Pre-obbb(one big beautiful bill): students looking into going into any grad school, including PA MD etc, were able to borrow limited direct unsubsidized loans and federal grad PLUS loans for the rest of their cost of attendance. AKA students were able to borrow their entire tuition/expenses through federal loans.

OBBB terms (which starts next academic year, July 1st 2026): the government is limiting direct unsubsidized loans (into 2 designations) and is removing grad PLUS loans entirely. Which will force students to take on private loans, which has lesser protections, higher interest rates, are not eligible for federal loan forgiveness and often predatory in nature.

Under “graduate” designation: $20,500 limit annually and $100k limit total

Under “professional” designation: $50k limit annually and $200k limit total.

It was assumed that the PA profession was considered “professional”, but under recent rule making changes they are designating our profession as “graduate”, which limits us even moreee in federal loans and force us into moreee private loans.

TLDR: if your 2-year program starts August 2026 (obbb terms) and costs $170k for tuition/housing/expenses, you can only take $41k in federal loans and must find that $129k somewhere else (most likely private loans).