Congress is on the verge of greenlighting new restrictions capping how much graduate students will be able to borrow from the federal government in a move that some worry will ice marginalized communities out of advanced degrees.

As part of the megabill Republicans hope to pass this week to advance President Trump's agenda, senators included a ceiling on federal student loans for graduate, medical and law students as a way to combat the rising cost of college, arguing unlimited loans incentivizes colleges to raise their prices.

Graduate students will only be able to borrow $20,500 a year, with a lifetime cap of $100,000. For professional students, including those studying law and medicine, they could borrow $50,000 a year with a lifetime cap of $200,000.

But with some students unable to cover the full cost of an advanced degree without a government loan, advocates worry about students turning to private lenders or skipping out on an advanced degree altogether at a time when more jobs are requiring the additional education.

“There are two very likely outcomes of this. One is that more and more students will decide graduate school is not worth it and won't go at all despite the growing share of the workforce that requires some form of post-graduate education ... Those will disproportionately be Black and Latino Americans. I would expect significant growth in the private lending market, those loans will most likely have higher interest rates and fewer borrower protections,” said Kyle Southern, associate vice president of higher education quality at The Institute for College Access & Success.

The GOP-crafted provision would also eliminate the Graduate PLUS program, which allows students to cover the full cost........

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