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Dalea Tran has dreamed of law school for many years, but she never knew how to pay for it.
Unlike many aspiring lawyers, she did not follow in the footsteps of her parents. Accountants and hairstylists arrived in San Diego with their families as Vietnamese child refugees. Tran, a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of California, San Diego, knew that if he decided to go to law school he would have to run through a maze of student loans and financial aid packages.
For people like her, navigating that maze has become much more challenging.
There has been a major change in higher education in the US after President Donald Trump signed the law on his major domestic policy bill. Among them is the end of Grade Plus Loan, a program that helps pay for medical schools and law schools. Since Congress created direct federal loans in 2006, they have covered the full cost of alumni and vocational school attendance for nearly two million students.
Starting from July 1, 2026, it will no longer be an option. Trump’s Tax and Expense Act eliminates the Grad Plus program for new borrowers (by that day, students who take the loan will be their grandfather for up to three years).
The measure will charge a new borrowing cap of $50,000 a year and $200,000 overall on the amount of federal direct loans that students can accommodate legal and medical degrees. And limit your repayment options after graduation.
All of these techniques mean that some students like Tran may have fewer choices in law school or medical school, or they may pilot a completely different career path.
“There’s no way to graduate early enough to avoid grades and changes,” she said.
The reform represents the culmination of years of conservative efforts to curb student loans. However, there was a bipartisan consensus on the cause of the underlying issues Republicans were trying to solve. Left-leaning groups and policymakers have also been extremely important in recent years for the crippling debts that some graduate programs place on students.
Senator Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana physician and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the new law would halt the vicious cycle of high costs for universities.
“The increased availability of federal loans has resulted in tuition prices skyrocketing, trapping students in an overwhelming debt cycle that cannot be repaid,” he said in a statement to USA Today. “By closing the Inflation graduate loan program, we will prevent students from overloading and putting downward pressure on rising university costs.”
In 2024, the average annual law school tuition fee for a private university was nearly $60,000, according to data from the American Bar Association, analyzed by the Law School Admissions Council. For the state residents who are participating in public agencies, that was about $32,000.
Austin Parrish, dean of the University of California Irvine Law School, has found it difficult to know exactly how loan restrictions affect law schools. In his view, higher ranked, more expensive schools could enroll more wealthy students who are less dependent on loans.
Other, less privileged students may have to exchange fame for the cost, he said.
“We’ll see students have to make difficult decisions,” he said.
Medical school braces for shifts
Seeing Congress from northern Montana passed Trump’s spending bill, Juliana Lindquist was pleased to have started medical school when she did.
The 23-year-old from Connecticut is in his second year at Tulo Osteopathic Medicine in Montana. (Of the two medical schools, the osteopathic program is the less common version. Their coursework is similar to that of other medical schools, but instead emphasizes a more holistic approach to patient care.)
This semester, Lindquist is taking out the full amount of the loan she qualifies for – about $24,000.
“I wouldn’t be anywhere without my student loan,” she said. “We have financial aid, but that’s not enough.”
According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, about half of all medical students rely on the Grad Plus program, borrowing more than $1 billion a year. Osteopathic school graduates, most of whom receive grades and loans, often serving rural areas or becoming primary care providers.
Jane Carreiro, dean of the Osteopathic Medicine School at the University of New England in Maine, said that once federal support disappears, it will depend on the private lending market to make up for the difference.
“How do students navigate that?” she said. “That’s the question we’re all asking.”
Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA Today. You can contact him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @Zachschermele and follow Bluesky at @Zachschermele.bsky.social.
