Recent changes to federal student loan programs enacted through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and set to be implemented Wednesday could significantly affect students across the University’s School of Nursing, School of Education and Human Development and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, among other graduate programs.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones announced that Virginia has joined a coalition of 23 other Attorneys General and the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania in a lawsuit May 19 over the overly narrow definition of a “professional degree,” which limits students from receiving adequate loans for many degree programs in nursing, education and healthcare.
The new legislation places limits on federal graduate student borrowing for certain graduate school degree programs, and in some cases, the funding limits fall below the cost of tuition and attendance. These limits are raising concerns among students and others with a vested interest in higher education about affordability and access to graduate education.
At the University, prior to the legislation’s implementation, graduate students could take direct unsubsidized federal student loans up to $20,500 per year, with an aggregate maximum — the dollar amount accumulated over the course of one’s lifetime — of $138,500 for graduate students, regardless of area of study.
Before the Bill, graduate students also could access Grad PLUS loans — a program that allows graduate students to borrow up to the cost of tuition minus other aid they are receiving through scholarships, fellowships, grants, assistantship funding or other loan programs. The program allows graduate students who had already hit the minimum annual amount of direct unsubsidized loans or the aggregate maximum to take out Grad PLUS loans to cover the remainder of their educational expenses.
The Bill eliminates the Grad PLUS loan program, meaning graduate students at the University who relied on the program to bridge the gap between what direct unsubsidized federal loans covered and what they could pay towards the cost of attendance no longer have that option.
The new limits prevent students in “professional” graduate programs from taking out more than a total of $200,000 in federal student loans and limits other graduate students from taking out more than $100,000 in federal student loans.
Graduate degrees classified as “professional” include programs such as the Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Dental Surgery, Juris Doctor and Doctor of Pharmacy, which have federal loan limits of $50,000 annually and $200,000 total under the new Bill. Other graduate degrees, which include programs such as the Doctor/Master of Nursing Practice, Master of Arts, Master of Science or Master of Philosophy, have loan limits of $20,500 annually and up to $100,000 total under the new Bill. Students who are currently in graduate programs and have already taken out federal student loans will not be affected by these changes due to legacy clauses within the Bill.
Multiple programs at the University, including those within the School of Nursing and School of Education and Human Development, have annual costs of attendance that may exceed the new federal borrowing limits, particularly for out-of-state students. Students enrolled in these programs with limited financial resources could struggle to finance their education under the new Bill.
Backlash has occurred from Jones, among others, over the classification of certain programs as non-professional, especially programs in high-demand sectors like nursing.
Representatives from the University and U.Va. Health — including U.Va. Health CEO Mitch Rosner and School of Nursing Dean Marianne Baernholdt — have sent letters to the Office of Postsecondary Education of the federal government providing policy suggestions regarding the new loan caps. They recommended many healthcare degree programs to be included in the definition of “professional” programs to avoid facing loan limits.
The lawsuit Jones joined challenges the Department of Education's definition of what constitutes a “professional degree,” and it was filed by the Attorneys General from Maryland, Nevada, New York and Colorado.
In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Rae Pickett, director of communications for the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, said the policy changes could disproportionately affect students pursuing healthcare-related degrees, where workforce shortages and staffing challenges already persist.
In the School of Nursing at the University, the Master of Science in Nursing program has a tuition that exceeds the current limits set by the Bill. The MSN program at the University has an annual tuition of $21,942 for Virginia residents and $35,832 for non-Virginia residents — figures that do not include other living expenses like housing, which students often factor in when applying for loans. This means that students taking out the maximum amount of loans for these programs under the new Bill will be left with a $1,442 and $15,332 deficit per year, respectively. The MSN program at the University is a two-year program.
For the Doctor of Nursing Practice program — which is not categorized as a professional degree and has an aggregate loan cap of $100,000 under the Bill — the annual tuition per year is the same as the master's program — $21,942 for in-state students and $35,832 for out-of-state students. For DNP students with a BSN, the DNP program length is three years, meaning students taking loans who are Virginia residents could be left with a $4,326 deficit, and non-Virginians could be left with a $45,996 deficit in tuition costs alone under the Bill.
In addition to tuition, University student financial services estimates that living expenses for Virginia and non-Virginia residents for the 2026-27 academic year are $29,656.
According to Christine Thalwitz, director of communications and marketing for the School of Nursing, about 10 percent of nurse practitioner students currently rely on federal student loans, and the School of Nursing is actively working on implementing additional institutional support and scholarships to assist the students who will need to rely on loans.
“The School of Nursing is actively engaged in advocacy efforts with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and other nursing organizations to address the impact of recent changes to federal loan limits,” Thalwitz wrote in an email statement to The Cavalier Daily.
In addition to the School of Nursing, the School of Education also has degree programs that are not considered professional degrees under the new Bill, including the Doctor of Education and Doctor of Philosophy in Education programs.
In the School of Education, the annual tuition for full-time master's and doctoral students is $20,150 for Virginians, but for non-Virginian students, it is $32,400 and $32,140, respectively. This means that the soon-to-be-implemented caps will not cover the full cost of tuition for out-of-state education students.
According to Stephanie Rowley, dean of the School of Education, approximately 15 percent of graduate students within the school take out Grad PLUS loans, and a reduction in loan ability means that students with critical financial need will be affected. The changes in loan policy will ultimately reduce the economic diversity of the School of Education, Rowley wrote in an email statement to The Cavalier Daily.
“In all honesty, I think that we are not sure how these developments will affect our students. Federal student loans are one mechanism that can make graduate study accessible to more students,” Rowley wrote. “I worry that we will have fewer students coming from rural areas, which may mean fewer professionals heading back to their home communities to serve as teachers, counselors or coaches.”
