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Which specific graduate degrees were reclassified as non-professional by the Department of Education in 2025?
Executive summary
The Department of Education in 2025 proposed narrowing its definition of “professional degrees,” a move that would reduce the list of programs counted as professional from roughly 2,000 to fewer than 600 and would remove several health, education, and social‑service graduate programs from that category — with repeated mentions of nursing (MSN, DNP), physician assistant, occupational and physical therapy, audiology, speech‑language pathology, public health (MPH, DrPH), social work (MSW/DSW), education master’s, and certain business and engineering master’s programs [1] [2] [3]. Coverage is uneven across outlets and many items appear in social posts and organizational statements rather than a single definitive Department list in the documents provided [3] [2] [4].
1. What the Department proposed and the scale of the change
The Department’s RISE committee and related coverage frame this as a sharp tightening of the “professional degree” definition: reporting and advocacy groups say the proposal would shrink the covered programs from about 2,000 to under 600, a change that would materially affect which graduate programs qualify for higher federal loan limits and other programmatic treatments [1] [5]. Association and advocacy posts describe a formal proposal and a forthcoming Notice of Proposed Rulemaking with a 30‑day comment period [4].
2. Which specific graduate degrees are repeatedly named in reporting and social posts
Multiple reports and social posts list an overlapping set of programs said to be at risk: advanced nursing degrees (MSN, DNP, nurse practitioner, CRNA), physician assistant programs, occupational therapy, physical therapy, audiology, speech‑language pathology, public health degrees (MPH, DrPH), social work (MSW, DSW), education master’s (including teaching), counseling and therapy fields, and some business and engineering master’s degrees — plus mentions of IT/cybersecurity and arts/architecture in some lists [3] [2] [1].
3. Where the lists come from and how authoritative they are
The items above appear across a mix of sources: advocacy posts, social media threads, organizational commentaries (ASPPH), and news summaries. For example, the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) explicitly warns that the proposal would exclude MPH and DrPH from the professional category and urges formal comments when the NPRM appears [4]. Social threads provide detailed itemized lists but do not cite an official DOE table [3] [2]. Independent outlets summarize the DOE’s redefinition efforts but do not publish a single consolidated official list in the documents provided [5] [6].
4. Immediate implications cited by advocates and news outlets
Advocates say removing these programs from the “professional” label could reduce access to higher federal graduate borrowing limits and weaken pipelines into critical healthcare and public service roles; nursing coverage highlights the potential loss of higher federal loan limits for graduate nursing students as an example [7] [1] [4]. News and advocacy pieces link the change to the broader One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) implementation and to new loan‑cap structures [7] [6].
5. Disagreements, caveats, and limits of the available reporting
Not all items in social lists are verified by an official DOE master list in the provided sources; some posts conflate Department of Education action with Department of Labor classification changes or earlier rules [3]. The academic association coverage and reporting note the DOE’s proposal process and calls for public comment, implying the classification is still subject to rulemaking and may change before finalization [4] [5]. Available sources do not reproduce a definitive, final Department table showing every degree reclassified.
6. How to verify final determinations and next steps for affected students
The most authoritative confirmation will be the Department’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and any final rule that follows; ASPPH and other organizations note that a NPRM and 30‑day comment period are expected, and they are mobilizing institutional responses [4]. Students and institutions should monitor the DOE rulemaking docket and industry group advisories [5] [4]. Advocacy groups are already characterizing the likely impacts and encouraging formal comments to influence the outcome [4].
Limitations: This analysis relies on the supplied news, association statements, and social posts; no single supplied source publishes a definitive official list from the Department of Education that I can cite line‑by‑line, so some items come from repeated reporting and posts rather than an explicit DOE table in the provided documents [3] [2] [4].