https://www.wsj.com/opinion/college-tuition-cuts-mba-program-student-loans-da92a98b?mod=trending_now_opn_1 (paywalled)

WSJ reports that colleges throughout the US are having a "fire sale" on MBAs. Seems that 2025's cap on graduate loans has greatly lowered the outrageous amounts colleges charge for their MBAs, if their students' loans are to subsidized by federal govt.

And more changes are coming (not in linked article). Starting July 1, 2026 Grad Plus loans are eliminated. Those federal loans included tuition plus living expenses and easily could reach $100K per year. Now students have to get private loans for costs that exceed $20K per year ($50K per year for professional programs like MD or dentist).

Next, there are aggregate lifetime grad school loan limits of $100K ($200K for professional). So my cousin by marriage (Multi-year Masters in Feminist Studies and a many years long PHD focusing on minority film-making) would have to have to have used private loans. And no, I am not making this up.

Finally, the best might be the new Earning Accountability Metrics. Graduate degree programs will lose eligibility for federal student aid entirely if the average earnings of their graduates fall below the average earnings of standard college graduates for two to three consecutive years. So goodbye to many of those underwater basket weaving Masters programs.

This is a huuuge win for making college more affordable and ensuring grad students have better outcomes. It really was a Big Beautiful Bill. Great Trump et al.

This is a huge problem for dental, medical, and nurse anesthesia students whose school costs are high but they will not struggle to repay their loans. Schools are also having to create emergency loan funds to assist students because the disbursement dates have shifted later and students cannot pay tuition and living expenses at the due date.

I am happy if this pushes the cost of regular grad school down, but am not seeing that happen in the medical field where the cost of school is actually justified and quantifiable.

Emotional Support Cobra said:

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This is a huge problem for dental, medical, and nurse anesthesia students whose school costs are high but they will not struggle to repay their loans. Schools are also having to create emergency loan funds to assist students because the disbursement dates have shifted later and students cannot pay tuition and living expenses at the due date.

I am happy if this pushes the cost of regular grad school down, but am not seeing that happen in the medical field where the cost of school is actually justified and quantifiable.

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If they are good risks (sounds like they are) the private sector will step in and provide loans for them.

Agree but if they have subpar credit they may not be eligible. Federal loons are not credit based.

Bottom line...graduate school is optional, but I do think if the future income is high, there should be exceptions to borrowing limits.

Emotional Support Cobra said:

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Agree but if they have subpar credit they may not be eligible. Federal loons are not credit based.

Bottom line...graduate school is optional, but I do think if the future income is high, there should be exceptions to borrowing limits.

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Seems to me those schools will need to adjust their prices or find ways to finance their poor students.

The money being charged by these professional finishing schools is exorbitant and has deteriorated the quality of professional they deliver. HTH.

This is a step in the right direction. Federal backing of student loans at no risk to the lending institution is what made college cost skyrocket. Of course the colleges are going to raise their cost to match the guaranteed amount. Of course the government is going to keep raising that amount to try and keep up with the ever rising cost of college. All the while, us tax payers pick up the bill for defaults and never ending deferrals. College needs to operate in a free market and it rarely does.

The middle class really gets screwed in this deal. Not rich enough to be able to pay for college for their kids outright without major sacrifices and not poor enough to be eligible for grants, scholarships and the host of other programs for the poor. God forbid you are born a white male in the last 30 years. Not only do you not qualify for any of these programs and scholarships but until recently you were told that less qualified individuals are taking your spot in college because of the color of your skin or you are male instead of female.

I have two daughters getting graduate degrees, and I am more and more likely to go back to school at almost 50 and knock out another graduate degree.

I am 100% on board with all of these changes, especially if we are generally inclusive on the definition of professional degree. The definition of professional degree under the BBB is:

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Professional Degree: A degree that signifies both completion of the academic requirements for beginning practice in a given profession and a level of professional skill beyond that normally required for a bachelor's degree. Professional licensure is also generally required. Examples of a professional degree include but are not limited to Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), Dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.), Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.), Chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.), Law (L.L.B. or J.D.), Medicine (M.D.), Optometry (O.D.), Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), Podiatry (D.P.M., D.P., or Pod.D.), and Theology (M.Div., or M.H.L.).

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https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-34/subtitle-B/chapter-VI/part-668/subpart-A/section-668.2

This would include things my daughters are looking towards, which should be good. They would include things like Physical Therapist, Occupational Therapist, CPA, Psychologist, etc. Basically, if you can't be a licensed professional in that field without a graduate degree, it is likely included. Finally, if you are going to throw Masters of Divinity in there, the argument that this list should be more inclusive is easy to make, because you don't even need a bachelor's degree to be a preacher in many flavors of religion.

This is a huge, huge win for conservatism and the reduction of liberal indoctrination through our Universities. When Universities get paid a lot less for indoctrination degrees, we will see a Tanya fewer of them.

Emotional Support Cobra said:

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This is a huge problem for dental, medical, and nurse anesthesia students whose school costs are high but they will not struggle to repay their loans. Schools are also having to create emergency loan funds to assist students because the disbursement dates have shifted later and students cannot pay tuition and living expenses at the due date.

I am happy if this pushes the cost of regular grad school down, but am not seeing that happen in the medical field where the cost of school is actually justified and quantifiable.

