Changes in Financial Aid and Student Enrollment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities After the Tightening of PLUS Credit Standards

The federal Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) program provides loans to parents of dependent undergraduate students to help pay for education expenses. To bring the standards in line with those used by banks, the U.S. Department of Education tightened the credit standards for PLUS loans in October 2011. In the first full school year that the new standards were in place (2012/13), the total dollar amount of federal loans approved for parents decreased substantially.