Catelyn Slayback Lowell, MS, CGC (she/her); Catherine Smith, MS, CGC (she/they/any); Annmarie Taheny, MS, CGC (she/her)
Working her first full-time job post-undergrad wasn’t as glamorous as Catelyn thought it would be. She had a bachelor's degree, $30,000 of student loan debt, a job making $16 an hour — and it was her first time fully supporting herself. One of her bills was her standard student loan payment of ~$313, an amount that was unaffordable. Her income-based repayment plan made it just barely affordable at $92.41 a month.
Although genetic counseling graduate school was her next step, she knew it would be expensive, but it was the only way she could move forward in her chosen career. After federal student loans paid her out-of-state tuition, she received $9,918 total to live off for the rest of her first year. Within a few months, Catelyn realized it would be almost impossible to support herself on this amount and ultimately started an on-campus job making $14/hour to help with living expenses. Despite this, and even with support from her family and a partial tuition waiver, she could barely cover costs for graduate school.
By the time Catelyn graduated, she had taken out a total of $103,512 in student loans. The figure felt overwhelming, but graduate school also opened doors she would not have been able to access otherwise. Catelyn’s first genetic counseling job after graduation paid $79,000/year — more than she could have ever earned with just her undergraduate degree. For the first time, her loan payments and other monthly expenses felt manageable. Looking back, Catelyn’s story appears successful, but it was only possible because she was able to borrow funds after receiving her undergraduate degree. The additional ~$70,000 in graduate school loans was her cost of entry into the genetic counseling profession, but they also dramatically improved her long-term financial trajectory. Without the ability to take out such a large amount of loans, Catelyn would have been stuck struggling to pay her original $30,000 balance with a much lower lifetime earning potential. It would have been impossible to pay this debt off as quickly, and impossible to build additional wealth along the way. Catelyn’s future — her career, her dreams, her financial outcome — would have looked very different.
Unfortunately, many other students will not be so fortunate in the current political climate. The Big Beautiful Bill has significantly changed the landscape of student loans for graduate school. Based on the current definition of higher education degrees under the Big Beautiful Bill, a master’s degree in genetic counseling would only be able to receive $20,500 in federal funding per year with a total loan limit of $100,000. While there is a higher loan limit for professional degrees ($50,000/year, $200,000 cap), genetic counseling master’s degrees, along with numerous other healthcare degrees, are not included in this definition (H.R.1 - 119th Congress, 2025-2026) and are thus more restricted in regard to loan limits. Given the median cost of a master’s degree in genetic counseling in 2023 was $60,000 to $65,000, this limit will not allow students to fully fund their graduate education with federal student loans (Greer et al., 2025).
Many proponents of The Big Beautiful Bill have cited their support of the bill as a way to decrease the overall cost of university programs. However, discussions on decreasing the cost for genetic counseling programs have been limited; this may be partially due to the fact that many faculty have limited say in determining the cost of their programs. Rather, genetic counseling programs have focused their efforts on advocating for genetic counseling to be considered a professional degree. Financial experts have reported discussions at the university level have circulated primarily around continuing efforts around philanthropy and donor engagement, and hoping private loans become more accessible.
Prior to The Big Beautiful Bill, many genetic counselors took out substantial loans to fund their graduate training. A survey conducted by Greer et. al. (2025) found that 67% of genetics counselors had more than $41,000 in total debt after graduating from a genetic counseling program. Specifically, 58% used Graduate PLUS loans, which, before The Big Beautiful Bill, could provide loans over the $20,500 offered through Federal Direct unsubsidized loans. Given Graduate PLUS loans will no longer be available for students, this begs the question: how can we fill the gap for these individuals? As the majority of genetic counselors (66%) stated that the availability of student loans was extremely important in allowing them to attend their training program, there may be significant downstream effects to training in the field of genetic counseling.
When students cannot fully fund their education with federal student loans, there are limited alternatives. One option frequently suggested to prospective students is private loans; unfortunately, these are frequently predatory and not always an option. For example, many prospective students may require a co-signer for the loan, which may not be available for many reasons. Another alternative frequently discussed is financial assistance from a student’s family; however, this is not always enough to bridge the gap and often disproportionately affects minority applicants more. Even when familial support is available, Greer et al. (2025) found that the reported degree of hardship did not decline; in fact, 96% of genetic counseling graduates felt burdened by their student debt.
