Students entering optometry school in academic year 2026-2027 will face a new limitation, as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As part of its student loan reforms, the new law imposes borrowing limits on federal student loans. Professional school students, those in law school, medical school or optometry school, will be limited to borrowing $50,000 per year in government-backed student loans—for a lifetime maximum graduate school limit of $200,000.
That has optometry (and medical and law) schools concerned. Howard Purcell, OD, FAAO, president of New England College of Optometry, says, “Very quickly, you realize that an optometric education can cost $200K in tuition alone. Students also need to pay their living expenses, equipment cost and expenses related to taking and traveling to national board exams. It will create a hardship for some,” he says. Loan limits are designed to protect students from excessive debt, but they also risk limiting access to certain fields, especially high-cost professional degrees. The key is finding a sustainable balance, ensuring students can access needed funds without taking on burdensome debt loads that could hinder their future.
Dr. Purcell says that schools across the country are looking at how this will impact recruiting, especially for students who rely on loans as their primary funding source for optometry school.
HIGH COST
Optometry school is expensive, and many argue it’s too costly. The challenge for educators is that the programs must remain robust, so simply cutting faculty positions is not the long-term solution. It’s a pretty straightforward math problem, Dr. Purcell says. Schools rely on tuition money as their primary source of revenue; faculty and staff are generally the largest expense item. But schools have to be competitive in recruiting and retaining people, too, which means annual raises or other incentives. And that means raising the budget.
As a way to help individual students, NECO launched the “Sponsored Pathways” program, an employer-sponsored initiative where partner independent practices and companies provide students with financial support and a guaranteed post-graduation job in exchange for a multi-year work commitment. Programs like this, typically available to third- and fourth-year students, can help alleviate student concerns about debt and finding a job, allowing them to focus on the final years of their education without that stress. NECO has arrangements with nine organizations and growing.
While this doesn’t cover every student entering optometry school, it’s key to remember that not every student needs to borrow $200,000 in the course of their education, Dr. Purcell says. “Regardless of loan limits, universities and colleges have a responsibility to be transparent about costs and to equip students with the financial literacy they need to make informed decisions. Graduate education is a significant investment and we want our students to be fully aware of the implications,” Dr. Purcell says.
UNDERSTANDING LOANS
He notes that financial literacy can also help with access. If the profession wants to recruit doctors to work with traditionally underserved populations, too, it needs to be committed to working on ways to provide access to students from a diversity of backgrounds. In the end, financial literacy allows for choice. Options for practice modality become wider with well-managed financial matters.
“There’s a shared responsibility between institutions and the government to work together to control cost, provide value and ensure that federal policy aligns with the need to educate future graduate students,” he says.
“As loan limits tighten, we must look at innovative funding approaches such as scholarships, fellowships, repayment partnerships and public-private (P3) collaborations to ensure continued access and affordability for students pursuing advanced degrees.” While the law’s impact on graduate schools is common conversation at school administration levels, Dr. Purcell says, “Everybody has something at stake–we all need to have well-educated optometry students coming into the workforce.”
EXPEDITING THE MD SHORTAGE?
While the $200,000 cap may cover tuition for many optometry school students, medical school students are facing the same loan limitations. Medical school tuition is generally higher—and the training takes longer. The number of new ophthalmologists coming into the profession has been fairly stagnant, according to Richard Edlow, OD, the Eyeconomist. In 2024, for instance, 498 new ophthalmologists entered the workforce. With retirements, there was an estimated net increase of just 67 ophthalmologists nationwide. If the new law hinders students from applying to medical school and choosing ophthalmology, that could make the shortage of eye care providers in a country with an aging population even more acute.
Featured photo credit: medscape-editor
