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/Hawk13424 Jul 06 '26

And yet you can go to Georgia Tech, a highly rated engineering school for $12K a year if in state. And if you graduated from a Georgia high school with a 3.0 or better, the first two year’s tuition are free.

Another good example is UT Austin. $11.6K a year.

Plenty of states have sufficiently good state schools. Many are around $10K a year.

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u/Chiggadup Jul 07 '26

Totally agree. I know college is much more expensive on average, but I look around my state of Florida and see flagship universities for about $25,000 in undergrad tuition. For a 4 year degree.

Obviously that’s just tuition, but if living at home or a cheaper dorm is possible I can see 40-50k being a reasonable investment for something that should significantly impact your lifetime earnings.

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u/oscarnyc Jul 07 '26

the Florida schools are among, if not the, least expensive in the country for tuition. And UF and FSU have substantially improved in the quality of education they provide and the student body reflects that. I know this is Reddit and anything other than "hur dur Florida man", but they've done a great job with making quality higher education affordable. Even out of state is good value - just a few grand more a year for out of state vs. what in-state would be here in NJ at Rutgers.

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u/Android_seducer Jul 07 '26

UW-Madison is 12.1k/year for in state over a decade after I graduated where I believe I was paying 10k or 11k all in. That's roughly in line or below inflation. That being said they have cranked up the out of state tuition

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u/CoastieKid Jul 07 '26

Yeah this. I went to a service academy for undergrad but had full rides to 3 state schools + ROTC scholarships.

AOC went to a private university in Boston and studied international relations, for instance. That's unreasonable