Independent Audults -- How are you paying for nursing school?

There is also Linfield College, we have an Accelerated BSN program. A lot of us are on loans & scholarships. Have you considered housemates or a cheap commuter car?

You should really look at second degree program too....

When you fill out your FAFSA you don't have to count a house you own if it is your primary residence. This may help you. The only problem is they go off the previous years taxes which can hurt if you were working full-time previously. Your second year of nursing school might be a bit better with the financial aid. I ended up using a private loan to subsidize my other grants and government loans to pay the mortgage. It's going to bite me in the but here in a couple months when I have to start repaying. I think it was all worth it to go into a bit of debt for my degree. Fill out your FAFSA and talk to your financial aid advisor at your school first.

I'm in a similar situation. I'm currently a student at MHCC, I already have a B.S., my husband and I own our condo and also own a small business. Unfortunately, according to our 2007 tax return, we make "too much money" (which is kind of a joke, we don't make a whole lot) to qualify for any aid other than student loans. I need to be very careful with the loans since I already have loans for my first degree, there is a chance I could hit the lifetime stafford loan max if I take out too much (look into this if you have or had stafford loans for your first degree).

Our income took a huge hit when I started school and reduced my hours at work, and my husband had to reduce his income due to the recession...but we're SOL becuase that income drop won't show up until we file our return for 2009 in 2010 and by then I'll almost be done with school.

1) they shouldn't count the fact that you own a house/car/etc (they didn't even count our small business because we have less than 100 employees).

2) If you're willing, you can do what I'm doing, try to get into an ADN program (SO much cheaper than a BSN) and then when you start working as an RN, many local area hospitals will kick in money for an RN to BSN program.

Make sure youkeep in mind that a lot of the community colleges have bridge programs where you can just transfer in oder to get you BSN with out having to apply to an RN to BSN program so you only pay university prices for the last year.

actually most of the community colleges have this now, it will be alot cheaper to go this route the whole problem is that community colleges get alot more applicants because it is cheaper, places such as george fox, concordia, linfield are not as hard to get into because they do charge more.

Linfield has approximately 3 applicants for every seat in the Nursing program. OCNE averages 5.6 applicants for every seat in their nursing program. There are significant scholarships available, so don't discount a "private" school.

There are numerous threads about Accelerated BSN vs a 3 year OCNE to BSN route. For me the cost was a wash, and the quicker graduation date is worth every penny.

In this job market it seems like ADNs are the first ones getting shut out, definitely pursue your BSN. Good Luck!