Need advice on nursing school route

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi everyone! I have a BA in psych and an MBA all from Wagner College. I want to go back to school for nursing however Wagner College's accelerated program is insanely expensive. But based on timing etc it might be my best option (least amount of pre reqs to take getting all of that out of the way in the quickest time period) do you suggest just taking the leap of faith and going for it or working towards a traditional BSN in a 4 year time period? I'm thinking I should just take out the loans and go for it because with a traditional program I'd be taking away from working as a nurse and making an income for at least 2 years being that the schooling is longer. Need suggestions please! And anyone who has attended Wagner already for the Accelerated program did you just take out loans for the totally cost? Are you having a difficult time paying back those loans?

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

What would you total loans be at graduation if you went the loan route? The standard rule of thumb is that your loans should not be greater than the amount of money you will realistically make in the first year after graduation. If it's much more than that ... then don't do it. With an MBA, you should be able to get some type of job to support yourself while you go the slower route for a while and avoid the loans. But if your loan total will be less than 1 year's salary, then go for it.

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Hi! Thanks so much for getting back to me! The total cost for the accelerated program at Wagne would be about 75k (crazy, I know!) I would be an RN in NYC starting salary is about 90k so that would work according to rule.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Well, if that's the case ... I'm not saying for sure that you should do it ... but it wouldn't be outrageous if you did. I would though, recommend that you investigate any and all ways you could reduce the amount you have to borrow. NYC nurses make so much money because the cost of living there is so high. You might still have trouble paying off $75K. Anything you could do (e.g. part time job in the beginning ... save every penny between now and then ... roommate ... etc.) to reduce the amount you'll need to borrow would be a good thing.

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