A/S Nursing Program AND Work Full-Time?!?!

sj20fame · Jun 7, 2012

Great question! I too would like to know? How?

leenak · Jun 10, 2012

First of all, I'd look at a way to pay off any debts that you have and try saving as much money as possible prior. Working 40 hours and going to school is probably going to be tough. I'm looking at quitting my job completely but we don't have any kids.

Does your wife work? If not, do you have family that could help with childcare? It might be better suited if your wife worked nights while you took care of the kids.

My advice would be to pay down bills, save as much money as possible and then look into federal loans.

sherri12 · Jun 10, 2012

I went back to school at 42. I also have a family, house, kids, and bills. I am in my last year of a BSN program and have worked 35-40 hours the entire time and still am able to make the Dean's list every semeseter.

Paying down bills before hand? Impossible. There is no way to pay off your house before nursing school.

I am able to do it by not procrastinating and being organized. This is really all there is to it. I get my work done even before the single students who don't work. There are deadlines to getting work in and I always make sure I know what they are.

Many times when assignments are given, I will have them done that night, or by the next day even if I have a week or more to get them done. I follow the syllabus very carefully so I don't forget anything and nothing is late. You can have points taken off for late work and even 1/2 point can bring your grade down in the end.

If you can come up with a system of being organized to get your reading done and get work in on time you can do it and do it well. I find many of the older students ( like us) do it well.

Good luck!

leenak · Jun 10, 2012

Paying down bills before hand? Impossible. There is no way to pay off your house before nursing school.

I should've said non-mortgage bills. Any debts, car loans, etc - I'd recommend paying off prior to school if possible. My husband and I only have a mortgage so we don't have to worry about any other debts while I'm in school. My husband's income can also cover the mortgage and other monthly bills (gas, electricity, water, etc).

Also, it is possible to cut costs which I forgot to mention. We've cut our costs considerably over the past year in an effort to save money. We are generally pretty energy conscious but keeping the house a little colder in winter/bundling up and keeping the house a little warmer in summer, cutting out some of our splurge grocery items, eating out less often (we used to eat out once a week, now it is closer to 1-2 times/month), I quit my gym membership and workout at home, etc.

leenak · Jun 10, 2012

I forgot to mention, if you have a higher than 5% mortgage, definitely look into refinancing. We recently refinanced and we could've reduced our monthly payments by $500 but we instead decided to shorten the mortgage and are now at 3.5%. Overall, it'll be a large cost savings.

Stephalump · Jun 10, 2012

We did the same thing. - got out of debt before I went back to school. No credit cards, no car payments, paid off his outstanding traffic tickets (sad way to spend money). All we're left with are our mortgage and perpetual living expenses like electricity and insurance. And a few extra things we can cancel easily if we need to, like cable and my gym membership.

I've always been a stay at home mom, so we aren't losing an income, but putting 3 kids in full time daycare was a $1000 expense we couldn't plop on top of our bills overnight.

Yes, it took time and planning and patience. But I wanted to be sure I could have adequate time with my family and still be able to make grad school worthy grades - two things that would be crazy difficult if I had to work/stress about money. It was hard postponing what I wanted to do, but now that I'm in NS I'm super happy I did.