How much can medical students borrow in federal loans?

A student who takes out a first federal loan for medical school on or after July 1, 2026, can borrow up to $50,000 per academic year and $200,000 in total through the federal Direct Unsubsidized Loan program, according to the U.S. Department of Education's fact sheet on its final loan rule. All of a borrower's federal student loans, undergraduate loans included, also count toward a separate $257,500 lifetime limit.

The caps come from the 2025 budget reconciliation law, Public Law 119-21, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and since renamed the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. The department's final regulations implementing them took effect July 1, 2026. The same law ended Grad PLUS for new borrowers, a program that let graduate and professional students borrow up to their school's full cost of attendance minus other aid. Students who were already borrowing for medical school before that date may still be under the old rules for a limited time.

Which federal loans can medical students get?

Direct Unsubsidized Loans are the only federal student loans open to medical students who started borrowing on or after July 1, 2026. Graduate and professional students lost access to subsidized loans on July 1, 2012, and the final rule bars new Grad PLUS loans to them starting July 1, 2026.

Direct Unsubsidized Loans are available regardless of financial need, and unlike Grad PLUS loans they do not depend on a credit check, according to the Congressional Research Service. Interest is charged from the day a loan is disbursed, including the years a student is in school.

For loans first disbursed from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, the fixed interest rate on graduate and professional Direct Unsubsidized Loans is 8.07%. Federal Student Aid set that rate from the May 12, 2026, auction of 10-year Treasury notes, adding 3.6 percentage points to the 4.468% high yield. A 1.057% origination fee comes out of each disbursement. Rates on new loans reset every July 1 and stay fixed for the life of each loan; current figures are on the studentaid.gov interest rates page.

What is the annual limit for medical students?

Students in a professional degree program can borrow up to $50,000 in Direct Unsubsidized Loans per academic year. Every Direct Loan a student receives in the same academic year counts against that amount, according to the department's loan limits FAQ.

An individual award can come in lower. Beginning with the 2026-27 award year, schools must reduce annual loan amounts for students enrolled less than full time, using a schedule of reductions the department set in the final rule. Schools can also set their own annual limits below the federal cap for a specific program, though a lower limit has to apply to every student in that program, according to the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. Federal regulations also bar any Direct Loan from exceeding the student's cost of attendance minus other financial aid.

What is the total limit?

Professional students can borrow up to $200,000 in Direct Unsubsidized Loans across all graduate and professional study. Four years of medical school at the full $50,000 a year reaches that cap.

Loans for an earlier graduate or professional degree count toward the $200,000, according to the department's FAQ. A student who borrowed $30,000 in Direct Unsubsidized Loans for a master's degree before medical school would have $170,000 left. Undergraduate loans do not count toward the $200,000.

What is the $257,500 lifetime limit?

The lifetime limit caps all federal student loans a person receives at $257,500. It includes undergraduate loans, Grad PLUS loans and other federal student loans, and it excludes Parent PLUS loans a borrower takes out for a dependent child.

Paying off a loan does not free up room under the cap. The department's FAQ says the limit applies "without regard to amounts repaid, forgiven, canceled, or otherwise discharged." Loan money a school or borrower returns does not count.

Federal undergraduate loan limits top out at $31,000 for dependent students and $57,500 for independent students. A borrower who used the full $57,500 as an undergraduate and the full $200,000 in medical school would land at $257,500 exactly.

Who counts as a professional student?

The higher limits apply only to programs the department treats as professional degree programs. Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) programs were among the 11 fields named in the department's final rule, along with law, dentistry, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, optometry, podiatry, theology and clinical psychology.

In June 2026, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., stayed parts of that rule's professional degree definition, finding it likely narrower than the definition Congress wrote into the law. The department responded with an interim list of programs it treats as professional while court orders stand, adding fields such as nursing and physical therapy. The list started at 29 programs and grew to 30 in October 2026, when the department added naturopathic medicine after a separate federal court ruling in Oregon. M.D. and D.O. programs are on both the original and interim lists, and lawsuits over the definition remained pending as of November 2026.

What if a student was already enrolled before July 1, 2026?

Students who were enrolled in a program as of June 30, 2026, and received a federal Direct Loan for that program before July 1, 2026, fall under what the department calls an interim exception, according to its loan limits FAQ. The exception lasts for the lesser of three academic years or the time left in the student's program, counted from July 1, 2026.

During that window, medical students can keep borrowing Grad PLUS loans up to the cost of attendance minus other aid. They also keep the higher Direct Unsubsidized Loan limits health professions students have had since 1996, and the $257,500 lifetime limit does not apply to them.

Students cannot opt out of the exception to take the new $50,000 annual limit instead. The exception ends if a student withdraws from the program. Once it ends, the new limits apply, and any Grad PLUS loans the student already received count toward the $257,500 lifetime limit, according to the department's fact sheet.

How do the limits compare with the cost of medical school?

The median four-year cost of attendance for the medical school class of 2026 is $297,745 at public schools and $408,150 at private schools, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). At those medians, a student borrowing the full $200,000 would need $97,745 from other sources at a public school and $208,150 at a private school. Median education debt for the class of 2025 was $215,000, a figure that includes premedical debt.

About half of all medical students were taking out Grad PLUS loans, totaling more than $2 billion a year, the AAMC reported in June 2025. The AAMC's guidance for aspiring medical students says some students may need credit-based private loans to cover remaining costs and recommends using federal loans first.

Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said in the department's announcement of the final rule that it would "force institutions to reduce costs." The AAMC has pointed to its own analysis finding that the average annual growth rate of medical school tuition slowed in the four years after Grad PLUS loans were introduced in 2006, compared with the four years before, after adjusting for inflation.

Where to check your own limits

Federal Student Aid posts its current guidance on the new limits on the studentaid.gov One Big Beautiful Bill Act updates page. Borrowers can see every federal loan they have received by logging in to studentaid.gov and opening the My Aid section of the dashboard, and the Loan Simulator estimates payments under federal repayment plans.

A medical school's financial aid office decides whether a student falls under the interim exception and how much the student can borrow each year. The AAMC's FIRST program keeps a free database of state and federal scholarship and loan repayment programs.

Frequently asked questions about federal loans for medical students

How much can a medical student borrow in federal loans per year?

Up to $50,000 per academic year in Direct Unsubsidized Loans for students whose first federal loan for the program came on or after July 1, 2026. Schools can award less based on enrollment, cost of attendance or a program-wide school limit.

What is the maximum total federal loan amount for medical school?

Professional students can borrow $200,000 in Direct Unsubsidized Loans across all graduate and professional study, inside a $257,500 lifetime limit on all federal student loans.

Can medical students still get Grad PLUS loans?

Only under the interim exception: students enrolled as of June 30, 2026, who received a federal Direct Loan for that program before July 1, 2026, can keep borrowing Grad PLUS for up to three academic years or until they finish, whichever comes first.

Do undergraduate loans count toward the $200,000 limit?

No. Undergraduate loans count toward the $257,500 lifetime limit but not toward the $200,000 professional limit.

Do paid-off or forgiven loans count toward the lifetime limit?

Yes. The $257,500 limit counts loans that have been repaid, forgiven, canceled or discharged.

Are D.O. students treated the same as M.D. students?

Yes. Both programs are on the Department of Education's list of professional degree programs eligible for the $50,000 annual and $200,000 total limits.

What is the interest rate on federal loans for medical students?

The rate is 8.07% fixed for graduate and professional Direct Unsubsidized Loans first disbursed from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, plus a 1.057% origination fee. The rate resets for new loans each July 1; studentaid.gov lists the current figures.