Chronicle of Higher Education, The End of Unlimited Grad-School Loans Could Leave Some Colleges and Students in the Lurch:
The legislation will place caps on the total amount grad students can borrow, varying by program. The limit is now $200,000 total for students pursuing law and medical programs, which often cost more than that. This cycle, the median four-year cost of attendance for in-state medical students at public institutions is $286,454, while at private institutions, it’s $390,848, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Three years of law school costs $217,480 on average, according to the Education Data Initiative. …
Private nonprofit and for-profit colleges enroll the most students taking out Grad PLUS loans, according to 2022-23 federal data, the most recent figures available. Lincoln Memorial University, in Tennessee, offers many health-care degrees and received 50 percent of its total revenue from Grad PLUS loans that year. At North Carolina’s Campbell University, which has a sizable law school, that share was 29 percent. …
Though financial implications are on their minds, campus leaders say they’re most immediately worried about access and diversity, particularly at law and medical schools.
“It would be problematic if only rich people were able to apply to law school,” said Austen Parrish, dean at the University of California at Irvine School of Law and president-elect of the Association of American Law Schools. …
Shawn Jiminez is a rising junior at Bowdoin College, in Maine, studying sociology and government and legal studies. He said that as a first-generation and low-income student, he won’t be able to afford law school without Grad PLUS loans, unless he secures a substantial amount of scholarships.
One of his dream programs, Harvard Law School, costs over $80,000 per year in tuition alone. “I’ve really done my best to cut into the work, and to have all of this work kind of end in a toss up of whether or not I’ll be able to afford the school is really frustrating,” Jiminez added.
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