward private credit or non-enrollment.

Connections

• Federal Student Loan Caps - policy rollback discussed in the source.
• Bennett Hypothesis - tuition-response theory tested through the program.
• Graduate School Debt and Loan Cap Access Risk - debt and access consequences.
• Jeff Denning, Robert Kelchen, and Corey Turner - research and reporting context.