¶ The $100,000 Federal Student Loan Cap
The one big beautiful bill . A portion of it is to cap federal student loans at $20,000 per person per year . It's a problem , y'all . There's a total lifetime limit of $100,000 . That's right .
The authors who wrote this said that if there is unpaid student loan debt , that certain schools will have to take responsibility for having to pay a portion of that for the students .
I don't understand how this works , but apparently some of that money that the institution is going to have to pay will go into this pool that'll go towards schools that are reaching certain metrics that the authors of this bill deem to be basically worthy to get this money . The problem is who's going to be accountable for this ?
This is some type of amorphous thing that's in the sky . I'm nervous about this , right , because there are caps already on how much student loans you can take out federally , right ? That cap is way higher than $100,000 , right , and that makes a big difference for people who are going to grad school .
And so , in essence , what you're doing is you're continuing to ensure that the only people who are able to go to grad school specifically the four-year grad schools , the law school , law schools three years , but the med schools you're ensuring that only the rich , or only the well-off , can go to school going back in time .
We all know what that does time .
We all know what that does and that's fine . Fine , you know , that's fine . There are consequences to all those different things . But it's like when it's blatantly in your face it's like yo , yo , like . So , for pre-meds who are listening to , like well , can you like make this real as to like how this is going to affect me ?
And I'm like , I'm thinking about , I'm like like you have to plan with the assumption that you may not have full federal support in the future . Right , like I remember going to school in the 90s , like I started college in 96 . And I remember , you know , there was a junior who was Basil , good guy , cool brother . You ever met somebody who's just like .
He's just like nothing bothers him , Nothing fazes him . He wore the nicest clothes , he wasn't , he was popular , he was popular for because just how cool he was right . And I remember baz , I was telling baz I was like yo man , like , oh , like it's like I forgot what I think it was .
Like it was the beginning of like the second semester of my first year and we were in the same dorm and stuff like that , and he came out like at 10 o'clock in the morning and I just got back from like the bursar's office because my shit ain't clear . If you know what I mean , my refund check ain't clear .
I was like yo man , they trying to kick me out of school and stuff , and he's like man , chill man . I was like what do you mean chill ? He's like yeah , you can always take . He's like brushing his teeth while he's telling me this . He's like chill , man , you can always take . I'm like you motherfucker .
I'm like yo you right , Right , and do that no more with this big beautiful bill , if it goes through , right .
And for someone like me who knows that there's going to be this prolonged like I knew I was going to , I was going to go to med school , or I wanted to go to med school , right , it wasn't like I wanted to go work in corporate America and I just wanted to do four years of college , just so I can get .
I was like , well , you know , I got to do four years of undergrad , then I got to do four years of med school . Um , so , yeah , I'm going to be in a hell of a ton of debt . I might as well just start right now . But yeah , for , for pre-meds , you just you're going to have to start If this bill goes through .
You have to know that there's going to be a significant portion of your student loan debt that is not going to have any federal funding to this , and you're going to probably have to prepare yourself for using private loans or waiting for family to help you out .
So , speaking of all of that right , the other nuance of this is kind of the the climate of
¶ Personal Impact on Medical Students
anti-DEI right . And so one of the ways that you can kill programs , one of the ways that in politics , programs are actually killed , is that you don't say , well , we don't want this program anymore . What you do is you just cut the funding . So you say , well , we don't want this program anymore . What you do is you just cut the funding .
So you say , well , the program exists , it just hasn't been funded , right ? So if it hasn't been funded , then technically you know program exists on paper , but it still doesn't exist .
And so when you have universities that are saying , listen , we are going to engage in diversity recruitment efforts , we don't care what the federal government says , then the federal government can come back and go . You go ahead and do that . You better go ahead and do that .
Ok , yeah , but we're going to do our own thing over here and we're going to cut the funding . Because , right there , if you don't have funding to be able to bring these students in , then what are you recruiting ? Your recruitment efforts are moot unless the universities themselves can actually come up with their own ways of funding these students .
Well , that's , that's a point that I was going , that I was going to mention is . You know , I was . I was trying to figure out , well , what are the upsides of this type of bill ? And I I was thinking about , well , will this force schools to not inflate tuition ? I don't know , I don't know .
Yeah , I'm going to say no , I don't think that it's going to force the schools not to inflate tuition . I just don't you know .
Because if this means that more and more people got to pay out of pocket , that could be a problem for schools and like , yeah , you're going to have to give me some value .
Well , I mean they'll just replace who paid by loans with who's paying out of pocket , right Like that . I mean you think it's that easy . You think it's that easy ? I do , I do . I do think it's that easy . I think that there are a number of students who are not getting into medical school , who would like to get into medical school , and daddy can pay .
