panic attack about money

Nursing Students General Students

Published

i'm really freaking out about money for school.

i usually have extra after each paycheck, but since getting my acceptance letter, there's been so many things to buy: background check, drug screen, labs (insurance won't pay), physical, extra gas back and forth to school, pages of photocopies, fees, etc.....

now they're telling me that IF i get approved for stafford loans (i already have a degree, so there's some committee that has to approve whether i get stafford loans or not), they don't disburse them until about two weeks after school starts!!!! but my tuition is due a month BEFORE school starts! and of course, books and uniforms and supplies/equipment are all needed by the time school starts.

i asked her, is this how you usually do things? everyone has to pay up front and then get paid back? that doesn't make any sense! she mumbled something about credit hours that i didn't understand, but in essence, yes, i am expected to pay for everything up front first. eeeeeek!!!!:crying2:

i was so happy to finally get into nursing school, but since then everything ELSE has gone wrong. the hospital i work at as a CNA has really low census, and i've been cancelled every shift this week!!! i'm just now allowed to use my earned time/paid time off (just got off 90-day probationary period), and this week i'll have to use it all!!!! my last paycheck was short because i didn't have earned time available yet, and this week, i'm already out of PTO after tonight.....if i get cancelled anymore, my paycheck's going to plummet.

i can barely make my bills this month, and that doesn't leave me any room for the doctor visits i still have to go through, etc....:o

this is just pathetic! i'm 32 years old and i'm "broke as a joke"......worse off than i was in college.....at least when i was 18 going for my bachelor's degree, food and housing were paid for by my loans, which did come in BEFORE my bills were due.

just had to vent, to pout, to whine. thanks for listening.

where's that long lost rich uncle when you need him??? :(

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I am so sorry to see your post, but as misery loves company, let me jump in.

I am 31, have a husband and 3 kids, am barely making ends meet, and was hoping that I could get enough aid and loans to make it through my LPN, and then work as an LPN as I did the bridge from LPN to RN.

Since I made that leap to go back to school, I have realized that I won't have enough money to cover daycare and had to take a part time job. I just found out (havent started yet) that it starts at lower than I had expected. (lower than I've made in over 10 yrs)

I just called the school to ask how to process my Stafford Loan and they informed me that they "dont think they are necessary and therefor they won't certify loans for their students" ***!! how can that even be possible? Basically she said that "the majority of their population" receives everything they need from grants, and they just get themselves in default if they get loans, and then they cannot get further aid because they are in default, and so to "take care of them" they just dont do loans anymore.

I'm so annoyed and frustrated. I am lucky that my husband can take care of our normal stuff so that I only have to take care of paying for my education and daycare, but this whole situation just burns me up. Who are they to make that choice for me?

I honestly do not know how I'm going to make it through school, financially. I'm winging it atm by the seat of my pants, hoping to somehow find a way. Oh and the car I bought to drive myself to school this coming year died on day 3, and somehow I have to find another mode of transportation as well before my job / school start.

Days like today I wish I had just decided to work at the local grocery store or something. *cry*

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Pick up a second or third job, sell stuff, cut out every non-essential, carpool, tutor and donate plasma.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

is it possible to work 2 jobs and still make it through nursing school? I had trouble finding 1 job that would work around my school hours. I don't know how I would find another that would work around both the 1st job and the school. Maybe once I get in to my first job I can put out some feelers at their location and see if they have anything else very part time or something.

Its amazing how much money you can make selling your personal belongings on the internet. Unfortunately, I made about $350 last year doing just that when we were housecleaning and "cutting the fat" while being a stay at home mom, so I'm pretty much tapped of everything that anyone would want I think. I'll have to do another household inventory and see if I have anything else left.

I don't know about the OP's program, but mine is just 3 semesters, so I keep telling myself that *somehow* I will make it for 3 semesters, and then everything will be fine. I know I can make enough as an LPN to get through the next 3-4 semesters. I hate to ask my parents for anything, but worst case, I'll beg them for help if I have to.

Thank you for pointing out to me that there is a way... I dont know what it is atm, but somehow I will make it happen.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

jenlaana:

i'm sorry to hear you're having trouble too. i applied to a program that wouldn't take stafford loans, too, although i chose to go to another program. however, all this means is that you can't use stafford loans, which disburse directly to the school, and then the school distributes to you.

instead, you will have to use private educational loans, directly from a multitude of lenders, such as sallie mae, citibank, etc.....i'm sure there are threads on here related to these private lenders. i'm thinking about using one myself, instead of dealing with the stafford-loan-two-months-too-late fiasco.

there are private educational loans out there that allow you to defer payment during school, just like stafford. the interest rate might not be AS good as stafford, but it's not bad. there are some that are specifically for nursing/medical students, and the interest rates are typical for nowadays (i.e., thanks to bush, not great). however, don't worry about interest rates so much now....they'll be better than interest rates on a credit card when you run out of money and have to put groceries/child care on it!!!

and, no, you can't have two or three jobs and go to nursing school....that's ridiculous. i'm in the same boat....i NEED more than full time right now, which my hospital doesn't have available, and also, in two months, i won't need full time.....

