Minnesota launched the SELF Grad Loan program to fill a funding gap created by federal changes that eliminate Grad PLUS loans and cap other graduate borrowing effective July 1. The state’s Office of Higher Education says the program is designed to offer low-interest, fixed-rate borrowing tied to a student’s co-signer and repayment term rather than credit score. The program began this month and is rolling out across Minnesota institutions: as of Tuesday, 35 colleges and universities had joined. Eligibility includes advanced dentistry, medicine, pharmacology, and veterinary medicine students, with borrowing up to $300,000 and an optional extension for residency or training; other graduate programs cap borrowing at $50,000 annually with a $150,000 cumulative maximum. Minnesota’s move follows Connecticut’s similar state-level grad loan program and comes as the state missed demand targets for student aid for the past two years, with experts citing rising enrollment, changes to FAFSA, and tuition hikes as drivers of unmet need. Graduate education finance now looks set to vary by state as institutions and students adapt to the federal retrenchment.