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Chicago Tribune
12 hours ago
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Changes to federal student loans leave aspiring medical students scrambling to cover costs
Twenty-year-old Eric Mun didn't want to believe it: Only one kid in the family could make it to medical school — and it wasn't going to be him. Mun had done everything right. He graduated high school with honors, earned a scholarship at Northwestern University and breezed through his biology courses. He immigrated to Alabama from Korea as a toddler. From the quiet stretches of the South, he dreamed of helping patients in a pressed white coat. But dreams don't pay tuition. And with new borrowing limits, Mun's family can only support one child through school. 'My parents already implied that my older brother is probably going to be the one that gets to go,' Mun said. President Donald Trump's sweeping 'big, beautiful' tax and spending bill, signed into law earlier this month, imposes strict new caps on federal student loans, capping borrowing for professional schools at $50,000 per year. The measure particularly affects medical students, whose tuition often exceeds $300,000 over four years. Aspiring physicians like Mun have been thrown into financial uncertainty. Many members of the medical community say the measures will send shock waves through a system already laden with economic barriers, discouraging low-income students from pursuing a medical degree. 'It might mean there are people who want to be doctors that can't be doctors because they can't afford it,' said Richard Anderson, president of the Illinois State Medical Society. Before the passage of Trump's budget bill, the Grad PLUS loan program allowed graduate students to borrow their institution's total cost of attendance, including living expenses. The program was slashed as part of a broader overhaul to the federal student loan system. Now, beginning July 1, 2026, most graduate students will be capped at $20,500 in federal loans per year, with a total limit of $100,000. Students in professional schools, like medical, dental or law school, will face the $50,000 annual cap and a total limit of $200,000. Mun's parents work at an automobile assembly plant. Throughout high school, he knew he would have to rely on scholarships and federal loans to pay his way through college. Mun's voice faltered. 'I'm just trying to remain hopeful,' Mun said. Also folded into the bill: the elimination of several Biden-era repayment plans, cuts to Pell Grants and limits to the Parent PLUS loans program, which allows parents of dependent undergraduates to borrow. Proponents of the Republican-backed bill said the curbed borrowing will incentivize medical schools and other graduate programs to lower tuition. The tuition of most Chicago-area medical schools is nearly $300,000 for four years, not including cost-of-living expenses. Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine has a $465,000 price tag after accounting for those indirect costs, according to the school's website. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science trails closely behind at nearly $464,000. 'One of the main concerns about the Grad PLUS program is money that is going to subsidize institutions rather than extending access to students,' said Lesley Turner, an associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Still, many medical professionals expressed doubt that schools will adjust their costs in response to the bill. Tuition for both private and public schools has been steadily climbing for decades, up 81% from 2001 after adjusting for inflation, according to the Association of American Medical some evidence that Grad PLUS may have contributed to those tuition hikes. A study co-authored by Turner in 2023 found that prices increased 65 cents per dollar after the program's introduction in 2006. There was also little indication that Grad PLUS had fulfilled its intended goal of expanding access to underrepresented students. But Turner cautioned against the abrupt reversal of the program. After accounting for inflation, the lifetime borrowing limits now placed on graduate students are lower than they were in 2005, she said. Many students may turn to private loans to cover the gap, often at higher interest rates. More than half of medical students relied on Grad PLUS loans, according to AAMC. The median education debt for indebted medical students is around $200,000, with most repayment plans lasting 10 to 20 years. The median stipend for doctors' first year post-MD was just $65,100 in 2024. 'I think for many reasons, it would have been reasonable to put some sort of limit on Grad PLUS loans, but I think this is a very blunt way of doing it,' Turner said. In a high-rise on Northwestern's downtown campus last week, 20 undergraduate students and alums from local colleges gathered for the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative Fellows program. The eight-week summer intensive offers aspiring medical professionals a deep dive into cancer health disparities information and research. Participants like Mun have been left reeling after the flurry of federal cuts. Alexis Chappel, a 28-year-old graduate of Northeastern Illinois University, watched her dad struggle with addiction growing up. She was deeply moved by the doctors who supported his recovery, and it inspired her to pursue medicine. But she has no idea how she'll cover tuition. 'I feel like it's in God's hands at this point,' Chappel said. 'I just felt like it's a direct attack on Black and brown students who plan on going to medical school.' Just 10% of medical students are Black and 12% are Latino, according to AAMC enrollment data. Socioeconomic diversity is also limited: A 2018 analysis found that 24% of students came from the wealthiest 5% of U.S. Pendergrast, who graduated from Feinberg in 2023, relied entirely on Grad PLUS loans to fund her medical education. Juggling classes and clinicals, she had little money saved and no steady stream of income. Pendergrast was so strapped for cash that she enrolled in SNAP benefits — a program also cut under Trump's budget bill. Now an anesthesiologist at University of Michigan Health, she's documented her concerns on TikTok for her 48,000 followers. 'It's not going to improve representation, and it's not going to improve access,' Pendergrast said. 'It's going to act as a deterrent for people who otherwise would be excellent physicians.' For low-income students, the application process is already fraught with economic obstacles, Pendergrast said. Metrics like GPA and the Medical College Admissions Test, or MCAT, are heavily weighted in admissions, and may disadvantage students from underresourced schools. Many students also lack mentorships or networks to guide them through the process, she noted. 'I think the average medical student is going to be richer and whiter, and not from rural areas and not from underserved communities,' Pendergrast said. The elimination of Grad PLUS loans comes amid a mounting nationwide physician shortage. A recent AAMC report predicted a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the workforce is poised to enter retirement: The U.S. population aged 65 and older is expected to grow 34.1% over the next decade. The shortage is particularly concentrated in primary care. In practice, that means longer waiting times for patients, and an increased caseload on physicians, who may already suffer from burnout. 'If the goal is truly to make America healthy again, then we need to have a strong physician workforce … We should be coming up with ideas to make it more accessible for people who want to be doctors as opposed to hindering that,' Anderson said. Sophia Tully, co-president of the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students at Northwestern, said she and her peers have struggled to reconcile with a system that often feels stacked against them. The 21-year-old plans on taking an extra gap year before medical school in an effort to save money. Tully summed up the environment on campus: 'For lack of a better word, people are panicking.'
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Is baby getting enough breastmilk? New device helps moms learn
A group of university researchers at Northwestern — including a nursing mother — have come up with a way to ease one of the most anxiety-producing dilemmas of early breastfeeding: How much milk is the baby consuming? The new device — the result of a collaboration between pediatricians and engineers — is a small wireless set of electrodes worn on the mother's breast that measures the amount of milk expressed during a feeding. Although it still in development and is not yet available to the public, Julia Seitchik, who left the hospital with her first child weighing less than 5 pounds, was able to give it a test run with her third child and called it a 'game-changer.' She was committed to breastfeeding her first infant, but there was 'no room for error.' If her baby lost more than 10% of her body weight, the newborn would have to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. 'You have no idea what they're getting. You have no idea of whether milk's coming out, because especially in the beginning it's not like it's flowing,' Seitchik said. She hired a lactation consultant, who would weigh the baby before and after a feeding to make sure she was getting enough milk — a cumbersome process that required she have a tiny scale at home. 'There was a lot of anxiety around it,' she said. 'My husband was like, 'We should just formula feed her!'' This is often the moment that breastfeeding gets derailed, said Dr. Jennifer Wicks, an attending physician in the NICU at Lurie Children's Hospital and instructor at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, who was breastfeeding her own child during the study she was involved with. When she used to work in a pediatric practice, Wicks said, parents would 'come in and just be panicked that their baby isn't getting enough, and that they weren't producing enough milk. It's really just a complete unknown oftentimes.' The anxiety itself can decrease the flow of milk, and many mothers would start pumping and introducing formula at this point, which can further reduce milk production, said Wicks. Ultimately, many simply give up on breastfeeding. Just 27% of infants in the U.S. breastfeed exclusively through 6 months of age. Healthy People 2030, a Health and Human Services Department initiative that sets national health targets, set a goal of 42%, an acknowledgment that breastfeeding can be challenging and not all women are able to do it for a host of reasons. 