Advanced nursing and dozens of other programs now qualify for higher student-loan limits when the Trump administration’s sweeping repayment changes take effect tomorrow.
On Monday, the Department of Education issued an updated list of programs that would fall under its “professional” designation and qualify for higher student-loan borrowing limits.
It now includes nearly 30 programs, including nurse anesthetist and clinical psychology, that will meet the higher borrowing limit. The updated list, however, no longer includes theology programs, which previously qualified for the higher limit under the department’s narrowed list.
It follows a court decision last week that blocked the department’s professional degree definition from taking effect July 1, which would have allowed 11 programs to qualify for a $200,000 lifetime borrowing limit, compared to a $100,000 cap for graduate programs.
The department’s narrower definition prompted widespread criticism for excluding certain programs, including advanced nursing, that lawmakers and advocates said required additional funding to help students complete their programs.
The department said, alongside the updated list, that it’s confident the narrowed definition is “lawful and will continue to defend it.”
“These interim administrative designations are provided solely to facilitate implementation of the Court’s order and may change as litigation in the case proceeds,” it said.
The borrowing caps are set to take effect July 1, alongside a host of other repayment changes that President Donald Trump signed into law in his “big beautiful” spending legislation. Those changes include new repayment plans, limits on parent borrowing, and the transfer of millions of borrowers off SAVE, a Biden-era income-driven repayment plan.
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