Republican’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which will phase out Grad PLUS loans, change graduate unsubsidized direct loan limits and introduce a new loan repayment plan, will go into effect on July 1, 2026. Students say some of the act’s changes were unwelcome.
The direct loan limit will be set at $50,000 per year and $200,000 as the lifetime borrowing limit for “professional” degrees such as medicine, dentistry or law. “Graduate” programs, such as social work, physician assistant school and nursing school, have a different limit of up to $20,500 per year and a lifetime borrowing limit of $100,000.
Previously, the Grad PLUS program allowed graduate and professional students to borrow up to their cost of attendance, including room and board. Students who need to take out more than the limit may now need to turn to private loans, which typically have higher interest rates.
UA students who plan to take out loans for graduate school have expressed concern about the new loan caps.
Lindsey Flondro, president of the Pre-Physician Assistant Society at the University, said that the designation of certain healthcare professions as “graduate” rather than “professional” was a “very sore subject,” and that members of the organization are looking at other options for school, such as scholarships, grants, ROTC funding and private loans.
Flondro said the society and the profession were predominantly female and that the gender demographics were “just something to note about these professions that have been noted as graduate level versus professional level.”
Professional student unsubsidized loan limits will rise from $138,500 per person, but with the elimination of Grad PLUS loans, students say they are still concerned about the loan changes.
The annual average cost of tuition for U.S law schools in the 2026-2027 academic year is predicted to be $51,016, about $1,016 over the yearly limit.
Law students pursuing careers in public service will be further impacted by additional changes from the Department of Education.
According to the Institute for College Access & Success, the final rule regarding the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, a federal loan forgiveness program for government employees, will “allow the Department to strip employers – including non-profit organizations, universities, school districts, or state and local governments – of PSLF eligibility based on its own determination of illegal conduct.”
Rachel Pierce, a senior majoring in history and political science, said she believes the changes will “disincentivize people to pursue careers that are incredibly necessary to the function of our society, but are not as financially rewarding.”
“There are so many systems that we take incredibly for granted that we don’t even notice they’re there that function because of really hard-working public servants,” she said.
Pierce said she believes the new changes will make it “way harder” to go into public service law and will impact her for the rest of her life.
“I think part of me just wants to be a part of that mechanism that makes society function, even if those people don’t really get recognition,” she said.
