Huge Nursing School Debt!

If you move in state and wait a year to establish residency maybe you can get a job as a nursing assistant, unit secretary, monitor tech or some other first-hand patient-care based job that will help you with your future nursing career.

I agree with others that it's not advisable to sink that much loan money into getting a nursing degree.

If you got a $75,000 Stafford Student loan the interest rate is fixed at 6.8% your monthy payments would be $863 for TEN YEARS. With interest you would be paying a total of $103,572.

Is it worth that?

Good point on the interest - 75k wouldn't be the 'real' amount. (The Stafford is capped at 57k for a bachelor's degree, though, so the balance would have to be financed at a higher rate through private loans.)

Egads. I wouldn't do it. Sounds incredibly expensive, and when you first graduate, you will not be making a whole lot of money. I would research the pre-reqs involved, and perhaps take a couple classes online while you wait the year out. At least that way you'll feel like you're making progress toward your goal.

Best of luck as you noodle it out!

I strongly agree with the other posters. Do not put yourself into that much debt. You won't earn enough after you graduate to pay that loan off in a reasonable amount of time. There are plenty of other options for you to take.

Wow!! OK, let me first say I am Canadian and have no idea how much an average cost to get a BN is in the USA. I'm sure there is variance from university vs. college and between programs and such like here. Anyways, I am a 3rd (of 4) year student in a 'bridging program'. I did my first 2 years at my town's community college and then the last 2 years I am doing at the university. Anyways, my entire program is around $20,000. Using scholarships (apply for them!!!! you never know what will happen I got over $10,000 and I am not a brilliant person, some volunteering and OK marks goes a long way) and doing undergrad work at the hospital while at school I am hoping to come out of school without any debt at all, actually hoping to have around a couple of grand hanging around in my bank account. Just imagine how much of an easier start you get that way. Digging yourself out of debt for 10 years can't be fun. I don't know $75000 seems soooo much to spend.... Would for sure consider moving and staying for a bit to get residency if that would decrease cost. Good luck with your decision!

I'm doing a 2 year program at the local community college and after all fees are paid, including tuition and books, it'll cost about $5,000. I would never do it if I had to pay $75k.

I actually was in a very similar situation. I started my nursing school in Australia, where (as a Canadian) I was paying international rates (approx $16,000/YEAR!)

This is not sustainable or manageable and I chose to drop out (I thought I would work for awhile to save up more money).... but alas, I chose to return to Canada to start ALL OVER AGAIN from year 1- but despite starting over again my overall costs would still be lower then if I went back.

1 year is nothing. I would strongly urge you move to the state you want to go to school, ensure you can be accepted into next year's intake, find a job there and save what you can beforehand. 75K for 1 year head start is not a smart trade off.

Have you even looked to see if there might be other schools in that area that don't charge out of state tuition? I moved out of state to go to nursing school and found a private school that charged the same rate for in state as out of state students.


Like the others, I could never justify paying $75,000 for nursing school, even if it is a "good" program.

I just don't understand how a school can justify that kind of tuition, even for out of state. I guess that means state taxes are funding $50k for every in state student that graduates? That just seems atroscious and as a taxpayer, I would like to know how the school justifies such an expense. I guess it depends on the area though. I know for my university, in-state students pay approx $1850 for full time status each semester and the remainder of the tuition ($2300) is paid by state tax funds.