Grad PLUS is gone. How do medical students borrow now?

Two things, for anyone who doesn't qualify for the exception below. Grad PLUS loans for graduate and professional students are no longer available. And the Direct Unsubsidized limit for professional students, which includes medicine, is now $50,000 a year, with a total of $200,000 for professional study.

There is also a new lifetime cap of $257,500 across your subsidized, unsubsidized and grad PLUS loans. It counts loans from college too, including any you've already paid off.

Federal Student Aid calls this the limited, or interim, exception. A graduate or professional student qualifies only if they:

• were enrolled in a program of study at a school as of June 30, 2026;
• borrowed a Direct Loan for that program of study prior to July 1, 2026;
• are currently enrolled at the same school in the same program of study; and
• haven't had any break in enrollment in the same program and the same school at any time as of July 1, 2026.

An approved leave of absence doesn't count as a break. If you qualify, you can't opt out of the exception to borrow under the new limits instead. The exception is tied to your program and your school, so ask the aid office before you change either.

Federal loans can now cover up to $50,000 a year. The rest of your cost of attendance has to come from somewhere else: scholarships, savings, family, or a private loan.

A simple way to see the gap: take one year's cost of attendance from your school, subtract your scholarships and other aid, then subtract $50,000. What's left is what you'd need to find for that year.

Four years at $50,000 reaches the $200,000 total. If your path might include a research year or a dual degree, ask early how the extra time would be paid for.

Probably, if you meet the four conditions. The exception lasts for the shorter of three academic years or the time left in your program, so a student in a four-year program who had finished first year on June 30, 2026 has three years left and stays on the old limits to the end. If more than three academic years remain, for example with a research year, the last part falls under the new limits.

The online grad PLUS application can't tell whether you qualify. Your school makes that call, which is why it's worth asking for the answer in writing.

Repayment changed too. Once you have any Direct Loan first disbursed on or after July 1, 2026, the repayment plans open to you for all your Direct Loans are the Repayment Assistance Plan and the Tiered Standard Plan. Your loan servicer can tell you which applies to you.

Medicine (MD) and osteopathic medicine (DO) are on the Department of Education's list of professional degrees, which is what sets the $50,000 limit. On June 24, 2026, a federal court paused part of that definition, and Federal Student Aid asks students to check with their school whether this affects them. One question to the aid office settles it.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's general guidance is to apply for grants, scholarships and then federal loans before private ones. If a gap is still left, a private loan is one way to fill it, and it comes without several federal protections. Private medical school loans: what do you give up?