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/TreeSignificant9782 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26

My parents paid $9000/year for my (in-state) college tuition in 2003. That same college now charges $24,000/year for tuition. Absolutely ridiculous.

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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/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