Nurses aren’t the only graduate students excluded from “professional” student loan limits. Here’s who’s affected

The new classification may make it difficult for some graduate students to afford their degrees.

The “big, beautiful” bill, passed in July, directs the Department of Education to reduce the amount of student loans available to many graduate students.

Previously, the total student loan limit for all graduate students was $138,500. Effective July 1, 2026, the maximum amount for graduate student loans will be limited to a total of $100,000, but the maximum amount for graduate student loans in professional degree programs will be increased to $200,000.

The Department of Education recently defined which graduate students are considered “professionals.” Degrees such as medicine, law, and pharmacy were considered professional degrees, while nursing, social work, and engineering programs were not included in the rankings.

The bill also eliminated Graduate PLUS loans, which graduate students typically used when they reached the limits on unsubsidized and subsidized loans offered to them. This has led some graduate students, especially in nursing, to say that the costs of their education will be more difficult.

The Department of Education says it has not exclusively ignored nursing students

The Department of Education responded Monday, saying most graduate students, especially nursing students, will not have issues with the new loan limits. The ministry also said the majority of nurses do not have graduate degrees, and its decision on which degrees are considered professional has not been made to specifically exclude nursing degrees.

“Capping loans will prompt remaining graduate nursing programs to reduce their program costs, ensuring nurses are not burdened with unmanageable student loan debt,” the department’s statement said.

Currently, there are about 136,656 students enrolled in a master’s-level nursing program, according to data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

A master’s degree in nursing usually takes two to three years to complete. Considering the average amount of federal student loans a graduate student takes out, a master’s in nursing student will have $35,420 to $53,130 in federal student loans, according to 2025 numbers from the College Board. That’s on top of the average cost of a college degree of about $15,000, according to the College Board.

In total, a nursing student is likely to borrow between $50,580 and $68,290 on average. However, costs vary widely depending on whether the program is public or private and whether the student attends an in-state or out-of-state college.

Master’s degrees in nursing, among others, are not explicitly considered a “professional” degree. In the initial language of the Higher Education Act of 1965, the list of professional graduate programs includes “but is not limited to” pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, orthopedics, podiatry, and theology.

Who else is affected?

Under the proposed language, there would be 11 different graduate degrees that would be considered “professional” and would not be subject to the minimum. Students pursuing a non-listed graduate degree will be subject to a $100,000 limit.