Greer et al. (2025) noted that their cohort of recent GC graduates represented a largely white, female population, indicating that ongoing or more significant barriers for individuals from underrepresented groups to enter the field may exist.. Increasing diversity of the genetic counseling field has been a significant priority within the profession for the last decade. Increasing diversity within the profession is not purely altruistic. Gomez and Bernet (2019) concluded that “diversity improves performance. It is associated with … innovation, increased productivity, improved accuracy in risk assessment and has already been associated with improved patient health outcomes,” as illustrated by many other researchers including Kraft, et al. 2018, Alsan, et al., 2019, Mosley, et al., 2025, and more.
With the future of genetic counseling in the balance for many would-be professionals, what can we do as genetic counselors to ensure accessibility to our field? Advocacy by genetic counselors is key:
- Increase your involvement in public policy. This is imperative to changing accessibility in our field. Contact your elected officials, join advocacy groups, and stay informed about policy changes. Tell your representatives that this act is harmful to genetic counseling, a valuable professional field.
- Encourage the field/profession (e.g., ACGC, program faculty) to consider allowing a three-year, part-time program. In addition to providing more time for students to work part-time during school (which could decrease the amount students need in loans), students would be able to increase their total loans from $41,000 to $61,500 (H.R.1 - 119th Congress, 2025-2026). Because of this, advocating for a three-year, part-time option for graduate school could increase accessibility for many underrepresented groups.
- Advocate for the creation of scholarships targeted to underrepresented groups in the field of genetic counseling. Many universities do not consider socioeconomic status, disability status, gender identity, sexuality or other financial minorities within their diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships.
Under the prior federal student loan limits, Catelyn was able to fund her entire higher education. She was also able to pay back the six-figure amount in just under five years after her graduation from graduate school, without sacrificing other major milestones like getting married and buying a house along the way. Catelyn and many other graduates would not have been able to accomplish these milestones under the current limits. This act was introduced as a way to protect students from a significant debt burden by placing a limit on federal student loans. Unfortunately, this act seems like it will shift those burdens elsewhere and will be a detriment to the genetic counseling profession and to all those who need loans to pursue a higher education.
References
- Alsan, M., Garrick, O., & Graziani, G. (2019). Does diversity matter for health? Experimental evidence from Oakland. American Economic Review, 109(12), 4071–4111. doi:10.1257/aer.20181446
- Gomez, L. E., & Bernet, P. (2019). Diversity improves performance and outcomes. Journal of the National Medical Association, 111(4), 383-392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnma.2019.01.006
- Greer, H. L., Petty, E. M., Lasarev, M. R., & Kuhl, A. (2025). Impacts of student debt on theprofessional and personal lives of genetic counselors: A 10‐year perspective. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 34,(3), e70013. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgc4.70013
- H.R.1 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): An act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of H. Con. Res. 14. (2025, July 4). https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/1/text
- Kraft S. A., Cho M. K., Gillespie, K., Halley, M., Varsava, N., Ormond, K. E., Luft, H. S., Wilfond, B. S., & Soo-Jin Lee, S. Beyond consent: Building trusting relationships with diverse populations in precision medicine research. American Journal of Bioethics, 18(4), 3-20. doi: 10.1080/15265161.2018.1431322.
- Mosley T. J., Zajdel R. A., Alderete, E., Clayton, J. A., Heidari, S., Pérez-Stable, E. J., Salt, K., & Bernard, M. A. Intersectionality and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the healthcare and scientific workforces, The Lancet Regional Health - Americas, 41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2024.100973
Catelyn Slayback Lowell, MS, CGC (she/her) Catelyn Slayback Lowell is a board-certified genetic counselor based in Tucson, Arizona. She works as a laboratory genetic counselor at Natera and as an adjunct assistant professor of practice for the University of Arizona Genetic Counseling Graduate Program. She graduated from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 2020. She is also the Treasurer for the Arizona Genetics Alliance. Her interests include reproductive genetics, student education, and personal finance. Conflict of Interest: Slayback Lowell is an employee and stockholder of Natera.
Catherine Smith, MS, CGC (she/they/any) Smith is a board-certified genetic counselor based in Birmingham, Alabama. She works as a cardiovascular genetic counselor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she graduated from in 2023. Her interests include cardiovascular genetics, mentorship, DEIJ advocacy and gene therapy. She spends her free time playing boardgames and cuddling with her cat Ruby.
Annmarie Taheny, MS, CGC (she/her) Taheny is a board-certified genetic counselor based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She works as a prenatal genetic counselor at Labcorp, and as an adjunct instructor for the University of Pittsburgh Genetic Counseling Program. Her interests include prenatal and general genetics, genetic counseling access, and student education. Conflict of Interest Disclosure: Taheny is an employee and stockholder of Labcorp.