Am I the only one that feels like this? I need help!

[BWillison10]

Hello Everyone, I am asking for help with my pre-nursing dilemma. I have just recently graduated in September of last year with my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration for Health care Management. I have always wanted to be a nurse since I was a little girl.

I have over $40k dollars in loans right now and it looks like for my nursing it'll be another $40k due to me not having done the prerequisite course work. I am a single mother of one (1) and have been on a vigorous search for employment so that I could work and pay as much off my loans as possible before starting school again, with no luck. I have looked into Scholarships.com and not much help there since I didn't take the ACT or SAT. My college accumulated GPA is 2.95, the college I just graduated from was a 3.0.

I am to apply to the nursing program of my first choice on Feb. 1 at Mount Carmel School of Nursing. With my application I am to include a written essay answering "as a future nurse, what do I think I could I contribute to nursing" but I have writers block because I'm so worried about if this would be a good thing to do the nursing program now or if I should wait. I am 26 yrs old and my goal was to be done with school (outside of the refreshers to stay up-to-date) before my daughter started school, shes 2 yrs 7 mos. I feel like my goal will have to wait because of the financial stress I am going through right now with no job to pay on my current loans and then the loans that would come with the nursing program and prerequisites. When I had done research before choosing the degree I currently have there was a high demand in and surrounding areas of Columbus, Ohio for entry level candidates with a BS; but that was in 2010 now they want experienced individuals with my degree now. I've tried jobs that anyone with a H.S Diploma should get and they will not hire me because I'm overly qualified with my experience in C.S and education.

Is anyone else having a similar dilemma? Or ideas?

BWillison10

[UVA Grad Nursing]

My recommendation would be to find a job and start paying down your present loans before taking out any more loans. There is no immediate date in which you need to be a RN; we have students in our Master's Entry program who started college in the 1970s.

The general rule of thumb is that you should not owe more than what you can expect to earn as your first year annual salary.

[sweetnurse786]

My best advice is to rethink why you want to become a nurse and are you going to be able to pay off the loans. Just like yourself, I did my BS in Business and I started to do my pre-reqs in 2005-2006....finally I got into a ABSN program in 2011 and graduated in May of 2012. Currently, I am in 150k student loan debt..yup you got it, $150,000 in student loans. $40k for my previous degree and $110k for the ABSN. I went to a decent private university here in NYC and I still do not have a job. Its really hard to get jobs and now I am considering going back to school for my MSN, either this year or next yr simply because I cant get a job and there is a lot of competition. I wish I had become a nurse 5 yrs ago because at that time, jobs were easier to get vs. now. Before I went to get my ABSN, I had a decent job, decent pay but was laid off. And all i could think about is going back to school because I started to take my pre-reqs a while back. I dont regret it but really am upset that I am still jobless...so yes its hard getting jobs and yes, the pay is not so great and yes, loans are insanely high. So definitely think about it and make the right decision for yourself. Good luck!