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Were any popular graduate programs (MBA, MPP, MSW, JD) reclassified in the 2025 update?
Executive summary
The Department of Education’s 2025 regulatory work proposing a narrower definition of “professional degree” would remove many graduate programs from that category — most reporting and advocacy groups cite nursing, physician assistant, public health, occupational/physical therapy, counseling, and social work among programs at risk — and that change affects eligibility for higher loan limits under H.R.1 (the “One Big Beautiful Bill/Big Beautiful Bill” framework) [1] [2] [3]. Multiple outlets and organizations say the draft would shrink the list from roughly 2,000 programs to fewer than 600, and several news and advocacy pieces specifically identify graduate nursing programs as being reclassified out of “professional” status [1] [4] [5].
1. What the 2025 proposal actually does, in plain terms
The Department of Education’s RISE committee and related rulemaking work proposed a new, tighter definition of “professional degree programs,” which negotiators say would dramatically cut the number of programs qualifying as professional — from around 2,000 to under 600 — and therefore make fewer graduate programs eligible for the higher lifetime loan cap allocated to “professional” students under legislation passed this year [1] [3]. The consequence repeatedly emphasized by advocates is reduced access to the larger $200,000 professional-student borrowing maximum versus the $100,000 cap for other graduate borrowers under H.R.1 [3] [4].
2. Which popular graduate degrees are repeatedly named as being reclassified
Reporting and stakeholder statements identify specific programs that the Department’s draft would exclude from professional status: advanced nursing degrees (MSN, DNP, NP, CRNA, CNM), physician assistant programs, occupational and physical therapy, counseling and therapy fields, public health degrees (MPH, DrPH), and social work (MSW) among others [1] [2] [4]. Newsweek, The Independent, ASPPH, and advocacy summaries list medicine, dentistry, law, pharmacy, and some clinical psychology programs as remaining professional, while many health-, counseling-, and social-work-related programs would be removed [4] [3] [2].
3. Nursing as a high-profile example — what’s been reported
Multiple outlets and professional groups flagged graduate nursing programs as a leading casualty: The Independent, Nurse.org, Newsweek, and university- and association-level statements report the Education Department excluded nursing from its revamped “professional degree” definition, which stakeholders warn will strip graduate nursing students of access to higher federal loan limits that applied to professional-degree students [6] [4] [5]. Nursing organizations and university negotiators are urging the Department to preserve professional-degree classification for advanced nursing degrees because of licensure and clinical-training considerations [7] [8].
4. Who agrees and who objects — the competing viewpoints
Research universities and professional schools (represented by groups such as the AAU and ASPPH) warn the proposal will harm access and workforce pipelines in healthcare and public health, and that graduate/professional students tend to have higher earnings and lower default rates — arguing the change is counterproductive [3] [2]. The Department and some negotiators framed the revision as a way to prevent unreasonable debt relative to expected salaries and to reduce incentive for institutions to treat professional programs as “cash cows,” a viewpoint Newsweek cited without endorsing it [4]. Stakeholder filings and public comments available in NASFAA materials show active pushback and calls to add specific CIP codes (fields) back into the professional list [8].
5. What this means for MBAs, JDs, MPPs, and MSWs specifically
Available reporting and organizational summaries name law (JD), medicine (MD/DO), dentistry, pharmacy, optometry and a handful of other traditional long-professional programs as remaining in the professional bucket — which implies JDs and typical MBAs at major business schools were among those still treated as “professional” in the draft, though media lists vary [4] [3]. Social work (MSW) appears on lists of programs at risk of exclusion alongside counseling and public-health degrees, and advocacy groups like ASPPH explicitly called out public health degrees; separate university pages show MSW dual-degree practices but do not speak to the federal reclassification [2] [1] [9]. Specifics for every MBA, MPP, MSW, or JD program are not catalogued in the current reporting — available sources do not mention a program-by-program list naming which individual MBA, MPP, MSW, or JD degrees at particular schools were reclassified (not found in current reporting).
6. Practical takeaway and limitations of current reporting
The core fact supported across the materials is that a proposed 2025 rule would substantially narrow the federal “professional degree” category, with nursing and many allied-health and behavioral-health graduate programs cited as likely to lose that status — and that would change loan-limit eligibility [1] [4] [3]. However, reporting differs on the complete roster of included versus excluded fields, and none of the provided sources supplies a definitive, exhaustive, program-by-program federal list for every MBA, MPP, MSW, or JD program — available sources do not mention a complete official DOJ/ED master list of reclassified individual degree programs (not found in current reporting). Always check the Department of Education’s published Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and institutional financial-aid offices for final determinations and program-specific guidance [2] [8].