'If we can get moms even a little closer to that goal it will make us feel like we've at least partially been successful in this mission,' said Wicks. The creation of the tiny device began four years ago with a tour of the NICU by a team of engineers from Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering dedicated to solving questions affecting patient care. The pediatricians wanted help with a dilemma: Moms wanted to know how much milk their babies were drinking, but there was no way to know. And in the NICU, the sickest babies wouldn't even be able to breastfeed safely unless they could measure the exact amount of milk they were consuming. 'They asked us if we could cook up a solution that would address that need,' said John Rogers, who leads the engineering team. They got to work. The team started by trying to create a device that could be worn by the baby. They tried mounting sensors on the infant's chin and chest to test if the amount of milk a baby drinks could be measured through swallowing, but it didn't work. They tried to measure properties of the stomach of the baby, but it was too hard to isolate the effect of the milk. So they switched to measuring the mother. 'We went down so many dead ends that we almost gave up,' said Rogers. Finally, Rogers made a fortuitous visit to his own physician, where he had his BMI checked using a small device that sends electrical signals through the body to measure the amount of fat. Could the same technology be used to measure milk in the breast, he wondered? And so the breastfeeding device was born: a small wireless set of electrodes placed on the breast that measure the change in electrical currents of the breast tissue to determine how much milk is being expressed. The data are transmitted via Bluetooth to a phone, where parents can watch the consumption data appear over the course of a feeding. Researchers tested the device on 12 pumping and breastfeeding mothers and published the results in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. Rogers said feeding is rarely predictable. Sometimes, it starts slow and then builds. Other times, the baby gets a flood of milk in the beginning, and then slows down as a feeding goes on. 'Being able to watch it on the phone provides a lot of reassurance and guidance,' said Rogers, giving the mother information on how long she needs to feed, and whether she might need to reposition the baby. It also informed parents and physicians on whether the mother might need to change her breastfeeding routine. 'There are some moms who produce enough to feed the whole neighborhood but others do not,' said Dr. Craig Garfield, an attending physician at Lurie Children's Hospital and professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine. 'If you knew a mom wasn't producing enough, you could have her feed first and then pump after to increase her supply.' Seitchik, who was part of the trial and used the device at home while pumping milk for her son, praised it. 'In this data driven world, to just to kind of go blindly into these situations feels like a little funny,' she sad. 'It feels like we should know how much our kids are eating.' For decades, new technology was slow to develop for new mothers and babies in the postpartum period. 'It's not a large market share opportunity, so there's not a lot of venture capital funding, but also it's a really compelling need,' said Rogers. 'It's a great space for academics to come in and try to fill that gap.' The private market has been hesitant to invest in postpartum devices 'because it's a very short period of time that these things get used, and sometimes they can be quite expensive,' said Christina Farr, an investor with Scrub Capital and author of the health tech newsletter Second Opinion. Often, a woman will buy a device like a wearable breast pump and then sell it online or give it to a friend. 'Then you just lost a customer,' said Farr. But investors are beginning to take note of the opportunities in women's health after a few breakout successes, including Maven, a women's health startup valued at $1.7 billion, and Midi, which is focused on menopause. The postpartum period is also ripe for development, said Farr. 'There's so much desperation and need at this moment, and very little that has really changed in the past number of decades to support women.' This article is part of The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to
New York Post
12-06-2025
- Health
- New York Post
Doctors' warning about ‘insidious' social media trend damaging teen girls' health — with girls as young as 7 taking part
Pore decisions, indeed. It's no secret that young girls are obsessed with beauty — just look at the popularity of 'get ready with me' videos on social media. In a survey last year, more than three in four parents (76%) reported that their 7- to 17-year-old girls have a 'skin care routine.' 4 Young girls are spending big bucks for a skin care routine that may be harmful to their health, a new study found. TikTok/@chastitynolan A groundbreaking new study out of Northwestern University warned that these girls are shelling out a lot of money for skin care that may cause redness and not protect them from the sun's harmful rays. 