"As part of the funding package, the U.S. Department of Education is ending the Grad PLUS loan program, which allows prospective graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance. Instead, the agency will be instituting borrowing caps, making the maximum figures dependent on whether a student is pursuing a "professional degree." Currently, the list of the graduate programs designated as professional spans a variety of fields, from medicine, dentistry, and law to more surprising inclusions like theology."
"Under the proposed language, graduate students pursuing a "professional" degree will be allowed to borrow up to $50,000 annually with an aggregate loan limit of $200,000. But a prospective student enrolled in a graduate nursing program could seek only up to $20,500 annually with an overall limit of $100,000. The changes will officially go into effect on July 1, 2026."
President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Act into law in July. The law includes close to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and changes to social-safety programs. The U.S. Department of Education is ending the Grad PLUS loan program and replacing it with borrowing caps tied to whether a student pursues a "professional degree." The professional designation includes medicine, dentistry, law and theology but excludes nursing. Under the new limits, professional-degree graduate students can borrow up to $50,000 annually and $200,000 total, while graduate nursing students face $20,500 annually and $100,000 total. The changes take effect July 1, 2026, and have prompted strong backlash from nurses on social media.
Read at Intelligencer
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