U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell’s Myong Joun student loan ruling temporarily blocked a Trump administration plan to limit graduate borrowing by field of study. The Education Department responded on Monday by widening its list of professional programs, giving some graduate students access to higher loan caps for now.
The change affects students in nursing, occupational therapy, physician assistant studies and several psychology subfields. Those students can qualify for the professional-student limit of up to $50,000 a year with a $200,000 aggregate cap, rather than the graduate-student limit of $20,500 a year and a $100,000 aggregate cap.
Beryl Howell order
Howell issued the order last week, and the rule she stayed had been set to take effect on July 1. The original Education Department rule would have narrowed who counted as a professional student under the new loan limits Congress enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
Before the new law, graduate students could borrow as much as it cost them to attend their program. The department’s April rule replaced that system with two separate borrowing tracks, one for professional students and one for graduate students.
Education Department list
The initial rule defined professional students as those in 11 degree programs: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, theology and clinical psychology. The revised list released Monday removed Theology/Theological Studies and Pharmaceutical Studies and added programs for anesthesiologist assistants, physician associates/assistants, athletic trainers, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech pathologists and registered nurses.
The department said its revised list more than doubles the number of programs it will treat as professional programs. It also told universities they could still use the lower graduate caps, a step that could leave students in the same program facing different loan limits while the litigation continues.
One Big Beautiful Bill Act
The rule was challenged in two lawsuits brought by plaintiffs representing graduate students, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants. The department says its original definitions are lawful and plans to continue the litigation, even after the temporary expansion on Monday.
For students trying to plan borrowing for the coming term, the practical shift is immediate: the higher cap is available only while the revised list remains in place. How long that lasts depends on the court fight Howell put on hold.
