Financing Nursing School - Not Sure What To Do

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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I've already been accepted to a few schools and have an interview at another for 2017 start, but the prices are really making me rethink things. All of my local CC's are insanely competitive and packed, even for someone with a college degree--I was rejected to two of them.

My biggest issue lies with my debt. I have 65k in debt already and am looking at schools that would add another 40-60k on top of that. Now that's a ton of debt, but my plan was to go through the nurse corps loan repayment program and work in a rural area for 3-4 years to pay off nursing school loans while working to pay off the rest of my 65k in undergrad loans in the same time period. Is this a viable plan, or do these "programs" really not amount to much?

Honestly, i feel as though waiting another year or two to try to get into CC just because of the price will be a waste of time. I'll eventually need my BSN if I want to be a nurse practitioner. I could just say "screw it" with the nursing career to save a mountain of debt and work some dead end business job and start paying off my loans from undergrad, but i'd be putting off what i've put in so much work to do.

Thoughts?

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There's no way I'd accumulate that much debt. I'd wait, go the CC route, and hopefully get a job that will help pay for your BSN.

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And it certainly is a terrifying amount..but.. I'm basing it all off of the nurse corps program. I've not seen anything about the program on the site though (no experiences with it) and that makes me nervous

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Why not a state university?

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Its close to as expensive, probably another 35-40k

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How do you know the nurse corps will even pay, and all of your debt?

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@ FutureNurseInfo

I am just going off of the HRSA website for this program. It states:

NURSE Corps Loan Repayment Program sets registered nurses (including advanced practice registered nurses and nursing faculty) on a rewarding career path while paying off 60 percent of their unpaid nursing student loans in just 2 years – plus an additional 25 percent of the original balance for an optional third year.

In return, NURSE Corps members fulfilling a service obligation at one of the thousands of eligible nonprofit hospitals, clinics, nursing schools and other facilities located in designated mental health or primary medical care Health Professional Shortage Areas across the U.S.

Granted, I am assuming that I would be eligible after I were to graduate and become employed full time at a CCSF. If it weren't for this program, I sure as heck wouldn't be considering ANY nursing bachelors program--as all are at least 30k on the low end (not including housing, etc).

It is just very surprising to me that I have not seen anything regarding loan repayment programs for nurses on this site. Forgive me as I'm probably not looking hard enough!

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Its close to as expensive, probably another 35-40k

Are you sure about that? My nursing school cost is around $20k.

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Are you sure about that? My nursing school cost is around $20k.

It also depends on where you live/which state. In NYC, where I go to school to finish off my pre-reqs and where I will be applying, the cost of BSN at community colleges like CUNY is $25000-$35000, while private schools like NYU and Columbia charge as much as $50000-$60000 per year.

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I'm basing it all off of the nurse corps program

$125,000 is a lot of debt to risk on one program 3 years from now. You limit yourself to one track: graduate and work for the Nurse Corps. You have no other options.

What if you only make it part way through school? What if you don't want to work corrections in Chicago, home health in rural North Dakota, or a methadone clinic in Scranton for three years? What if you are injured and unable to continue the program? What if you hate nursing? What if you marry someone and want to be a stay at home mom/dad? What if the program ends? What if you're offered your dream job in the ICU at the prestigious teaching hospital? What if you're fired or dropped from the program?

The average student loan takes 20 years to pay off at a 7% interest rate. You'll be almost 30 when you graduate, so you'll be paying $1000 a month until you're 50 years old. Overall, you'll spend a total of $230,000 with interest. FinAid.gov suggests that this level of debt requires a low 6-figure salary to pay off when you consider other financial obligations like housing, bills, groceries, etc.

I'd not recommend such a track.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Have you looked into the limits on federal loans? I believe the limit is $57000, unless you were planning on trying to get private loans. Can you work and pay as you go? That is what I'm having to do because I already taken the max loan amount. Most schools do a payment plan.

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That's what I was looking at..I could save up around 20K as a down payment and pay no interest in monthly payments as long as I made $400/ wk..but I think they really recommend you don't work while in the program..I wonder, how does one complete this program without going into monstrous debt?

Common sense says I can't work during the program and to just apply elsewhere like another CC next year. Just is really tough passing up an opportunity

ETA: or i could just wait until the next app cycle and try to somehow save around 50 k!

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