Changes to federal student loans leave aspiring medical students scrambling to cover costs

CHICAGO Twenty-year-old Eric Mun didn t want to believe it Only one kid in the family could make it to physiological school and it wasn t going to be him Mun had done everything right He graduated high school with honors earned a scholarship at Northwestern University and breezed through his biology courses He immigrated to Alabama from Korea as a toddler From the quiet stretches of the South he dreamed of helping patients in a pressed white coat But dreams don t pay tuition And with new borrowing limits Mun s family can only endorsement one child through school My parents already implied that my older brother is supposedly going to be the one that gets to go Mun reported President Donald Trump s sweeping big beautiful tax and spending bill signed into law earlier this month imposes strict new caps on federal attendee loans capping borrowing for professional schools at per year The measure particularly affects medicinal students whose tuition often exceeds over four years Aspiring physicians like Mun have been thrown into financial uncertainty Countless members of the medicinal public say the measures will send shock waves through a system already laden with economic hindrances discouraging low-income students from pursuing a physiological degree It might mean there are people who want to be doctors that can t be doctors because they can t afford it explained Dr Richard Anderson president of the Illinois State Medicinal Society Before the passage of Trump s budget bill the Grad PLUS loan operation allowed graduate students to borrow their institution s total cost of attendance including living expenses The plan was slashed as part of a broader overhaul to the federal pupil loan system Now beginning July preponderance graduate students will be capped at in federal loans per year with a total limit of Students in professional schools like health dental or law school will face the annual cap and a total limit of Through the Chicago Cancer Fitness Equity Collaborative Fellows project at Northwestern University undergrads and up-to-date graduates interested in physiological school take part in a demonstration of fundamental laparoscopic surgery and a tour at a Northwestern surgical bio skills simulation lab on July Antonio Perez Chicago Tribune Mun s parents work at an automobile assembly plant Throughout high school he knew he would have to rely on scholarships and federal loans to pay his way through college Mun s voice faltered I m just trying to remain hopeful Mun disclosed Also folded into the bill the elimination of several Biden-era repayment plans cuts to Pell Grants and limits to the Parent PLUS loans project which allows parents of dependent undergraduates to borrow Proponents of the Republican-backed bill stated the curbed borrowing will incentivize anatomical schools and other graduate programs to lower tuition The tuition of bulk Chicago-area biological schools is nearly for four years not including cost-of-living expenses Northwestern University s Feinberg School of Medicine has a price tag after accounting for those indirect costs according to the school s website Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science trails closely behind at nearly One of the main concerns about the Grad PLUS campaign is money that is going to subsidize institutions rather than extending access to students noted Lesley Turner an associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Constituents Approach Still numerous physiological professionals expressed doubt that schools will adjust their costs in response to the bill Tuition for both private and community schools has been steadily climbing for decades up from after adjusting for inflation according to the Association of American Clinical Colleges There s selected evidence that Grad PLUS may have contributed to those tuition hikes A review co-authored by Turner in unveiled that prices increased cents per dollar after the initiative s introduction in There was also little indication that Grad PLUS had fulfilled its intended goal of expanding access to underrepresented students Through the Chicago Cancer Robustness Equity Collaborative Fellows campaign at Northwestern University undergraduates and up-to-date graduates who are interested in biological school walk for a tour at a Northwestern surgical bio skills simulation lab on July Antonio Perez Chicago Tribune But Turner cautioned against the abrupt reversal of the project After accounting for inflation the lifetime borrowing limits now placed on graduate students are lower than they were in she mentioned A large number of students may turn to private loans to cover the gap often at higher interest rates More than half of diagnostic students relied on Grad PLUS loans according to AAMC The median guidance debt for indebted therapeutic students is around with the bulk repayment plans lasting to years The median stipend for doctors first year post-MD was just in I think for a great number of reasons it would have been reasonable to put chosen sort of limit on Grad PLUS loans but I think this is a very blunt way of doing it Turner noted In a high-rise on Northwestern s downtown campus last week undergraduate students and alums from local colleges gathered for the Chicago Cancer Wellbeing Equity Collaborative Fellows operation The eight-week summer intensive offers aspiring therapeutic professionals a deep dive into cancer robustness disparities information and research Participants like Mun have been left reeling after the flurry of federal cuts Alexis Chappel a -year-old graduate of Northeastern Illinois University watched a family member struggle with addiction growing up She was deeply moved by the doctors who supported his recovery and it inspired her to pursue medicine But she has no idea how she ll cover tuition I feel like it s in God s hands at this point Chappel stated I just felt like it s a direct attack on Black and brown students who plan on going to physiological school Through the Chicago Cancer Soundness Equity Collaborative Fellows initiative at Northwestern University Alexis Chappel center takes part in a demonstration of fundamental laparoscopic surgery at a Northwestern surgical bio skills simulation lab on July Antonio Perez Chicago Tribune Just of diagnostic students are Black and are Latino according to AAMC enrollment evidence Socioeconomic diversity is also limited A analysis detected that of students came from the wealthiest of U S households Dr Tricia Pendergrast who graduated from Feinberg in relied entirely on Grad PLUS loans to fund her health tuition Juggling classes and clinicals she had little money saved and no steady stream of income Pendergrast was so strapped for cash that she enrolled in SNAP benefits a venture also cut under Trump s budget bill Now an anesthesiologist at University of Michigan Fitness she s documented her concerns on TikTok for her followers It s not going to improve representation and it s not going to improve access Pendergrast reported It s going to act as a deterrent for people who otherwise would be excellent physicians For low-income students the application process is already fraught with economic obstacles Pendergrast announced Metrics like GPA and the Medicinal College Admissions Test or MCAT are heavily weighted in admissions and may disadvantage students from underresourced schools Multiple students also lack mentorships or networks to guide them through the process she noted I think the average therapeutic participant is going to be richer and whiter and not from rural areas and not from underserved communities Pendergrast commented Related Articles Baby boomers now live next to -year-olds at colleges across US For particular employees coaching benefits such as tuition assistance prove life-changing Schooling Department says it will release billions in remaining withheld grant money for schools Trump s settlement with Columbia could become a model for his campaign to reshape higher learning With no access to instruction beyond the th grade girls in Afghanistan turn to religious schools The elimination of Grad PLUS loans comes amid a mounting nationwide physician shortage A up-to-date AAMC account predicted a shortfall of physicians by Meanwhile a critical portion of the workforce is poised to enter retirement The U S population aged and older is expected to grow over the next decade The shortage is particularly concentrated in primary care In practice that means longer waiting times for patients and an increased caseload on physicians who may already suffer from burnout If the goal is truly to make America healthy again then we need to have a strong physician workforce We should be coming up with ideas to make it more accessible for people who want to be doctors as opposed to hindering that Anderson mentioned Sophia Tully co-president of the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students at Northwestern declared she and her peers have struggled to reconcile with a system that often feels stacked against them The -year-old plans on taking an extra gap year before biological school in an effort to save money Tully summed up the context on campus For lack of a better word people are panicking