Advice on Paying for it All

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I've been in tears all day....

I've been out of work for 3 months..my father has been paying all of my bills. I'm a 37 year old single mother of a 2 year old whose father won't help. I have no family here or a support system.

I need to take my pre-requisites to get into nursing school, and I thought I found a local community college that did distance learning so I could take my API and APII and Chemistry and be ready to apply for the Fall Nursing Class. Well, evidently they had a poor web designer, because when I was having trouble registering for the classes and found out that they were not available online.

To make things worse, I live in a large city and every single college around here only offers the Chemistry and AP courses MID-DAY...this makes it impossible for me to get my prereq's out of the way without working and I only have child care during the day and I have no one to keep the child at night.

I feel like such a failure right now, and I feel that I'll be stuck in a low-income job forever because the profession that I am currently in isn't hiring and I am not trained to do anything else (mortgages is what I do).

I would love to hear what others have done when there is no husband, grandparents, no one to help.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I want to commend you for going back to school against some tough odds.

Are there any government programs that would help with day care? I know IL has a program.

You should qualify for Pell grants so that you won't have any outlay of money for school.

Please take the deadbeat dad to court and make him ante up.

Would your father help with an occasional day care night?

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical, Hemodialysis.

Since your out of work have you checked at the unemployment office. I don't know how your state is but mine has a disclocated workers program that may be of help to you. At least go and check what is available. If I didn't have financial aid for school there would be no way that I could afford it all. It has truly been a blessing.

I agree with traumaRUs about checking into assistance with your daycare costs. I don't know if this applies to you if you go to church ask someone there to help watch the children while your in class.

I definitely feel for you and wish I could give you a big hug. Check what resources are available to you, you might be surprised with what is available.

Good luck!

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Specializes in NA - 100 years ago.

Here's an idea... Do you have a university in your area where you can get your nursing degree? The reason I ask is, while a university is a lot more expensive than a community college, (being as they figure in housing expenses - off campus, or on - in their calculations and, of course, the tuition is higher), this very fact can work much in your favor. The cost of attendance is much more than the cost of attendance at a community college. This means you may qualify for quite a bit of money in student loans, grants and scholarships to help you pay for not only your tuition, but a good chunk of your living expenses while you're in school. You can, basically, make school your job and end up with a top notch education for yourself and a better life for yourself and your child. (Classes seem to be easier to get into at university than at the community college, as well. Although, they still run out of seats, it doesn't seem to be as quickly.)

There should be childcare available on campus. You may still need to get a part-time job to supplement your expenses, but sometimes people balk at the cost of university attendance without realizing, if they qualify, they may attend for very little cost, if any. I would advise you to check with your university's financial aid office. If you haven't filled out the FAFSA online, yet, do that first and have it sent to the university, so they can give you an idea what your awards will be. Then you can get a realistic idea of what you can do to make your dreams come true.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Med/Surg <1; Epic Certified <1.

Do whatever you have to do if this is your dream. I have a 26 year-old daughter who is getting some pretty decent money at a community college, babysitting through Headstart, food stamps, etc.....I don't LOVE that she's doing this, but I can't afford to take care of her anymore.....sometimes, that's what government assistance is for...go to the college and talk to the financial aid counselors....talk to several of them....fill out the FAFSA...seek out whatever monies you have to (loans, grants, scholarships)....and get moving....if you really want this, you can make it work....it won't be easy, maybe not even fun, but the rewards at the end of the journey sound like they're well worth it....there are other single moms out there doing it, and it can be done...

Bless you and best wishes!!

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I appreciate the advice...here is what I have done so far:

I am receiving child support, but the entire check goes to the daycare center.

She just started daycare two weeks ago and I had to put her in or I was going to risk losing the slot when I found work. Daycares here have extensive waiting lists, so that is why she is in with me not working. This one is located just around the corner from my house and there are on 3 in a 15 mile radius of where I live.

Here in NC, you cannot qualify for daycare assistance if you make over $21,000 a year.

My normal salary when working is usually around $40K plus, but b/c the mortgage industry has taken a hit, I cannot get back in. It takes every dime I make just to pay my bills in this city, taxes are extremely high and with the recent increases in gas, my grocery bill and gas expenses doubled.

The only reason I am looking at a Community College instead of a University is time...I need to be able to knock this out very quickly. I was planning on trying to take every non-nursing prereq I could that would just leave only the nursing portion and clinical rotations. For a BSN, I would have to take 11 classes to fulfill their prereq's before I can even apply to the program, so that would be 3 years.

