Protecting the future occupational therapy workforce

The federal student loan system always treated graduate and professional programs differently, but for many years, the distinction mattered far less than it does today. Since 1998, the Stafford Loan program (now the Direct Unsubsidized Loan program) included separate annual and lifetime limits for graduate programs versus professional programs. Professional programs received higher borrowing caps because policy makers understood that some fields, particularly in health care, required intensive and expensive training. The list of professional programs, however, was extremely narrow and historically included only 10 fields, including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law, osteopathic medicine, and similar disciplines. Because students in other post-baccalaureate programs could rely on Grad PLUS loans when they hit the Stafford limits, the narrow definition rarely caused concern. The availability of Grad PLUS loans essentially masked the inequities of the underlying structure.