Rowley also said that these loan changes will not affect all programs within the School of Education equally, and that in-person programs that require more years of study are more likely to be affected. Rowley gave the two-year Counselor Education Program as an example of a potentially highly affected program.
“These limits could affect students pursuing teaching, counseling and speech pathology degrees, which are all careers facing nationwide shortages in personnel,” Rowley wrote. “The U.S. will likely see growing gaps in services as access to these degrees is reduced because of funding shortages.”
Related to nationwide teaching shortages, as of 2025, a minimum of 411,549 teaching positions exist in the U.S. that are unfilled or are filled by teachers who are not fully certified, according to the Learning Policy Institute.
Regarding University action in light of program cuts, University Spokesperson Glover said the University is working closely alongside U.Va. Health to advocate for student borrowers who will be affected by the new changes.
Rosner and Baernholdt wrote a letter March 2 to Tamy Abernathy, director of the policy coordination group in the federal office of postsecondary education. Glover provided The Cavalier Daily with the letter, which argues that the current definition of a professional degree is too narrow and excludes several critical health professions that require extensive education.
The letter also argues that Congress did not intend for the law's definition of professional degree programs to be limited solely to the programs specifically listed in the legislation. Rosner and Baernholdt pointed to language stating that qualifying programs include, but are "not limited to," those degrees. The letter also argues that the law defines professional degrees as programs that require education beyond what is required by a bachelor's degree.
Rosner and Baernholdt specifically mentioned the exclusion of physician assistants, physical therapists, social workers, occupational therapists and other similar practitioners as programs that do require training beyond a bachelor's degree, and thus should be considered professional programs.
“A narrow definition risks creating unintended barriers to entry for students pursuing these essential careers by limiting access to federal loan support,” Rosner and Barenholdt wrote in the letter. “A broader definition including these health care related degree programs will ensure that otherwise qualified students will not be prohibited from entering the health care field simply because they cannot access the federal loans needed for an advanced degree.”
Glover also wrote that there are other degrees that are considered non-professional outside of the healthcare realm that are affected by these loan cuts. For example, the annual tuition for masters programs within the School of Engineering and Applied Science is $19,854 for in-state students and $35,868 for out-of-state students.
Under the new Bill, in-state students will be able to satisfy their tuition with federal student loans, but out-of-state students will be left with a $15,368 deficit. If the estimated living expenses are included, then in-state and out-of-state students will be at a $29,010 and $45,024 per year deficit, respectively.
In a separate March 2 letter to Abernathy, Julia Smith, executive director for federal relations and special assistant to the president at the University, and Helen Faith, associate vice provost for enrollment and student financial services, raised concerns about the Department of Education's interpretation of the Bill’s federal student loan programs. The letter also called for a less narrow definition of what constitutes a professional degree due to it leaving out degrees in engineering, public health and other regulated professions.
Smith and Faith’s letter also requested a delay in implementation of these changes until July 1, 2027, so institutions have enough time to adapt to the new changes. It also called for “seasoned financial aid professionals” from all sizes and types of educational institutions to be included in all new aid-related rulemaking committees to reduce confusion about future policy changes.
For the School of Medicine at the University, the first year of school has an estimated cost of attendance of $88,454 for Virginia students and has a total estimated cost of attendance of $360,794 for in-state students.
For out-of-state students, the first year of medical school has an estimated cost of attendance of $102,800 — making it over double the maximum annual federal loan cap. The total cost of attendance for out-of-state students across all four years is $414,806, which is also over double the aggregate lifetime maximum of federal student loans for professional degrees.
Consequently, even though the new federal loan limits are higher for professional degrees, the annual cost of tuition of the School of Medicine is higher than the maximum annual loan amount. Additionally, the aggregate cost is higher than lifetime loan limits by about $160,794 and $214,806 for in-state and out-of-state students, respectively.
A similar reality is true for students within the School of Law — the total cost of attendance for Virginia residents is $111,420, and the total cost of attendance for non-Virginia residents is $114,420 for the 2026-27 academic year.
While the current lawsuit that Jones joined does not focus on Undergraduate Federal Student Loans, Parent PLUS loans also received caps of $20,000 annually with an aggregate life-time maximum of $65,000 under the new Bill. Historically, parents have been able to borrow up to the cost of attendance for degree programs through Parent PLUS loans. With the Bill’s new provisions, in-state undergraduate students at the University may have a deficit of $20,462 per year and up to $81,848 total. For non-Virginia residents, the deficit could be up to $61,718 per year or $246,872 total.
There also exists a total cap for all federal and graduate student loans of $257,000 for loans in a student's name — meaning Parent PLUS loans are excluded from this value, as they are in the parents name. This means that students who take out direct subsidized or direct unsubsidized student loans during their undergraduate education could have less funding available to them during their graduate or professional education.
Graduate students and their families may transition to considering private loans if federal loans do not cover the cost of their education after the loan limits are in place. Private loans are offered through private financial institutions and national banks like SoFi or Sallie Mae. These loans have varying interest rates depending on the institution or one’s credit score, which could act as a barrier for students from less economically privileged backgrounds.
Glover wrote the University is currently working to finalize lending agreements with several “preferred lenders” that will allow students who are approved by these lenders to get lower interest-rate loans than they are able to secure on their own. According to Glover, information on the preferred lenders will be listed on the Student Financial Services website in the coming weeks.
The Bill’s loan limits are set for implementation Wednesday, and analyses by the Consumer Finance Institute suggest 30 percent of graduate student borrowers will be affected.
Michael Racz is a staff writer on the news desk. He is a second-year student in the College majoring in Biology with plans to go to Medical School. Outside of The Cavalier Daily, Michael is a member of the Emergency Medicine Scribe Program and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. He enjoys writing about health topics and student self-governance.
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