What exact wording did the Department of Education use to describe nursing as not a 'professional' degree?

1. What the Department of Education’s wording looks like — the explicit list

Reporting shows the Department of Education implemented a working list of graduate programs it will treat as “professional” for borrowing limits; that list includes medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, law, veterinary medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatry, chiropractic, theology and clinical psychology — and does not include nursing ^{[1] [4]}. Snopes summarizes the department’s approach as saying certain credentials (including MSN and DNP) will no longer be classified as professional degrees under the late‑2025 implementation ^[2].

2. Direct quotes and the department’s stated rationale

When asked, the Education Department’s higher‑education press secretary Ellen Keast said the department “has had a consistent definition of what constitutes a professional degree for decades and the consensus‑based language aligns with this historical precedent,” asserting nursing was never explicitly included in the original regulatory examples ^{[3] [1]}. Newsweek reports Keast called other accounts “fake news at its finest” in context of pushback — showing the department is defending its textual reading of longstanding federal language ^[1].

3. How sources describe the exact change to nursing’s classification

Multiple outlets characterize the change as the department “excluding” or “removing” nursing from the definition of professional degrees for student‑loan rules; Nurse.com and Nurse.org say the department’s revised language “no longer explicitly includes nursing” and that nursing “has been removed” from recognized professional programs ^{[5] [6]}. Regional and national news outlets repeat that nursing programs such as MSN and DNP were among credentials the department announced it would not count as professional degrees ^{[7] [3]}.

4. Who is contesting the wording and why they object

Leading nursing organizations — the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing — publicly object, saying exclusion jeopardizes graduate funding and the nurse workforce and urging revision to explicitly include nursing pathways ^{[8] [4]}. Their statements frame the department’s textual interpretation as at odds with decades of efforts to align nursing with other health professions and warn of downstream effects on education capacity and patient care ^{[8] [1]}.

5. Independent fact‑checking and legal/regulatory context

Fact‑checkers note the Department is interpreting a definition that dates to federal regulations from 1965 and applying a narrower reading now to determine Title IV borrowing caps; Snopes outlines the regulatory citation (34 CFR 668.2) and concludes the department said it would no longer classify a list of credentials (nursing among them) as professional degrees for these loan rules ^[2]. News outlets point out ambiguity in historical practice — nursing wasn’t explicitly named in the 1965 examples, which the department now emphasizes ^{[3] [1]}.

6. What the Department of Education did not say (and limits of reporting)

Available sources do not publish a single, verbatim one‑sentence “nursing is not a professional degree” decree from the agency; rather, reporting relies on the updated list of programs treated as “professional” and the department’s explanation that nursing was not historically listed ^{[1] [3] [2]}. Detailed regulatory text excerpts beyond references to the 1965 definition are not reproduced in the cited articles, and the exact administrative memo or Federal Register language is not included in these summaries ^[2].

7. Competing interpretations and stakes

The department frames its action as consistent legal interpretation; nursing groups frame it as a policy choice with practical harm to the nurse pipeline ^{[3] [8]}. Media outlets emphasize both: that a narrow regulatory reading produced the omission, and that nursing leaders view the omission as de‑valuing the profession and imperiling loan access for graduate nursing students ^{[1] [5]}. Snopes and mainstream outlets flag that the change specifically affects loan caps created by the One Big Beautiful Bill, not necessarily every government recognition of nursing’s professional status ^{[2] [9]}.

8. Bottom line for someone asking “what exact wording?”

If you are seeking the verbatim clause that “describes nursing as not a ‘professional’ degree,” the articles show the effect comes from an updated list of programs the Department now counts as “professional” (which omits nursing) and from the department’s statement about its historical regulatory definition — but the plain‑language single sentence “nursing is not a professional degree” is not quoted as an isolated line in the available reporting; instead, outlets cite the updated list and the department’s explanatory remarks ^{[1] [3] [2]}.