But here's this .
So there are like credible studies , research that shows that , like you can see , the inflection point of when tuition just catapulted I can't remember what decade it was , but it had to do with when the federal government decided that they were going to federally back loans , and when that occurred , schools were like hey yo , no matter what , as Haitians would say .
PI , pi .
Was that ? Was that me PI PI PI .
PI , p-i , p-i , p-i , p-i , p-i-e . No , not P-I-E , just P-I Ra , no , no , no , no , there's , no R in it . P-i-e no , not P-I-E , p-i .
P-I . There you go , the Haitians . Are they ? Like ? Are their ears bleeding right now ? Pi Sac passe Haitians . Did I do a good job ? Yes , all right . But here's another thing , too Like . Is this going to force states to actually start implementing programs where they have to pay for medical school for people to go in ? Right , so you know , you know how ?
Like remember what's that school , ohio University implementing programs where they have to pay for medical school for people to go in ? Right , so you know , you know how . Like remember what's that school , ohio University .
Remember , like everybody who applied there , like they would give you a certain amount of financial aid if you signed this contract that said you're going to come back and work in the state for like three to five years . Is that going to increase those type of programs ?
So it . So I will say this it might , but any increase or , excuse me , any , Any effort to bring in any sort of student who cannot pay out of pocket must be financially lucrative for whomever is bringing them in . I want people to understand that there is no altruism in helping people get into medical school , in helping people get into medical school Like .
There's no altruism not on the side of the medical schools , not on the side of the federal government , not on the side of any
¶ Anti-DEI and Funding Cuts
of these programs that already exist and not on the side of any programs , future programs that will exist . There is no altruism in getting people into medical school Like it just doesn't exist . There is no altruism in getting people into medical school Like it just doesn't exist .
And I'm saying this , I'm really saying this more for the people who are very , you know , gung-ho , DEI right , who don't understand very specifically why this whole thing even exists . Right , and I'm pro-DEI , don't get me wrong but I also know what country I live in and I know we live in a capitalistic country . So this is not about altruism , not at all .
So I just want to make that clear .
I got a question . I got a question for you , but I actually got a question for the audience Would a 100,000 loan cap have stopped you from applying to medical school ? So this is for the people who are in med school right now , folks who are in residency . If you knew that there was a cap on the amount
¶ Will Schools Lower Tuition?
of student loans that you could get , and that like pretty much half , because I think right now the majority of people well , I don't know , I can't say that you know those graduate from 400 to $500,000 of student loan debt . Yo , that's more than half , that's more than half of their student loans was probably in private loans .
So I present to you all , like would you have changed your decision to go to med school or to apply to med school if you knew like some of this stuff was down the the pike ?
Um , let me ask you if you , if you knew like a probably 75 , 50 to 75 is going to be private loans , which is going to be at like 13 back in the day I I probably still would have applied , you still would .
I probably still would have applied , knowing what I know . Now I I don't know . But if you asked me back then , understanding all of this , back then I'd have been like all right , well , if I get a loan from the government versus I get a private loan , what's the big deal ? I would not have understood .
The stakes are high , right , but I would not have understood the nuance , and this is why I think it's important that we're talking about this , because pre-meds really , really , really need to understand . Don't think like Dr Renee did , like ah , what's the big deal ? A loan is a loan , is a loan .
No , a loan is a loan is not a loan A loan got to get paid back yo back , and there there might not be deferment , there might not be forbearance , there might be a calling of your loan , which basically means at some point any lender could be like yeah , just give me the whole thing now .
Um , you don't have those protections with a private loan necessarily , like you do with the federal government , right ?
Um , I just I , I just I have to . So I , if it was me , because you never asked me questions , but if it was me I was going to ask you a question .
But you keep chiming in .
You never ask me any questions .
I was going to ask you a question , but you keep chiming in . Ask your question . Tell us , tell us , everybody does Nii interrupt me before I can actually ever get him to a point where I can ask a question .
Let us know , alfred , don't plug anything in , alfred . I know I was going to put something in , that's right .
Alfred , you can plug in all the times when he's interrupted me .
Don't put nothing in there . Okay , alfred , you're on my side , yo , you're on my side side . Whatever , knowing all this thing was going on , I knew I wanted to be a doctor and I was willing to sacrifice anything , but I think I would be sweating bricks knowing that all of these .
I'd be sweating bricks knowing that Because , for me , the way when I was applying , I knew I was applying to med school without , like , I wasn't going to ask my parents for jack right , mainly because yo , like , by the time I was like yo , I had been like six or
¶ Would This Stop Future Doctors?
seven FASTAs in right . So I know the jig was up with my parents , like they can't afford this . You know what I'm saying . So , like , if y'all don't know , like , when you put in the FAFSAs , you got to see you need your parents' tax returns , you need your parents' gross income , whatever this or that . I know they ain't got it .
