<p>If, for example, I take out 4K in federal loans as an undergrad, will that mean I'll have 4K less money to borrow from for graduate/professional school?</p>
<p>The aggregate limit for grad/professional loans includes any loans taken out as an undergrad. The annual limit for a grad student is $20,500 with an aggregate limit of $138,500. So if you borrowed $4000 as an undergrad, you’d have $134,500 loan eligibility left. </p>
<p>The limits, as Swimcatsmom has stated, would mean that those who took the max Direct loans of $27K would have their grad limit lowered to $115K. That 's still 11 semesters and some change of grad money of $10,250 per term($20500 a year). </p>
<p>A problem with all of this is that when students have taken out all of those ug loans, on top of making co loans with parents and private agreements with parents, we are looking at an awful lot of money to repay especially with the effect of compound interest. I know a young woman who took so much in loans as a ug, including parental payback, and couldn’t find a job right after grad, so she defaulted. You do that, you can’t take out any grad loans till that’s brought up to date. In a way, it was a good thing as she can’t even pay back those UG obligations; how on earth can she take on the grad loans on top of that? </p>
<p>My son’s SO is borrowing the max per year for prof/grad school right now which is a lot, but she has zero in ug loans which means she won’t have a whole lot more than most ug kids for her two year program, and likely has excellent job and wage prospects. That would not be the case, if she had ug loans on her back and she is taking on even MORE. </p>