Will nurses face new federal student loan borrowing caps? Nurses pursuing graduate degrees might.

Reports that a Trump administration change might make it harder for aspiring nurses to pay for their education sparked outrage online. 

Some social media users said President Donald Trump had signed legislation demoting nursing degrees from professional degree status or reclassifying nursing degrees as non-professional degrees. 

"The Dept. of Education just removed nursing from the list of ‘professional degree’ programs under the Administration’s new loan rules — a move nurses say threatens the future of patient care," radio personality Angela Yee wrote Nov. 20 on Facebook. 

Other social media posts passed on lists of degrees no longer considered "professional" under Trump, including nursing and also physical therapy, architecture, accounting, teaching, engineering and social work. 

Graduate nursing students could soon face new federal borrowing limits, but these comments mislead by saying the Trump administration took nurses’ "professional" classification away.

Trump’s sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act set federal loan borrowing limits for nonprofessional and professional graduate students. The first step in implementing those new loan limits is defining which degrees are "professional." 

An Education Department committee agreed on 11 professional degrees based on an existing definition in federal code; the decision is not final. 

Nursing was not demoted or removed; it wasn’t on the list of professional degrees to start. 

However, the changes mean students pursuing graduate degrees in nursing would have a lower borrowing cap compared with borrowers enrolled in professional degrees.

The new loan caps don’t affect undergraduate students, and not all nursing jobs require graduate degrees.

Nurse Rod Salaysay plays guitar for patient Richard Hoang in the recovery unit of UC San Diego Health in San Diego, Calif., on Sept. 30, 2025. (AP)

A committee rule has not been finalized

One provision in One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated a loan program that allows graduate students to borrow enough money to cover their program’s full cost. That program provided for limitless borrowing, said higher education finance expert and University of Tennessee, Knoxville professor Robert Kelchen.

In its place, the Trump-era law implements new federal loan limits beginning July 1, 2026: up to $20,500 every academic year and $100,000 in total for grad students pursuing nonprofessional degrees and up to $50,000 every academic year and $200,000 in total for grad students seeking professional degrees. 

The law defines professional students as those enrolled in degrees listed in federal code. That section lists examples of professional degrees that "include but are not limited to":

• Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) 

• Dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.) 

• Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) 

• Chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.) 

• Law (L.L.B. or J.D.) 

• Medicine (M.D.)

• Optometry (O.D.).

• Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.).

• Podiatry (D.P.M., D.P., or Pod.D.).

• Theology (M.Div., or M.H.L.)

Nursing was never on that list. But graduate nursing students will be affected by the lower cap for nonprofessional graduate students. 

"That distinction did not matter because graduate and professional students largely had the exact same loan limits," Kelchen said. "Now, that distinction matters."

On Nov. 6, a committee charged with implementing the federal student loan changes approved a definition for  "professional students" that included the 10 degrees listed in federal code and clinical psychology. The committee also approved an expanded list of related programs that fall under those fields as "professional," such as forensic psychology and counseling psychology.

The public comment period is expected in early 2026, the department said. 

The Education Department referred PolitiFact to a Nov. 24 "myth vs. fact" press release, which said its data shows 95% of nursing students borrow below the yearly loan limits and "are not affected by the new caps."

Loan limits will affect financing for advanced nursing degrees

Previously, only people seeking advanced nursing degrees would have qualified for the graduate loan program that had no borrowing limits, known as Graduate PLUS. 

About 45% of nurses entered the workforce with bachelor’s degrees, according to a March 2024 National Center for Health Workforce Analysis report. Some nurses have less than a bachelor’s degree; others start their careers after obtaining advanced degrees. 

Some nurses choose to pursue a master’s (17%) or doctorate degree (3%) after they start working. Half of nurses said they used loans, and most nurses used federal student loans to finance their initial nursing degree, the report said.

It typically takes two to three years to earn a nursing master’s degree and roughly five to eight years to earn a doctorate in nursing, Debra Barksdale, president of the American Academy of Nursing, said.

At the University of Michigan's nursing school in Ann Arbor, Mich., instructor Betsy Cambridge, center, talks to students next to a high-fidelity mannequin on March 28, 2016. (AP)

Nurse practitioners, who must complete master’s or doctoral degree programs, fill in some gaps between nurses and doctors. They can perform and interpret diagnostic tests and diagnose and treat some conditions. 

"The current demand for master’s- and doctorally-prepared nurses for advanced practice, clinical specialties, teaching and research roles far outstrips the supply," Barksdale said. 

Capping federal loans for graduate nursing programs could result in fewer nurses, Barksdale said.

Graduate nursing degree program costs vary. Some historic research shows that by the time nursing students complete their advanced degrees, they have borrowed less than $100,000. It’s unclear how that breaks down year-by-year for the annual $20,500 cap. 

Of 140 advanced nursing programs with debt data, 115 programs’ data showed their 2019 and 2020 graduates finished degrees with median student debt below $100,000, wrote Preston Cooper, an American Enterprise Institute higher education finance expert. He said lower-cost schooling options exist. 

Our ruling

Social media posts said the Trump administration removed nursing from the list of professional degree programs, affecting aspiring nurses’ student loan access. 

A new Trump administration law imposes federal borrowing caps for people pursuing graduate degrees. The borrowing limits are lower for degrees not considered "professional." An Education Department committee proposed a definition for "professional" that largely relies on an existing federal regulation that never included nursing. 

Some nursing jobs require no advanced degree, and research shows nurses typically complete their degrees with loan amounts under the new cap. However, the proposed change would put a new burden on nursing graduate students seeking federal loans, because their degrees would not be eligible for the higher "professional" cap.  

The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half True.

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

RELATED: PolitiFact answers reader questions about the Big Beautiful Bill