Following President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” being signed into law, beginning on July 1, 2026, graduate students may lose a critical source of educational funding. For ones enrolled in so-called non-professional graduate degree programs, they will no longer be eligible for fair, interest free, federally distributed loans.
As part of the administration’s new educational restructuring, graduate students are facing blows on two fronts.
First, the elimination of the “Grad Plus Loan”, which for past borrowers would allow them to take a fixed rate loan for the entire cost of attendance. These loans are deferred until six months after enrollment. Moreover, this option was especially appealing to students with less than favorable credit scores, having historically more relaxed policies with this criteria.
The second, most notable blow comes in the restructuring of non-professional classifications. Since the origination of the federal student aid act of 1965, degree pathways have been dubbed one of two designations: professional and non-professional (also known as an academic degree).
Professional degrees have historically signified professions that require an advanced degree for completion. These career pathways have also distinguished themselves in need of a license or certification following graduation. Typical fields have included medicine, pharmacy, and law.
As of the 2026 changes, the following degrees have been removed: Nursing (Graduate level: NPs, CRNAs), Physician Assistant, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Audiology, Speech Pathology, Social Work, Education, Public Health, Accounting, and Architecture.
For the above affected degrees, the loan cap has been set to $20,500, a decrease of $30,000 per semester. This limit also decreases a student’s opportunity for lifetime loan limits to $100,000.
In justification of these changes, the Department of Education (DOE) commented, “… (these changes are) common sense limits on federal student loans for graduate degrees.” Stating further the DOE intention with these changes, “The Act’s annual federal loan caps are already reining in inflated prices at graduate programs across the country.”
While no confirmation can be seen if these measures have caused tuition costs to decrease, averages for Master’s nursing programs in Washington state remain at $40,000 per year. Meaning the average nursing student will need to find around $20,000 in additional funds. According to available data, this discrepancy does not end in other majors, Washington state college students in these degree fields will also be out of luck.
Critics of the administration’s new changes state the disproportionate attack on female-led industries. All affected careers comprise nearly 70-80% of women workers, leading to questions of the DOE’s moral intent behind the changes.
While these claims are still unclear, students’ lives have been affected. “As someone from a low-income family, I depend on financial aid to get me through school, meaning I either won’t be able to afford my degree or will be limited in my options to in-state, where we only have three schools,” said Veronica Berry, a current Florida State University Communication Sciences & Disorders undergrad student. “I’ve spent days trying to calculate what I can afford and if it is in the limit for my degree now.”
With competitive degree fields, and increasingly harder job markets, the last thing on a students’ mind should be the cost of education. Provision from the federal government can either support education seekers – or make that road ever harder to trek. With these changes taking place in July of this year, one can only hope that they don’t last for long.