I've been reading many of the threads here re: tuition debt load, but I still feel compelled to ask - is anyone else in this situation? I'm speculating about CRNA school. I'm an ICU nurse with four years' experience.
I have a mortgage (not much equity). We're a single income home and we have kids. Everything depends on me. I have no other debts - no car loan, no tuition debt (thank God ADN programs still exist), minimal credit cards. Probably entering an RN-BSN program this year so we're talking at least two years before entry. Living in the Chicago area, it looks like school costs between $50k to $78k. I would need cost of living loans, I'm sure, for at least one to two years. That would be, I don't really know - $50,000 a year?
So I'm looking at $150,000 to $170,000 in student loan debt before graduation. Looking at loan calculators, paying off that much in ten years would be $1700 a month or more! That's a mortgage payment! An SRNA friend tells me that his school maintains their new grads earn about $170,000 in Chicago. I don't know if they're just feeding him a line.
Honestly I don't know - is the investment worth it? It's scary with everything hinging on my income - to go without income for two years, and accumulate that much debt. I'm pretty certain, barring tragedy, I'd graduate.
How's the job field looking in 2013?
Chris