Key Facts

• The Trump administration had a rule setting lower loan caps for some fields, excluding nursing and physical therapy from being "professional" programs.
• A federal judge blocked this rule, allowing nursing, physical therapy, and some other fields to qualify for higher student loan limits for now.
• The Education Department issued a revised rule to follow the judge’s order but plans to fight the case in court.
• "Professional programs" have a federal loan cap of $200,000, while other graduate programs have a $100,000 cap.
• The original Trump rule aimed to reduce student debt and lower tuition prices by limiting federal loan amounts.
• Some graduate nursing programs, like nurse anesthesia, can cost more than $100,000 and now qualify for the higher loan cap temporarily.
• The revised rule expands the list of professional degree programs from about a dozen to 29, including nursing, physical therapy, athletic training, and speech-language pathology.
• Theology programs were moved from the professional list to the lower limit list, except the master of divinity degree which remains on the professional list.