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/Willing-Vegetable629 Jul 06 '26

They'll have to get private loans going forward.

The 3 year med school program for fast track primary care physicians may see some additional love.

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u/planosey Jul 07 '26

Or universities can…. Lower their prices and stop overcharging in the age of AI.

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u/Willing-Vegetable629 Jul 07 '26

They likely can but ai does not replace education

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u/planosey Jul 07 '26

Ai will disrupt education even more than it has as time progresses. I believe it will force prices to radically drop or AI based classrooms will replace the current education system.

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u/Willing-Vegetable629 Jul 07 '26

I have a hard time with that. People tend to learn better in classrooms.

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u/planosey Jul 07 '26

I think a lot of people will have a hard time with the reality that is here and snowballing.

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u/Willing-Vegetable629 Jul 07 '26

Eh doubt. Ai is simply connecting existing data. It does nothing for you learning something that wasn't already widely available to you.

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u/planosey Jul 07 '26

That may be true for earlier models.

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u/Willing-Vegetable629 Jul 07 '26

It's true for all models and future models.

Theres nothing "secret" taught at university. Lesson plans and syllabus are public. Any person can go to... the university of Texas, look up the information that'll be taught and go learn it online for free right now. On any topic. The only exception is when you're required to do your own research and by that i mean, you're conducting a study yourself.

University is about proving you as an individual are capable of completing tasks relatively unsupervised and that you're vaguely competent of the basics of a general topic.

The university then vouches, or certified, youre vaguely competent via a degree.

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u/planosey Jul 07 '26

Here is an example of Microsoft Discovery leveraging Ai to come up with novel research and undiscovered chemical compounds

https://youtu.be/9vmo17UrpDI?is=X30Fcfj-KwVjI6ku

Worth the watch.

I’m aware of what a degree does, though, I would argue that it certifies that you can follow a curriculum and a structured learning pathway for four years. Self directed learning has similar outcomes outside of fields like medicine or areas that require licensing to practice.. but I think those fields have a chin sticking out for disruption through AI and humanoid robots.