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Discussion

Admitted! Now how do I pay for it?

Hello everyone,

So I have accomplished one of my life's biggest goals: getting admitted to CRNA school. That's been my focus for the last few years, and I haven't thought about much else other than preparing for school and trying to make myself the best candidate I could be.

Now that I've cleared the hurdle of getting in, my mind is focusing on the logistics of the whole thing. I was hoping to find current students who might have been in similar circumstances as me, and hear about how they have handled the financial obligations of attending CRNA school.

I'm 24 years old, and will have literally no income while in school. My boyfriend has also been admitted to CRNA school, but he is fortunate to have a large inheritance which he will be able to utilize to fund all of his expenses while in school. But, it's not like he'll be raking in any dough to support me while we're going through school. We have no family in the area where we'll be going, so we'll either have to buy a house or rent. My family is not able to give me any substantial help towards tuition or costs of living. My tuition for the full 2.5 years is going to be around $65k. I do have a good credit score, and I have paid off all of my undergraduate loans. I have a small amount of savings that I was hoping to keep as a cushion for unexpected expenses like medical bills or a car breaking down.

So I was curious how current students have funded their grand adventure through school. Federal loans? If so, did you get enough from them to pay both tuition and living expenses? Which loans are you using (PLUS, etc.)? Private loans? If so, how difficult was it to obtain a private loan? Scholarships, grants? Eating ramen noodles? :up:

And yes, I have been in touch with my school's financial aid office. I was just hoping to get some other people's experiences handling this sort of headache, and hoping to possibly get some advice from someone who's been there!

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    Generally most people can get by with just the loans from the government - especially those in your situation (single, no kids). Turns out you spend waaaaaay less when in anesthesia school because you just don't have any time to go out and spend money, so you probably don't need as much as you think. I took all the loans Uncle Sam offered me and I had ~20K in the bank when I started. I'm on track to be just fine for two years, and many of my classmates agree that we should all do the whole thing in under 80K. It's different depending on your tuition though.

    Anyway, I'm rambling. I don't have the energy to form well organized responses since I was in the OR from 5a-3p and since then I've been studying for my test tomorrow. When they say getting into school was the easy part, I'm sorry to say, they were right. Congrats by the way.

    Also, try to get cheap rent! I'm living with people from Craigslist and I pay about half of what most of my peers pay for rent, which saves me a ton. Some people just aren't comfortable doing this kind of thing though.

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    Oh, I've also had the thought that if I run out of money near the end of the program, I'll get one or two no-interest credit cards that they're always spamming me with and run a couple bills up on those. They generally offer 18mo. no interest cards to people with decent credit. I shouldn't have to do that though.

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    I did the "no interest" credit cards for unexpected expenses. I'm a single mother, started school with no debt. I lived off of student loans and things worked out for me pretty good. I agree with Mully, you'll learn to live pretty frugally while in school. If not, you'll end up worse off. Learn to live on a dime! You can't have champaign taste on a beer budget in anesthesia school :-D

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    Thanks to the both of you! It definitely sounds like it will be an adjustment even just financially speaking. I feel better to hear that the both of you were covered for the essentials - my biggest fear is to run out of cash for rent, car payments, etc. Thankfully I've lived pretty well within my means since I graduated with my BSN, so I'm hoping that will be of help when making the adjustment to being in school. I definitely hadn't thought of the credit card aspect - great backup plan if it has to come down to that, thanks! You guys are awesome!:)

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