Annual	Loan	Limit
As	explained	in	Chapter	4	of	this	volume,	for	undergraduate	students	there	is	a	maximum	combined	annual	loan	limit	for
Direct	Subsidized	Loans	and	Direct	Unsubsidized	Loans,	and	a	maximum	portion	of	that	combined	annual	loan	limit	that	a
student	may	receive	in	Direct	Subsidized	Loans.	If	the	annual	loan	limit	for	an	undergraduate	student	must	be	prorated,
you	must	first	determine	the	combined	Direct	Subsidized	Loan	and	Direct	Unsubsidized	Loan	prorated	annual	loan	limit,
and	then	separately	determine	the	Direct	Subsidized	Loan	prorated	annual	loan	limit.	This	is	illustrated	in	the	proration
examples	below.
Prorating	Loan	Limits	for	Programs	Shorter	Than	an	Academic	Year
If	an	academic	program	is	shorter	than	a	full	academic	year	in	length,	you	must	multiply	the	applicable	loan	limit(s)	by	the
lesser	of	4
or
The	result	is	the	prorated	annual	loan	limit	for	that	program.
Proration	Examples:	Programs	Shorter	Than	an	Academic	Year
Examples	1	and	2	illustrate	how	the	prorated	annual	loan	limit	is	determined	when	a	student	is	enrolled	in	a	program	that
is	shorter	than	an	academic	year.
Semester,	trimester,	quarter,	or	clock	hours	enrolled	in	program
Semester,	trimester,	quarter,	or	clock	hours	in	academic	year
Weeks	enrolled	in	program
Weeks	in	the	academic	year
Volume	8,	Chapter	5,	Example	1:	Clock-Hour	Program	Shorter	Than	an	Academic	Year
A	dependent	student	is	enrolled	in	a	400	clock-hour,	12-week	program	(a	<short-term	program=	as	described	in
Volume	2,	Chapter	2).	The	school	defines	the	academic	year	for	this	program	as	900	clock	hours	and	26	weeks	of
instructional	time.
To	determine	the	maximum	loan	amount	the	student	can	borrow,	convert	the	fractions	based	on	weeks	and	hours
to	decimals:
12	weeks	in	program/26	weeks	in	academic	year	=	0.46
400	hours	in	program/900	hours	in	academic	year	=0.44
Multiply	the	smaller	decimal	(0.44)	by	the	combined	Direct	Subsidized	Loan	and	Direct	Unsubsidized	Loan	annual
loan	limit	for	a	first-year	dependent	undergraduate	($5,500,	not	more	than	$3,500	of	which	may	be	subsidized):
$5,500	x	0.44	=	$2,420	combined	subsidized	and	unsubsidized	prorated	annual	loan	limit
{"producer": "GPL Ghostscript 10.00.0", "creator": "wkhtmltopdf 0.12.6", "creationdate": "D:20250605165703Z00'00'", "moddate": "D:20250605165703Z00'00'", "source": "data/raw/The_Direct_Loan_Program.pdf", "total_pages": 71, "page": 45, "page_label": "46", "loader_type": "pdf", "load_timestamp": "2025-07-05T11:43:14.400042"}