http://www.wsj.com/articles/loan-binge-by-graduate-students-fans-debt-worries-1439951900
In depth article from the Wall Street Journal about the dramatic increase in federal loans for grad and professional school.
The article has a bit of an ideological tinge. They found a woman who said she stayed in a PhD program at a for-profit university to defer payments on her previous federal student loans, knowing that she would never pay the loans back.
The increase in med school loans is less of an issue. In fact, there are some private companies that are happy to re-finance federal loans at a much lower interest rate for med school students after they graduate.
The article also says that many new doctors are able to be eligible for "public service" federal programs that reduce debt by simply working for a non-profit hospital. The program was originally intended to have doctors serve in areas with high need, but some loan reduction incentives apply to work in any non-profit hospital.
The big increase in loans for law school students is an big issue. The article talks about how federal repayment reduction programs may in effect cause people to take out excessive loans, and can cause law schools to charge excessive tuition.
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