Don't Rush Students Into Debt Before New Loan Limits Hit

Last year’s passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act scrambled loan borrowing for college, setting up new limits for how much students can take out for graduate education.

Beginning in July, new students will only be able to borrow up to an aggregate limit of $100,000 for most graduate programs. The annual limit of $20,500 for those programs is unchanged. The law also entirely phased out Grad PLUS loans, which can help students cover attendance costs, including tuition, room, and board.

These are uneasy prospects for the colleges that have come to rely on pricey graduate degree tuition to secure their bottom line. The changes will pressure some colleges to try to retool their pricing and business models to avoid shutting their doors.

However, the way in which one school is adjusting its programs seems like a transparently last-ditch effort to squeeze as much money out of students as it can, students who may be left unable to finish their programs. It’s a tactic other institutions should reject.

The National University of Natural Medicine, or NUNM, an Oregon-based institution that specializes in areas like naturopathic medicine and classic Chinese medicine, plans to start a couple of its graduate programs earlier than it typically would.

That sounds innocent enough, if it just a scheduling decision. But the school’s publicly stated reason for doing so is to ensure students enroll and borrow before the law’s loan changes kick in.

Students who start any postsecondary program and take out loans before July 1 will be locked into the old loan system, and can still take out Grad PLUS, as well as continue to borrow at the previously allowed levels (for a while).

Enrolling as many students as possible during this window would benefit NUNM, which stands to lose significant revenue, and likely enrollment, under the new loan ceiling.

For example, it estimates its four-year doctorate of naturopathic medicine costs almost $150,000. The total price not only exceeds the new $100,000 lifetime cap, but also the program’s yearly tuition surpasses the $20,500 annual limit. At their lowest point—in the program’s fourth year—annual tuition and fees still reach an estimated $30,000.

Even some of NUNM’s shorter graduate programs, for instance, its three-year master’s in acupuncture, hit the new loan limits. The school estimates the program’s yearly tuition and fees to hover between roughly $21,000 to $25,500.

In the school’s scheme, only it benefits, able to still collect Grad PLUS loans and the money coming in under the previous lending rates.

Students can also only borrow under the previous loan regime for another three years, meaning if they are partway through one of the college’s programs, they might not be able to finish with enough loan money to cover their costs—a financial bind that NUNM would have pushed them into.

Those students may instead turn to the predatory private loan market, where borrowing often carries high interest rates and limited protections, or they may drop out.

Regardless, prospective students should think carefully before enrolling at NUNM. The return on investment for its programs appears uncertain at best. Students who took on loans for NUNM’s first professional degrees had a median debt load of about $264,000, but their median earnings were around $44,000, according to U.S. Department of Education data. Meanwhile, the nationwide median amount of debt per borrower is about $40,000.

These types of programs generally lead to poor earnings but high debts, according to newly released Education Department data. It projected that 98% of students with federal aid had enrolled in alternative medicine graduate programs that will fail earnings tests the Education Department is set to administer beginning July 2027. These tests measure whether completers earn more than someone with a bachelor’s degree or of someone in the same field of study in the same state. Programs that fail the tests in two of any three years will lose access to loans entirely as early as 2028, which puts NUMN’s students at further risk of being unable to complete their programs or repay their debts.

Other institutions have tried to help their students during this transition period. For instance, Santa Clara University School of Law, in California, has pledged to provide a $16,000 yearly scholarship for incoming students, which would guarantee they could cover tuition despite the new loan caps.

NUNM has offered no such solutions. It hasn’t made commitments to lower costs or help students manage debt. Instead, it’s spun its decision to offer early start dates as a matter of broadening access.

“Our goal is to, as always, expand access to integrative, whole-person care, and valuable resources and education to the millions of individuals who choose to make it their life’s work,” NUNM President Melanie Henriksen said in a public statement.

In reality, NUNM’s choices appear to be about ensuring its own survival, potentially at students’ expense.

Colleges that truly prioritize access won’t follow NUNM’s path, they will ease costs or try to improve their outcomes. A reshaping of the student loan landscape shouldn’t be an excuse to rush students to take on more debts, especially if it’s unclear whether they’ll ever pay them off.