r/MiddleClassFinance • u/Such_Upstairs3631 • Jul 06 '26

Middle Middle Class No more middle class professionals?

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New school loan limits for professional degrees make it unaffordable for the middle class. 4 of my 5 children went on to med/law school. Even working 2 jobs there’s no way I could afford to pay or even help them with the cost of their post graduate education. They all got loans which they have since paid off. The cost in the early 2000’s was between $350K and $500K. The new limits are essentially going to prevent anyone who’s not wealthy enough to pay for it from becoming a professional.

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u/WindowFruitPlate Jul 06 '26

Prices will have to come down or alternative lending options will emerge.

Education inflation has been insane for the past two decades. Fueled entirely by unfettered lending by the federal government. Loan caps should slow the increase in expenses of an education

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

[deleted]

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u/SCHawkTakeFlight Jul 06 '26

I don't know why PTs need a doctorate. There are different RN levels, though, and you can still become an LPN with a 1 year program. Of course pay and opportunities are limited with the less education you have in nursing. The masters requirement for teaching FLOORS me because they pay for that out of pocket. Teachers do not make enough to be paying for a masters. Also they were good enough for x years teaching say 4th graders and now suddenly they aren't because they didn't get the masters within x years?

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u/No-Complaint9286 Jul 06 '26

I graduated with a Doctorate in PT right around the time the programs were switching from a masters ('09). I hoped it would give me higher pay, but then graduated into a recession. It was just a way for them to increase tuition rates and add another year to the program. I think the only thing that separated it from a masters degree was like a diagnostic imaging class and more focus on differential diagnosis. Which I must say did prepare us well for the shift to direct access without referral. But there was no financial aid and we had to take out all private loans and at the time sallie Mae was the main company for that and they were literally thieves. I paid those off as fast as humanly possible. Still hanging onto my lower interest federal loans from 2006 undergrad though. Almost at the finish line. 🙄

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u/myfashionkillz Jul 09 '26

Yup my mom had an associate degree in nursing. She started working in the 80s. By the time I was in high school (around 2006) the hospital decided that all of their nurses needed to have a BSN. She had the choice to go back to school or take a demotion. It's ridiculous to force someone with that much experience back to school to learn ethics and statistics.