Hello Heather.

I am turning to you for information because what seems to me a simple concept has confounded two different loan officers and at this stage I not sure who to trust with an important question.

My question is as follows: Does the total debt limits for students relate to outstanding debt or money borrowed?

Imagine the following situation.

The total debt limit for students is $138,000. A student borrows $50K for their undergraduate education. They then get a job and work for ten years and pay the debt off so that their outstanding balance is zero. The student decides to go back to graduate school. What is the total amount they can now borrow for their graduate education? Is it 138K or is it 138K-50K=88K?

This seems like it should be a straight forward answer but I have gotten divergent answer from professional people who are supposed to know the answers.

Thank you for your help.