What student loan changes mean for borrowers

WFMY News 2

For people that are borrowing for the first time. Two thing have change, the amount you can borrow especially if you are a graduate student or in medical or law school. If you are graduate student it’s only $20,500 a year, and if you’re in a medical or a law school program it’s $50,000 per year. Also, the amount of payment programs available once you’re out of school are significantly reduced.
There’s an additional step in my mind now, if they’re planning for college. A lot of families will think, figure out how to pay this year, and worry about next year next year. You can’t do that anymore with these new limits. You need to caclculate what you need to borrow for the full degree. And if it’s beyond these new limits, you need to find a way to pay for the rest of it.
Congress seems to think so [these new loan limits will put pressure on schools to lower tuition rates]. But whether that happens remains to be seen. What I’m afraid of, from the unofficial chatter I’ve been hearing, is that colleges may drop programs that aren’t going to be affordable to people at with these new loan limits.