Protect Federal Student Aid — Make Your Voice Heard! 

Congress is considering proposals that would negatively impact pivotal federal student aid programs at Rutgers and universities all across the country. These cuts would include reducing eligibility for Pell Grants, eliminating support for the most financially vulnerable students, and making student loans more expensive and harder to repay. These changes would directly threaten college access and affordability for thousands of Rutgers students. 

Student aid is essential to the Rutgers community: 

• 75 percent of Rutgers students receive some form of financial assistance, whether federal, state, private, or institutional.
• Over 17,000 undergraduates receive Pell Grants, which provide over $94 million annually to help Rutgers students pay for college.
• About 14,000 students rely on federal subsidized loans to finance their education.
• The SEOG program provides over $4.6 million to more than 2,100 Rutgers students with the greatest financial need.
• The TRIO programs, which serve low-income, first-generation, and disabled students, brought $2.9 million to Rutgers campuses in FY 2024.
• Grad PLUS loans provide assistance to approximately 3,000 Rutgers graduate students and totaled up to more than $81,000,000 this past year.

If Congress moves forward with these proposed cuts, students and their families would be severely impacted in the following ways: 

• Access to Pell Grants or award amounts would be reduced, forcing many students to take on more debt or leave their pursuit of higher education.
• Federal subsidized loans and Graduate PLUS loans would be eliminated, making higher education more expensive and less accessible.
• Programs like SEOG, TRIO, and Federal Work Study could be gutted or eliminated, taking essential resources away from students who need them most.
• Student loan repayment could become more difficult, especially for low-income borrowers, due to the decrease in repayment options.

Higher education is a powerful tool for economic growth. However, with fewer resources available, more students will be forced to delay or abandon their educational pursuits. Reducing access to federal financial aid will make it much more difficult for many students to benefit from the transformational opportunity of higher education. 

To learn more about our advocacy on student financial aid, check out our resources below: 

A Window Into Student Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill

Rutgers Federal Student Aid by the Numbers