Student loans

Nursemelo · Jul 18, 2002

well here in new brunswick i work part time at wal mart making a little over 7 dollars/hour and i am having one heck of a time trying to wrangle a student loan out of my goverment. i don't even have enough to pay all of the bills with what i make now (here is were boyfriend comes in) i definitely wont be making enough to pay them when i'm only working on the weekends and yet i will be lucky if i get enough to pay for all of my tution. and i don't even want to think of the state my credit card will be in when i'm done paying for my books. but hopefully your govenment isn't as retarded as the one i have here. best of luck to you :)

WashYaHands · Jul 18, 2002

Go to the financial aid office at your institution. They will have you fill out a FAFSA (I'm not sure what that stands for, but I can make up a few things...Federal Aid something or other). It's lengthy and they do ask about bank accounts, savings, childcare expenses, income, etc. That is sent to the Fed. govt. who will send your college a report advising them what you qualify for. You may qualify for a PELL grant, which you do not have to pay back. Or, if you don't qualify for that, you may qualify for unsubsidized or subsidized Federal Stafford loans or Perkins loans. These you have to pay back. I believe the unsubsidesed and Perkins loans interest and payback is deferred until 6 months after you graduate. Also, you should ask your financial aid office about scholarships and grants and apply for those. It all requires a lot of paperwork, but once you're in the system, it gets easier. Just remember, what you borrow you'll have to pay back.

Best of luck to you,

Linda

rbez · Jul 18, 2002

Fulwood,

I don't know what state you are in, but it seems like there are new state-sponsored initiatives to fund nursing education popping up every day! Federal money is being released to (BSN & MSN) schools of nursing to increase the number of faculty and students. In Texas, most large hospitals are now funding grants and scholarships for would-be nurses (AD & BSN mostly).

In addition to the previous suggestions, I would suggest that you contact your state or local hospital association or state Health Careers department ( if you have one). They will have information about federal, state and private money that you may be able to tap into.

Good luck!

Level2Trauma · Jul 18, 2002

You can fill out the FAFSA on the web. Just go to the following link.

http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/

Nurse Ratched, RN · Jul 18, 2002

I used to work in financial aid (a number of moons ago.) A person's eligibility for school loans at that time were based on a formula. The aid office figured a standard "budget" including approximations for school-related expenses. Then they subtracted the amount you were expected to contribute (based on some secret FAFSA formula using your income, savings, parents income in some cases and named rather innocuously EFC - expected family contribution) and subtracted anything you were getting in aid from other sources (grants, scholarships, and so on.)

The remaining amount was what you were eligible to borrow in student loans, which were preferable due to their low interest rate.

(The rub is that all the financial data is based on your LAST tax year's income that you would have filed by April 15, 2002.)

Check with your financial aid office. For grant eligibility, the deadline for FAFSA submission is past, but you will have to file one for consideration for a student loan. As others said, look into scholarships, nursing-specific loans, and even tuition programs through potential employers (who would naturally want a post-graduation employment committment from you.)

Good luck!