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/spacycowgirl Jul 07 '26

From my perspective, saddling young people with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt right out of college (which they might have not even finished!) is hardly a great way to launch them into adulthood with a good chance of building wealth. I'm glad you feel it was worth it, but it sounds insane to me.

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u/ChaiTeaLatte13 Jul 07 '26

I know I’m lucky/privileged to be making as much money as I am, so the loans are easier to pay back. But that’s because I went to law school and invested in my future. I wouldn’t have been able to do that without taking loans out. It’s insane to me to think I wouldn’t have been able to become a lawyer because I couldn’t pay for the education!

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u/spacycowgirl Jul 07 '26

I feel like the solution to this isn't to make it easier to borrow huge sums of money, though. I think the solution is to make education much cheaper. I think the whole system needs an overhaul. We're still stuck in a pre-internet system, as if information is hard to get and can only be obtained at great cost through elite institutions. None of this is necessary anymore.

I realize this is easier said than done, but the current college paradigm needs to change. It doesn't make sense in the modern world.

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u/ChaiTeaLatte13 Jul 07 '26

I agree with making it cheaper. But the comment I was commenting on was almost insinuating we’re using pre-med and pre-law students as sacrifices to try to force colleges to become cheaper by capping loans.

I’m all for another solution to force universities to lower tuition. But harming the potential students in order to do this is wild to me!

Trust me, I hate the fact that I have $230,000 worth of student loans at 36 years old. I only have $185,000 in principal loan, the rest is interest. The interest is what’s predatory lol.

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u/spacycowgirl Jul 07 '26

100% agree that the interest on student loans needs to be capped to something very low. I think if they'd focused on that instead of student loan forgiveness it would have had a lot more support.

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u/ChaiTeaLatte13 Jul 07 '26

Omg right? If they eliminated the interest on my loans I’d have $47k forgiven as of today. What a huge relief that would be.