The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed in July, implemented loan limits on advanced degrees. With it came a new division of professional degrees and graduate degrees.However, it was not until November that the Department of Education proposed which programs qualified as professional, a distinction that excluded nursing, social welfare, education, architecture and more that were previously anticipated to be included.
This difference is not only in name: students pursuing professional degrees can get significantly more federal loans, both in total and yearly. While graduate degrees have federal loans capped at $20,500 per year and $100,000 total, programs designated as professional, such as law, medicine or dentistry, are capped at $50,000 per year and $200,000 total.
This proposal has spread across social media with many, particularly in nursing, frustrated by the new classifications.Some have argued degrees that are not classified as professional are in more women-dominated fields. The Department of Education issued a press release specifying that the distinctions of professional degrees are not a value of importance, but just for loan limits.
The broad classification of graduate and professional degrees has been around since the Higher Education Act of 1965, though the implementation of new loan caps have now increased their importance.
“If this goes through, (nurses are) going to be able to borrow less than physicians,”said UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies professor Janet Coffman.“The reaction comes from, ‘Hey this isn’t fair, that we don’t get to borrow as much as physicians.’ This has been pointed out in some of the media as well, nursing historically has and remains a female dominated profession.”
Last year, 60% of UC students in a graduate nursing program graduated with debt, averaging $67,000. A total of 25% of Berkeley School of Education graduate students also graduated with debt, averaging $51,000.
In total, 6,800 UC students currently utilize Graduate PLUS, which allows graduate students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance. In an email, the UC Office of the President said the university expects the private loan market will supplement any limits in federal funding.
UC Berkeley offers advanced degrees for architecture, education and social welfare, but does not have a medical school.
“Campus financial aid units and our graduate and professional programs are evaluating the new federal provisions, including the future elimination of Graduate PLUS loans for new borrowing and the upcoming annual and aggregate loan limits for graduate and professional students,” said campus spokesperson Lindsey Michels in an email.
So far, the effect of these changes are unclear. The act includes a legacy provision which allows students who have Graduate PLUS loans disbursed before July 1, 2026 to be grandfathered in, and able to continue on those loans until 2029.
While these changes are proposed, there has yet to be a final rule established for what qualifies as a professional or graduate degree and the loan caps that come with it.The proposal is expected to be posted by the Department of Education to the Federal Register early next year for public comment, which the Department of Education said might alter the classifications.
“(Students will) do all of the federal borrowing and then they’re going to get pushed into private loans,” said Berkeley School of Education professor Jennifer Delaney. “And those private loans are riskier, almost always have higher interest rates and often require cosigners.”