With the passage of the federal appropriations bill earlier this year, students applying to med school will soon have a harder time figuring out how to pay for it. The bill made sweeping changes to a number of sectors including student loans, limiting both the amount of money that a student can borrow and their options for repayment. For borrowers still in school, the limits on borrowing could negatively impact their ability to reach their desired career paths, which could further weaken already strained pipelines for critical fields like healthcare.
One of the principal ways that graduate and professional students pay for their education is through Grad PLUS Loans, which will be sunsetted in 2026. These loans, which were created through a similar budget bill in 2011, allow graduate and professional students to borrow money to pay for expenses not covered by other aid. While other loans typically only cover the cost of tuition, Grad Plus Loans also cover things like living expenses while attending school. For many graduate and professional students, these loans are a lifeline that allow them to pursue higher ed without having to worry about going hungry.
Besides the end of the Grad Plus Loan, students will also have their borrowing capped starting in 2026: per year, per degree, and over their lifetimes. These caps—which include a $50k/year, up to $200k total, cap for professional programs like medical school—will likely be a significant hurdle for many healthcare hopefuls. The Association of American Medical Colleges states that, “The median amount of debt for the medical school graduate class of 2024 was $205,000. The median four-year cost of medical school attendance for the class of 2025 was $286,454 for public schools and $390,848 for private schools, according to AAMC data. About half of all medical students take out Grad PLUS loans, totaling more than $2 billion annually.”
Fortunately, for borrowers already enrolled in graduate and professional programs (including those who just started school in the 2025-26 school year), they will have a 3-year extension to complete their degrees before they’re fully subject to these limits and the end of Grad PLUS Loans. Exactly how they will be impacted, however, remains to be seen as the Department of Education has not yet provided details for these students.
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