Rebecca Greenawalt is working full time as a mental health nurse in a Connecticut prison as she studies for a master’s degree at Quinnipiac University that will qualify her as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, able to prescribe medicine and practice on her own. Meanwhile, she and her fiancé, a firefighter, are planning a fall wedding and would like to start a family. But that will have to wait. Greenawalt, now 31, won’t complete her master’s until August of 2027. “It’s just not feasible to talk about starting our family while I’m also working what feels like 10 bajillion hours a week,” she says.

Why not take a break from her studies? A new law that kicks in on July 1 sharply limits the amount graduate students can borrow from Uncle Sam, but grandfathers in those like Greenawalt who are already in (and stay in) a graduate program. After she earns her master’s, she wants to start a Ph.D. program so she can teach and do research. Now she’s unsure how she’ll finance it. Under the new rules, graduate nursing students will be limited to borrowing $20,500 a year and $100,000 over the life of their graduate studies. By contrast, grad students studying to be optometrists, podiatrists, chiropractors, pharmacists, clinical psychologists, medical doctors, veterinarians, lawyers and clergy will be able to borrow $50,000 a year ($200,000 total) for their “professional” degrees. Greenawalt’s state employer offers generous education benefits, but only if she keeps working full time while she studies.

As the U.S. population ages, the country faces a growing shortage of doctors and nurses, exacerbated by the Trump Administration’s attempts to limit the influx of educated immigrants. Now, the Department of Education’s decision that the 200,000 students in graduate nursing programs aren’t eligible to borrow as much as other aspiring healthcare professionals threatens to make the shortage even worse for several reasons.

First, over the last 25 years, the explosion of graduate-trained nurse practitioners (NPs) has eased a shortage of primary-care doctors in rural and underserved communities, and in such specialties as geriatrics and psychiatry. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook, the nation had 382,700 NPs, nurse midwives and nurse anesthetists working in 2024, earning a median of $132,050 per year. Demand for NPs is projected to grow 40% by 2034, the highest growth rate for almost any job. With younger medical doctors gravitating to higher-paid specialties, there are now more NPs than doctors providing primary care, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration reports.

Paul Smith, dean of nursing at Linfield University in Portland, Oregon, says he’s particularly worried about the impact of the loan limits on healthcare equity. “When you look at diverse student populations that could go back and be primary-care providers within their community, are they not going to be able to move forward if they’re not able to obtain funding?” he asks.

Mahlon Mathieson, a 32-year-old nurse from New York City now pursuing a doctorate at Columbia University, echoes that worry. “The........

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