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Because of your last sentence, private loans are very available at reasonable rates, and will become even more available as federal loan availability normalizes.

I can think of few better investments than lending money at 8% to a dude that has an MD that is studying to be an anesthesiologist. Unless that kid gets addicted to morphine, you are getting that money back.

This will also be good for the profession. When you have investors providing the money for education for something as dangerous as anesthesiologist, you want the smartest minds to get the opportunities.

DEI is not a good indicator to a lender of whether or not you are going to get your investment back.

From the preview on the linked article

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The University of California, Irvine, this month said it will reduce tuition for its MBA program by $30,000 to $99,000. "The Merage Flex MBA's new tuition falls below the federal loan cap of $100,000,

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About 2 years ago, I tried to encourage one of my coworkers in the Seattle area to get an Executive MBA from UW.

They wanted $129,000 so she decided it wasn't worth it. And I continue to suffer with her not understanding anything about running a business.

I'll be interested to see what University of Washington does.

Update: looks like UW is now $134k for their Executive MBA

I believe the SAVE Plan forbearance is coming to an end in July as well. Basically any student loan borrowers who were on SAVE need to switch plans or be automatically enrolled in the Standard Plan. There are a lot of borrowers who haven't had to pay interest in years due to COVID and legal challenges who are about to get a big dose of reality.

HollywoodBQ said:

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From the preview on the linked article

Quote:

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The University of California, Irvine, this month said it will reduce tuition for its MBA program by $30,000 to $99,000. "The Merage Flex MBA's new tuition falls below the federal loan cap of $100,000,

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About 2 years ago, I tried to encourage one of my coworkers in the Seattle area to get an Executive MBA from UW.

They wanted $129,000 so she decided it wasn't worth it. And I continue to suffer with her not understanding anything about running a business.

I'll be interested to see what University of Washington does.

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I was department head in 2 Colleges of Business.

My own MBA was from University of Dallas which required 49 hours, if I remember correctly. U of D was a very good learning environment. 2 of my courses (market research and capstone) took real money from real clients (at the time - tens of thousands of dollars) and required student groups to produce real actionable deliverables. Great program.

I have also taught in 4 MBA programs (1 executive) and have generally been less than impressed. Didn't have high enough standards for entry and performance, not enough meat required in the lower classes, not enough high level stuff in the top level classes.

Don't know about UW, but way too many of these programs are simply cash cows for Universities who are selling an MBA credential rather honing true MBA-level skills. Yeah, the price as been way too high for what many get out of the programs.

Over_ed said:

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Finally, the best might be the new Earning Accountability Metrics. Graduate degree programs will lose eligibility for federal student aid entirely if the average earnings of their graduates fall below the average earnings of standard college graduates for two to three consecutive years. So goodbye to many of those underwater basket weaving Masters programs.

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This is the way. Outcomes based funding. Put up or shut up.

Either your program is worth the investment in the form of a high paying job at graduation, or it doesn't get the funding.

This will end federal loans for a lot of those worthless graduate degrees.

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but way too many of these programs are simply cash cows for Universities who are selling an MBA credential rather honing true MBA-level skills.

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Govt-University collusion is one giant moral hazard that leaves financial lives of students (and taxpayers) in their trail of destruction...

Ironic, because they both claim to support student wellbeing.

Over_ed said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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From the preview on the linked article

Quote:

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The University of California, Irvine, this month said it will reduce tuition for its MBA program by $30,000 to $99,000. "The Merage Flex MBA's new tuition falls below the federal loan cap of $100,000,

---

About 2 years ago, I tried to encourage one of my coworkers in the Seattle area to get an Executive MBA from UW.

They wanted $129,000 so she decided it wasn't worth it. And I continue to suffer with her not understanding anything about running a business.

I'll be interested to see what University of Washington does.

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I was department head in 2 Colleges of Business.

My own MBA was from University of Dallas which required 49 hours, if I remember correctly. U of D was a very good learning environment. 2 of my courses (market research and capstone) took real money from real clients (at the time - tens of thousands of dollars) and required student groups to produce real actionable deliverables. Great program.

I have also taught in 4 MBA programs (1 executive) and have generally been less than impressed. Didn't have high enough standards for entry and performance, not enough meat required in the lower classes, not enough high level stuff in the top level classes.

Don't know about UW, but way too many of these programs are simply cash cows for Universities who are selling an MBA credential rather honing true MBA-level skills. Yeah, the price as been way too high for what many get out of the programs.

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100% - the universities are selling "credentialing"
Stanford is one of the worst and what's hilarious is how many guys on LinkedIn will list "Stanford" as their education when you drill into it, you find out that they took a 5 day management seminar at Stanford.

When I did my Executive MBA at Colorado, one of our professors described the difference between the Full Time MBA and the Executive MBA like this - "The Full Time MBA is for people who want to get good jobs. The Executive MBA is for people who already have good jobs who want to get better jobs."

Also, one of the professors shared with us that for an Executive MBA, the demand curve is not affected by price like you would expect. Basically he told us that they could increase the price significantly and it wouldn't affect enrollment at all. There are always 40-50 people every year who are willing to pay for the program.

And of course in the early 2000s, there were still lots of generous employee education benefits. I had 4-5 people in my class who worked for Sun Microsystems.