it's not that easy to go out and get a job here in miami.....it was like pulling teeth to get the one i have, despite being a CNA. i have my application at several hospitals now...but the job market is flooded here, with people willing to work VERY very cheap....

but keep hope! look into private loans. if you have parents with money, then by all means, beg. look into working any job at a hospital, because they will do tuition reimbursement after you've worked there six months.....so at least half your program could be covered.

good luck! keep me posted!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Hello, The school I go to has special arrangements with financial aid students to delay the costs until the Stafford Loans fund. I would go talk to a financial aid counselor at the school and see what they have to offer. We get to choose if we want to pay in advance and get reimbursed by the Stafford Loan or for the Stafford Loan to directly fund tuition. I am sorry you are having so much trouble.

Best of luck to you.

Jean

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

If your stafford loan paperwork has already been put through then don't worry about the disbursement date. They consider it guaranteed money and won't bill you for it. Federal loans almost always disburse in thirds so if you withdraw partway they don't have to go after the school for unused funds.

Can you go agency for CNA work?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
jenlaana:

i'm sorry to hear you're having trouble too. i applied to a program that wouldn't take stafford loans, too, although i chose to go to another program. however, all this means is that you can't use stafford loans, which disburse directly to the school, and then the school distributes to you.

instead, you will have to use private educational loans, directly from a multitude of lenders, such as sallie mae, citibank, etc.....i'm sure there are threads on here related to these private lenders. i'm thinking about using one myself, instead of dealing with the stafford-loan-two-months-too-late fiasco.

there are private educational loans out there that allow you to defer payment during school, just like stafford. the interest rate might not be AS good as stafford, but it's not bad. there are some that are specifically for nursing/medical students, and the interest rates are typical for nowadays (i.e., thanks to bush, not great). however, don't worry about interest rates so much now....they'll be better than interest rates on a credit card when you run out of money and have to put groceries/child care on it!!!

and, no, you can't have two or three jobs and go to nursing school....that's ridiculous. i'm in the same boat....i NEED more than full time right now, which my hospital doesn't have available, and also, in two months, i won't need full time.....

it's not that easy to go out and get a job here in miami.....it was like pulling teeth to get the one i have, despite being a CNA. i have my application at several hospitals now...but the job market is flooded here, with people willing to work VERY very cheap....

but keep hope! look into private loans. if you have parents with money, then by all means, beg. look into working any job at a hospital, because they will do tuition reimbursement after you've worked there six months.....so at least half your program could be covered.

good luck! keep me posted!

youre right. its ridiculous to work extra hard now, so you wont have to later.

its really funny. whenever i provide financial advice to people (on and offline), the thought of a -gasp- second job, oh no way. never happen, i dont have the _______ (insert excuse).

whatever. enjoy repaying your loans.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

So the *smart* thing to do is to work seventy eleven extra jobs AND go to school full. Oh and then flunk out and end up having to pay all that tuition anyways. Gee thats smart.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

wow, bicster, with that craptacular attitude, you remind me of all the sharp-tongued, mean-natured, sarcastic, cynical nurses that i've met in my time that have taught me all about the kind of nurse i never want to be.

and in my book, working two or three jobs means working sixty hours a week or more. i'm pretty sure that there aren't many people out there who would agree that working sixty hours while going to school and having a family (which is what jenlaana has on her plate) is very compatible with good grades or a good life.

now maybe, just maybe, you're doing this yourself right now....maybe that's why you're so crabby and snide....in that case, TAKE A NAP, my friend! call in sick to one of your five jobs or something.

as for the rest of us, let us be supportive of each other's problems while you go roll your eyes quietly to yourself.

thanks! sleep well :-)

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I wasn't suggesting that loans are better than working or anything. I'd just heard that it was not advisable to have a job at all while going to nursing school, but went ahead and got one anyways because I need the money to make ends meet. I was just concerned that if I took on a 2nd or 3rd job that it would put so much on my plate that I would not be able to focus on school enough. I haven't started yet so I'm not sure how tough it will be for me. I have no doubt I will work hard. I've never in my life wanted something for myself like I want this.

I am juggling 3 children (13, 2 1/2, 8 mos), my oldest homeschools, my youngest still wakes up a couple times a night, and my 2 yr old still comes to my room in the middle of the night and is in the process of potty training. My husband will be doing most if not all of the parenting "stuff" so that I can go to school, but I do atleast need to see them so they don't forget they have a mom. Plus somewhere in there I have to study and drive the 45 min each way to school and 45 min opposite to the hospital that I got my job at.

I'm not trying to be a slacker or wrack up debt. Private loans are not an option for me unfortunately so it was Stafford or nothing.

The good news is, I got the job I was hoping for, and while it doesnt cover everything atleast I have the $560 p/mo of child care covered and a little left over to put towards gas

Up Vote Up Vote ×

congratulations about getting the job!!!! yay!

and good luck on all your nursing adventures....keep us all posted :-)))

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment