Was your education worth it?

OCRN3 · May 16, 2013

I think for me it has paid off. I have to work 1 Extra shift a month to pay my monthly student loan payments, But with what I make as a RN I can live comfortably, I drive a new car and pay a mortgage all by myself. If my husband did not work we would still be able to survive pretty well. No I would not be able to afford a BMW or live in the richest neighborhood, but i still would be able to make ends meet. I came from a home where we lived off food stamps and general relief. So I can pretty much live off bare minimum.

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rumwynnieRN · May 16, 2013

I'm curious about how much you owe, but that's not something you have to answer, and I'm not asking. I just graduated in December, and I've looked at how to pay back my loans, and what I could do if I was REALLY serious about paying it off in a short amount of time. I owe double what other new grads owe because it took me a while to get into nursing school, and unfortunately, I had one bad memory (it's on another thread) I wish I could undo. That said, if my better half and I treated my loans like car payments, essentially we'd be making 2 payments on 2 new cars. I could've paid my loans off in 3 years if I had stayed at home, but I like that I've moved out and moving forward.

I can say right now that with my current full-time job and if I decided to work agency part-time for a year, I would completely kill my private student loan (with all my agency money going to paying down my loan), and if I did it for another year, all of my federal loans would be gone. Even without the second job, I can still live rather comfortably. It would just take a bit longer to pay off my loans.

RNperdiem, RN · May 16, 2013

Maybe people should be afraid of debt. Student loans are handed out like candy because you have to pay them back. Schools are able to get away with outrageous tuition because of easy loans.

That is why community college is so popular and hard to find a spot in a nursing program. I paid for my 2 years at CC while living at home with my parents. My $4/hr CNA job paid for all my tuition, books, fees.

What about taking a part time job and paying as you go?

PMFB-RN, RN · May 16, 2013

Sure. It cost me $2,600 and 9 months to become and RN. Now I make well into six figures. Very worth it. However I see these new young nurses who graduated from expensive nursing programs and owe $50K or even more. They of course start at the bottom of the pay scale and struggle to make ends meet. They end up working just to pay their loans while continuing to live with their parents. It's demoralizing for them. Remember they are the lucky ones who were able to find jobs. Plenty of new grads struggle to get that first job. I would not go into a lot of debt for nursing school.

trauma_lama, BSN · May 16, 2013

I owe $4000 for my ASN, and was started off a week after graduating making more than 11x that in salary- very much worth it! But I feel badly for my friends who owe so much for their BSNs. We make the same but I'm able to save more and live a little more loosely due to nearly no debt. When I begin my RN to BSN this upcoming spring, I will be making enough to pay as I go. So yes, end result: totally worth the investment!

AgentBeast, BSN, RN · May 16, 2013

Yes and no. I make more in a month than my degree cost, but I'm still underpaid for what I do. All nurses are.

llg, PhD, RN · May 16, 2013

As others here have suggest, it depends on the details. Are you talking about a $10,000 loan or a $100,000 loan? There is a huge difference. Too many people hear "It's OK to take out a student loan" ... and think that means that they can afford to take out HUGE loans that end up crippling them for life.

In reality ... "Yes, student loans can be a good thing to do... but they are not always a good thing to do." You need to be sensible about the amount. And you need to understand that you will need to make sacrifices in other areas of your life to pay them off.

Do your financial homework and figure out how to pay for your education in a way that won't cripple you financially for the rest of your life. Limit the amount of loans that you take out. That may mean going to school part time for a while as you work at another job to make money. etc. Sit down with a paper and pencil (or use a computer spreadsheet) and calculate it all out. Find out how much your monthly payments will be on any loan you take out. Find out how much you can expect to earn/take home from the types of jobs you can reasonably expect to get with your degree. etc.

You need to know all those details before you can make an informed decision.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 16, 2013

Every single dang dime. I finished grad school (a real brick-and-mortar school with a thesis research requirement) pregnant c number 2 and didn't finish paying off the loan for it until he was in first grade. And that has opened doors for me ever since. (He's a working nuke engineer now).

"Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend; abroad, an introduction; in solitude, a solace; and in society, an ornament. It chastens vice, it guides virtue, it gives at once grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage."

-- Joseph Addison

classicdame, MSN, EdD · May 16, 2013

I managed to get thru with scholarships and tuition reimbursement. However, I do think you could sit down and calculate the cost/benefit and come up with a solution. Might need help from financial advisor or some other professional. In most situations you figure how long you have to go to school plus how long it takes to pay back the debt. Then include how many years you expect to work. Subtract and you will know how many years you will be working debt free.

__patiently_waiting · May 16, 2013

Thanks for responding.

I owe less than $10,000 (very close to it) & they are all federal loans, no private. I won't need them for my upcoming fall & spring semester. I actually didn't need them last fall & spring (scholarships, grants & fin aid paid for everything), but due to financial problems at home I NEEDED them. I did need them this summer tho. Although I had a scholarship, the school was only able to give me a certain amount due to the amount of hours I was taking & the rest had to come out of pocket. Not wanting to take $1,000 out of my mom's pocket, I had no other option but to take out a loan. If I would have had the money myself, I would have definitely paid out of pocket.

I start my very first job, part time next month, so I will be able to save up & pay out of pocket next summer (if need be). But unless I get major scholarships for nursing school, I know I will have to either pay out of pocket or take out loans & I refuse to be burdened by debt. As of now, I'm not taking out anymore loans period, unless it's a life or death situation. I will just have to work and pay my way through. The fact that I still live at home is also a plus because I have little to no bills, so I CAN save.

rumwynnieRN · May 16, 2013

Thanks for responding.
I owe less than $10,000 (very close to it) & they are all federal loans, no private. I won't need them for my upcoming fall & spring semester. I actually didn't need them last fall & spring (scholarships, grants & fin aid paid for everything), but due to financial problems at home I NEEDED them. I did need them this summer tho. Although I had a scholarship, the school was only able to give me a certain amount due to the amount of hours I was taking & the rest had to come out of pocket. Not wanting to take $1,000 out of my mom's pocket, I had no other option but to take out a loan. If I would have had the money myself, I would have definitely paid out of pocket.
I start my very first job, part time next month, so I will be able to save up & pay out of pocket next summer (if need be). But unless I get major scholarships for nursing school, I know I will have to either pay out of pocket or take out loans & I refuse to be burdened by debt. As of now, I'm not taking out anymore loans period, unless it's a life or death situation. I will just have to work and pay my way through. The fact that I still live at home is also a plus because I have little to no bills, so I CAN save.

Oh god I wish I only had less than $10,000. I would've started paying that off now.