So when I'm going to med school or applying to med school , I you know . So that's the other thing that's really interesting . It's like , you know , you probably got parents who are already like hemmed up from doing a Parent PLUS loan for college and we just talking about one person .
What if they got two kids in school , two kids , three kids , and you're going to be like yo mom , dad , I would have kept going , but , like for me , what I really think about , too , is , you know , we don't see a lot of dropouts . We don't see a lot of dropouts . So that's what I who going through . I think I eventually have to drop out right .
So the attrition rate may be affected , will be affected just due to the fact that people don't have good enough credit to get private loans . They don't have a good you know , they don't have a cosigner , they don't have a cosigner with good credit , right , like all of this .
Here's my question to you , before you interrupt me Because you had to get a cosigner .
Look , look , look , look I did . Man Look Go ahead .
Look .
That's peace , that's peace , that's peace , go ahead .
So here's my question to you . My question to you is would it have changed , would it have changed the your way of applying to school if you knew you only had a hundred thousand dollars guaranteed by the federal government ?
oh , that's a good question , y'all . Um , probably what I would do in that situation is I'd be looking at all the schools that offer some type of scholarship in some form or fashion , like I'd be trying to prioritize .
Is there any type of way that I could go to , like ohio u or any of those type of schools that say , hey , yo , if you come to the school , we'll pay x , y and z towards your student loan debt , but you got to the school , we'll pay X , y and Z towards your student loan debt , but you got to stay in this state for five years .
That's what I would be prioritizing . But , as we all know , it's like look , you just kind of get in where you fit in when you're applying to med school , give me some type of student loan repayment debt , some type of scholarship . That's known for giving people scholarships .
Those are the type of things that I would be focused on , but I'd be hella nervous about it because I'd be like yo , I know I'd definitely be thinking about yo , I'm applying to this , I'm telling everybody , yo , I'm going to med school , and then you get in .
And then next , you know , I'm worried like my second year year , I'm gonna have to hit up , hit up people . I'm like yo , I need you to be a cosign on this . Yeah , can't pay sign . Yeah , I think my , I think my approach probably would have been I would have hit every state school in new york . I put it in every school .
Well , because the tuitions are at least lower , right . And so it's like OK , even even if I had to go over one hundred thousand , it's better to go , you know , a few thousand more instead of one hundred thousand more over one hundred thousand . You understand what I'm saying ? Like it , definitely . I think I would have started prioritizing schools by tuition .
I'd have been like this is a , you know , this is low , this is low , this is . I would have been ranking them from lowest tuition to highest tuition . That's where , that's where my thing would have gone . And so so the question now is if this thing does go through .
¶ Adapting to the New Reality
And so so the question now is if this thing does go through , are the schools with the lowest tuition going to be the most competitive for certain demographics ? Oh well , first of all , the schools that offer the schools that offer free tuition , everybody's going to be applying Exactly , exactly . So that's a good question . I got a question back to you .
Those schools that are super selective you know that you know are known for just maybe only having a small class size Right . Are they going to have to be forced to increase that class size ?
I don't think so . I don't think so . Why would they , though ? What would be the rationale for that ?
Why would they , though ? What would be the rationale for that ? I don't know .
You know , like for example , like what is Morehouse do ? Well , morehouse doubled their size , like a few years ago .
Oh , they did .
Yeah , morehouse got really big a couple like not a couple , but a few years back . I don't know if they doubled it , I shouldn't say they doubled it , but they , they increased their class size pretty significantly a few years back .
Listen . If you're listening right now and you're a med student , you're a pre-med and you're not sure what you want to do , yeah .
Yeah .
Start doing some pushups , start doing some sit-ups . Some monetary pushups , start , start getting on the treadmill , the Mozempic , because , hey , yo , you're going to have to join a meditator , you're going to have to get fit . That's the option . Yo , that is the option . Yo , you're going to have to start getting into these .
Yo , I'm laughing to stop from crying because no , seriously . And then National Health Service Corps . Right , so you have National Health Service Corps . Which National ?
Health Service .
Corps ? Right , yo , you got to start juggling some push-ups . So you have National Health Service Corps . Which National Health Service Corps ? Right ? Probably their applications are going to go through the roof . You know Absolutely .
Like we got to get off this topic yo , we got to get off this topic yo . What's good everyone ? This is Dr Nii Yo . This is the end of this segment . I appreciate you for listening , but this ain Peace .