Trump is changing student-loan eligibility for professional degrees. Here’s what you need to know.
In a significant shift in student-loan policy, President Donald Trump’s administration has introduced new borrowing caps for graduate and professional degree programs, aiming to address concerns over excessive student debt. Under these changes, graduate students will be limited to borrowing $20,500 annually, with a lifetime cap of $100,000, while professional students can borrow up to $50,000 a year, capped at $200,000 over their lifetime. These limits are part of a broader student-loan repayment overhaul included in legislation signed by Trump in July. However, the Department of Education has also narrowed the definition of what constitutes a “professional” degree, recognizing only ten specific programs—such as medicine, law, and dentistry—under this classification. This reclassification has sparked controversy, particularly among advocates in the healthcare sector, who argue that it may hinder access to necessary funding for essential training programs, such as nursing.
Critics of the new policy have raised alarms over its potential impact on healthcare professions, especially given the current nursing shortage in the U.S. Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, emphasized that limiting access to funding for graduate nursing education could undermine patient care at a time when the healthcare system is already under strain. While the Department of Education maintains that the new definitions are not a value judgment on the importance of various programs, the implications are clear: many students in fields not classified as professional may face increased financial barriers to pursuing advanced degrees. For instance, the average cost of a four-year medical education is approximately $286,454, far exceeding the new lifetime cap, which could force students to either reconsider their educational paths or rely on riskier private loans.
As the public awaits the final implementation of these changes, there will be an opportunity for feedback early next year, potentially shaping the final policy. With the new borrowing caps set to affect a range of graduate programs, students and educators alike are left to grapple with the implications of these decisions, raising critical questions about the future of higher education financing in America.
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President Donald Trump’s administration is placing new student-loan borrowing caps on graduate and professional degrees.
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Trump’s student-loan repayment overhaul includes new borrowing caps for graduate and professional students.
It also reclassifies which programs are considered “professional” and eligible for a higher loan cap.
Advocates expressed concerns that the changes could strain those in healthcare professions.
This year, there’s a new topic to argue about at the Thanksgiving table: What is a professional degree?
It’s a question that President Donald Trump’s Department of Education recently addressed in its
overhaul of
student-loan repayment
. That’s led to criticism from groups that are not included in the department’s narrower degree definition.
The crux of the issue is new borrowing limits. Trump’s “big beautiful” spending legislation that he signed into law in July
included new borrowing caps
on professional and graduate student loans, aiming to
curb excessive borrowing
: $20,500 a year for graduate students or $100,000 over a lifetime, and $50,000 a year for professional students or $200,000 over a lifetime.
In addition to the caps, the department also reclassified what constitutes a professional degree, narrowing it down to 10 programs, including dentistry, medicine, and law.
Some advocates said the department’s professional degree definition could strain student-loan borrowing access to those in the healthcare profession seeking post-graduate training, like nurses, although the changes won’t affect undergraduate borrowing.
“At a time when healthcare in our country faces a historic nurse shortage and rising demands, limiting nurses’ access to funding for graduate education threatens the very foundation of patient care,” Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association, said in a statement.
The Department of Education said
that the new definitions
only reflect which programs qualify for higher loan limits and are “not a value judgement about the importance of programs. It has no bearing on whether a program is professional in nature or not.”
How will the changes to student-loan borrowing caps and professional degrees impact you? Share your story with this reporter at
asheffey@businessinsider.com
.
Student-loan changes to professional degree programs
The Department of Education said 10 post-graduate programs will be counted as professional degrees and will be eligible for the higher student-loan cap: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, and theology.
Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the conservative think-tank the American Enterprise Institute, wrote
in a Monday blog post
that Congress “legislated only broad guidelines as to how graduate programs should be classified,” and the distinction between professional and non-professional programs was left to the discretion of the Education Department.
When it comes to nursing programs, Cooper said that the “new caps will affect only a small number of programs charging exorbitant prices.”
The Department of Education said that, based on its data, 95% of nursing students borrow below the new student-loan cap. The average cost of a master’s degree in nursing in 2020 ranged from $15,030 to nearly $43,000, per the National Center for Education Statistics.
The borrowing caps
could strain other professions
and cause some students to either forgo their advanced degrees or turn to the riskier, private lending market. For example, the Association of American Medical Colleges found that the median cost for four years of public medical school was $286,454 for the class of 2024. For law school, the average total cost was just over $217,000. The $200,000 lifetime cap would be insufficient to cover those tuition amounts.
While negotiations on the changes have concluded, the public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposals early next year before the department moves toward final implementation. The department said that it “may make changes in response to public comments.”
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