I would do it if I could get enough grants, but I cannot stomach having $80K in loans on top of my mortgage.

My father lives in Virginia, and I live in NC..so he cannot help me with sitting, or trust me, he would be here every night.

I know I'm rambling....I just really wanted to get this started in the fall.

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Specializes in NA - 100 years ago.

The only reason I am looking at a Community College instead of a University is time...I need to be able to knock this out very quickly. I was planning on trying to take every non-nursing prereq I could that would just leave only the nursing portion and clinical rotations. For a BSN, I would have to take 11 classes to fulfill their prereq's before I can even apply to the program, so that would be 3 years.

I would do it if I could get enough grants, but I cannot stomach having $80K in loans on top of my mortgage.

I originally thought it would be faster for me to go to the community college as well. When I figured out my schedule, i.e. you have to take this class before that class and that class before the next class, I found it would take me just as long, in calendar time, to get my bachelor's degree, BSN, as it would to get the ADN. It may not be the same where you are, but you might want to look into it. As for the debt, I will owe about 24k by the time I'm done. (On edit: I already have one bachelor's degree. That cuts about one semester off my time to get the BSN.)

When you do the FAFSA it will tell you your expected family contribution (the amount you are expected to pay toward your educational expenses) based on last year's income. If you made too much last year, the community college cost of attendance might not be high enough for you to qualify for much financial aid. (I think there is a way to appeal this if you are not working now, but I'm not sure of the process.) For example, the COA for the community college may be $3000.00 per year. If your EFC (expected family contribution) is $3500, you won't be awarded anything at the community college. The COA for the university may be $16,000.00 per year. You would be awarded up to $12,500.00 per year there - depending on your circumstances - in any combination of grants, scholarships and loans, which you are free to accept, or decline.

Whichever path you choose, the FAFSA is the first step to funding it. Have it sent to all the schools you would consider attending - college and university - then go from there.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, MS/MT, PCU, CM, House Sup, Frontline mgr.

I have to agree with the above poster in the fact that you may not gain much in time. You might end up taking 3 years to receive a ADN too if there is a long wait list or none (as in my case) but the competition to get into your school of choice is high.

I would do it if I could get enough grants, but I cannot stomach having $80K in loans on top of my mortgage.

I agree with you. I too cannot stomach additional loans to pay for this degree and that is why I am going the ADN route. For me to be debt free is more important then taking out more loans now and earning a BSN because it will take forever to pay the loans off. Nurses make a good amount of money if they are debt free. Otherwise, they are as broke and have very limited purchasing power as those without a degree. :uhoh3:

I am paying cash (and have paid cash) for my pre-reqs and all of my non-nursing class courses (co-reqs). I am waiting for admissions into the January class. If I get accepted, it will have taken me 2.5 years to obtain this degree. As I work as a RN, I will pay cash or have my employers pay cash to receive my BSN through a bridge program I can do part-time. I already have a Masters degree and am not interested in earning a MSN... but I might add an additional certificate to my MBA.

Good luck to you. ;)

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I would think with no income you'd qualify for plenty of aid?

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Specializes in SRNA.

I would encourage you to enroll in school, apply for aid, and see what you qualify for. Also, remember that there are other general classes you can get out of the way (English Comp, Psychology, etc) that more and more places are offering online...that would give you an opportunity to get back in school and get a step ahead and some time to figure out your childcare and budget issues.

Also, don't rule out the university just because of time constraints. Where I live, whether you're going to the comm. college or the university, you have 4 semesters of nursing courses after your prerequisites. Here, it takes pretty much the same amount of time to complete either an ADN or BSN, assuming you can go full time. This may not apply to all areas, of course.

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I agree with the above poss.

Check out dislocated worker/homemaker programs.

Consider taking a job as a CNA. I don't know the pay structure for NC but here in MN some of the nursing homes and state mental hospitals offer scholarships to their employees to go to school to become a nurse. I was watching a patient at St Mary's in Rochester MN a few months ago adn the patient care assistant was receiving quite a bit of help to attend the local CC to become an ADN. (One advantage to taking this type of job is that your schedule will probably be quite a bit more flexible for school. I took a demotion in order to be able to work nights and attend school during the day.)

HTH

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http://www.ci.durham.nc.us/departments/eed/dwdb_wia.cfm

This has a lot of information about NC resources for displaced homemakers.

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