What changed.
Who it affects. What to check.

New federal borrowing limits can leave a funding gap.

The 2025 federal law changed graduate and professional borrowing. For medical students subject to the new rules, the professional limits are $50,000 per year and $200,000 in aggregate. Prior graduate borrowing can reduce the available professional aggregate. A separate $257,500 lifetime limit spans undergraduate, graduate, and professional federal student borrowing.

The $200,000 professional aggregate does not include undergraduate loans; the lifetime limit does. Grad PLUS is unavailable for new borrowing under these rules. The maximum is not a guaranteed award: your school, other aid, prior borrowing, and loan fees affect what you can receive.

Continuing students may keep earlier borrowing terms for a limited time.

The exception generally depends on being enrolled in the program on June 30, 2026 and having borrowed for that same program before July 1, 2026. It can last for the remaining program length or three academic years, whichever is shorter.

RAP and Tiered Standard are repayment plans—not new loans.

The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) uses income and claimed dependents to determine an eligible borrower’s payment. Tiered Standard uses a fixed payment schedule over 10–25 years, depending on the debt amount. Some existing borrowers can use Income-Based Repayment (IBR).

Receiving a new loan first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026 can require all eligible Direct Loans to use RAP or Tiered Standard. Check this before assuming your older loans preserve access to IBR.

If you were on SAVE, use your account notice to find your deadline.

Official servicer guidance reports that a March 10, 2026 court order ended SAVE. Affected borrowers need to move to another plan. Separate transition rules phase out certain older plans, including PAYE and ICR, by July 1, 2028 for affected borrowers.

Do not treat 2028 as a universal deadline. Your SAVE transition notice may require action much sooner.

A court order affected part of the rules, not the entire rollout.

Federal Student Aid reported a court stay affecting the professional-degree definition. Its implementation notice says most July changes still took effect. MD and DO programs were already included in the professional category addressed by that guidance.