Nervous About Paying for School

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi Everyone!!! I'm sure some where on here there is a thread that could answer my question but I surely have not found it yet. I am currently getting my BS in Psychology and then I'm either doing the accelerated BSN program or the AS program (because of the cost difference). My only dilemma is that I'm almost pretty much maxed on my Direct loans at the $31,000 because unfortunately my mom is a single mother and doesn't make enough to help me with tuition. I had to move to go to school and I'm now living on my own and going to school full time while working a part time (with full time hours) job. I've done the research and I've read that since I'm at the maximum borrowing limit that I won't be able to borrow any more money. Has anyone else encountered this and if so, please tell me how to deal with it!!! I know this sounds like another sob story but I'm actually telling the truth. I've pretty much worked since I was 15 and never thought I'd be graduating with a BS in anything! But my ultimate goal is to become a Psychiatric Nursing so after a couple years in the nursing field, I was going to back and get my Master's probably in Counseling Psychology or even Nursing. But right now, the cost and having no money is really discouring me of becoming a nurse, period.! Hope you ALL can help and give me words of wisdom because I could surely use it!

Do not plan on making 50k right out of nursing school. Not going to happen in this part of the country. Hospitals are on hiring freezes. Also if you are working right now they are doing everything possible to cut overtime. I used to depend on overtime to help with bills. It no longer exists (at least in my part of the US)

exactly, it depends completely on the part of the country. The places I know that any full time nurse makes $50,000 have a pretty high cost of living. Some areas also have very small oppurtunities for ot, and many places like to hire mostly pt/per deim staff and have 1-5 full timers. I would def check out to see how the market, esp for psych rns is first. Is that the only nursing you are willing to do? Not sure how the market is for that in any part of florida. Are there many state and or private psych hospitals? do they hire new grads? I didn't respond to the loan questions because many people already answered it. To me $31,000 seems like such a large amount of money. Are there any state schools or cheaper private schools that have an accelerated 1 year program for students who already have b.s. or b.a degrees? Many places in some cities do NOT hire asn or diploma nurses expereinced or not. I know many hospitals like this, some hire nurses with bsn, asn, or diploma. Not sure how it is where you live, so I would find that out first before choosing a non bsn program.

Specializes in Critical Care.

Before taking out anymore student loan debt I recommend you check out a book by Alan Collinge, The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in US History and How We Can Fight Back. You can check it out at Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more and see the reviews or check out his website StudentLoanJustice.Org to learn more. The truth is at this point there is not much a person can do if they are currently in over their head with student loan debt. At this point in time, the only thing you can do is try to avoid making the same mistakes of millions of others who pursued the American Dream with student loans, but were derailed and found themselves in the new American Nightmare!

Crazy as it may sound, one is better off paying for college with credit cards because if things go sour you can always declare bankruptcy!

I urge everyone, especially young student's to take a personal finance class and read the student loan scam book before taking out student loans. Beware Sallie Mae as they are one of the most predatory student loan providers out there and are a private for profit organization, not the quasi govtl program they used to be!

I know it's macabre to say this, but if you are a cosigner or have had parents cosign a private student loan please take out a term life insurance policy to pay off the debt in the event of your unexpected death, otherwise your family will be left to pay the debt off. There have been a few cases in the national news recently of parent's as cosigners whose children died unexpectedly and then were left with massive student loans to try to pay back!

Specializes in E/R, Med/Surg, PCU, Mom-Baby, ICU, more.

Grants, scholarships, and then loans. Of course you can always get service cancelable loans or have a hospital sponsor you (you will owe them time or money back). I was able to get a ASN in nursing while keeping my own apartment and only going $10,000 in debt. The main thing is separating necessities versus NICEicities. If you have a smart phone with all the bells and whistles and cable TV with all the channels you need to get your priorities straight.

My priorities are straight! I've been on my own since I was 17 and I've earned everything I have. At one point in time I was working 3 jobs to support myself and my little sister. But thanks for writing!!! Every comment is appreciated.

Honestly, right now with the degree that I have I could go into the workforce and work in a hospital. It's just a psych degree but Nursing has always been my passion. I've checked with several hospitals around my area and they do have some programs where they will pay for me to go. As far as being in debt, if I continued to graduate school I would still in be in debt and have a long road ahead of me. Thanks for you comment though!! I love the different insight!

Oh goodness!! That's good though about the 24 hours!!! I'm nervous about having a huge payment but I just want to be able to pay for school and honest worry about it later!! THanks for giving me an estimate about how much pay!! I really appreciate it! :)

When I was in nursing school I did not qualify for any financial aid except loans, so I worked full time and as much part time as I could rustle up. When I lost my full time job, I lost my place to live, and stopped going to school, but, I did not have any school debt beyond the school loans which had to be paid, even if I had declared bankruptcy. Plan for contingencies. You never know what will happen.

Specializes in geriatrics.

Ideally, try not to spend more than a year's salary for your total debt. That's the rule of thumb anyway.

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