'It's problematic to show girls devoting this much time and attention to their skin,' said corresponding study author Dr. Molly Hales, a postdoctoral research fellow and a board-certified dermatologist at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. For this study, Hales and another researcher created their own TikTok accounts under the guise that they were 13. They collected 100 unique videos suggested in the 'For You' tab. 4 Researchers estimated that girls are dropping an average of $168 for about a month's worth of products. They analyzed the demographics of content creators, the products used and the total cost of routines, finding that girls 7 to 18 are applying an average of six facial products at once. Some girls use more than a dozen. Researchers estimated that these kids fork out an average of $168 for about a month's worth of products. In the jaw-dropping cases, they are spending more than $500. The products in the top viewed videos contained 11 active ingredients on average. In one clip, a creator rubbed 10 products on her face in six minutes. 'As she's applying the products, she begins to express discomfort and burning, and in the final few minutes, she develops a visible skin reaction,' said senior study author Dr. Tara Lagu, an adjunct lecturer of medicine and medical social sciences at Feinberg. Hales noted that the irritation stems from using products with clashing active ingredients, as well as applying the same active ingredient over and over again, not knowing it's in several products. Girls also face the risk of sun sensitivity and a skin allergy known as allergic contact dermatitis, which causes a rash. Only 26% of daytime skin care regimens included sunscreen, the Northwestern study found, even though it's key to preventing skin cancer. The research — billed as the first peer-reviewed study to explore the pros and cons of teen skin care routines shared on social media — was published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. 4 In a survey last year, more than three in four parents (76%) reported that their 7- to 17-year-old girls have a 'skin care routine.' TikTok/@ Beyond the health risks, mental distress is also a concern. Beauty videos on social media can contribute to lower self-esteem and pressure to conform to unrealistic beauty standards. Lagu noted that many videos 'emphasized lighter, brighter skin.' 'We're setting a very high standard for these girls,' Hales said. 4 TikTok is only for users 13 and older, a rep said. AP 'The pursuit of health has become a kind of virtue in our society, but the ideal of 'health' is also very wrapped up in ideals of beauty, thinness and whiteness,' she added. 'The insidious thing about 'skincare' is that it claims to be about health.' TikTok is only for users 13 and older, a rep reminded CNN, and creators who are too young are removed from the platform. The company also works with third-party adolescent development experts and doctors to establish safeguarding policies, the spokesperson added.
New York Times
29-03-2025
- Health
- New York Times
Using a ‘Tiny Bit of Math' May Improve Your Heart Health, Study Suggests
Many people use a smartwatch to monitor their cardiovascular health, often by counting the number of steps they take over the course of their day, or recording their average daily heart rate. Now, researchers are proposing an enhanced metric, which combines the two using basic math: Divide your average daily heart rate by your daily average number of steps. The resulting ratio — the daily heart rate per step, or DHRPS — provides insight into how efficiently the heart is working, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association. The study found that people whose hearts work less efficiently, by this metric, were more prone to various diseases, including Type II diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, stroke, coronary atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction. 'It's a measure of inefficiency,' said Zhanlin Chen, a third-year medical student at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and lead author of the new study; his coauthors included several Feinberg faculty physicians. 'It looks at how badly your heart is doing,' he added. 'You're just going to have to do a tiny bit of math.' Some experts said they saw wisdom in DHRPS as a metric. Dr. Peter Aziz, a pediatric cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, said it appeared to be an advance on the information provided by daily steps or average heart rate alone. 'What is probably more important for cardio fitness is what your heart does for the amount of work it has to do,' he said. 'This is a reasonable way to measure that.' The metric does not look at heart rate during exercise. But, Dr. Aziz said, it still provided an overall sense of efficiency that, importantly, was shown by researchers to have an association with disease. The size of the study added validity to the findings, Dr. Aziz said. The scientists mapped Fitbit data from nearly 7,000 Smartwatch users against electronic medical records. Mr. Chen said that a simple way to grasp the value of the new metric was to compare two hypothetical individuals. Both take 10,000 steps a day, but one has an average daily resting heart rate of 80 — in the middle of the healthy range — while the other's daily resting heart rate is 120. The first person would have a DHRPS of 0.008, the second 0.012. The higher the ratio, the stronger the signaling of cardiac risk. In the study, the 6,947 participants were divided into three groups based on their ratios; those with the highest showed a stronger association with disease than other participants did. The D.H.R.P.S. metric was also better at revealing disease risk than were step counts or heart rates alone, the study found. 'We designed this metric to be low-cost and to use data we're already collecting,' Mr. Chen said. 'People who want to be in charge of their own health can do a little bit of math to figure this out.'
