Am I Making The Right Decision & Is It Worth It?

Nurses General Nursing

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I've always wanted to be in the health care/medical field but never really find the time to make the transition until recently after being laid off from a somewhat successful lucrative career. I'm 37 yrs old and recently decided to make the transition from corporate America to currently pursuing a 12month ABSN. Health care is where my heart is, but because of my age I don't feel like I have much time to dedicate to school so I decided the ABSN program was my best choice. However, my school is very expensive, over 50k in loans for the ABSN & when combined with my previous student loans of 25K I will be about 70k in debt. I also plan on going on to a masters in nursing but hope to find an employer willing to pay for it so I have no doubt I can make the money to pay off my loans in a short time.

I know this is ultimately my decision but, due to my age and the cost of attendance I've been questioning whether or not I've made the right decision. Also, I've turned down several job offers of over 80k in my past career to pursue nursing. I am very excited about nursing and know I will do extremely well but, now that my first semester tuition of 20k is paid and I'm all set to start classes all these thoughts are going through my head...yikes! There's no turning back for me b/c this is what I truly feel I should be doing but just can't control these thoughts. Is this normal & are there others out there going through this same dilemma?

Other than State Universities the average price for a BSN degree at a private university runs around 50-70K. NYU, FDU, Columbia, Felician, Pace, and many other schools in the northeast ABSN/BSN programs average approx 55K and they are very competitive to get in...many are turned away.

I look forward to being a BSN RN and I have no doubt it will be worth EVERY DIME!

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I look forward to being a BSN RN and I have no doubt it will be worth EVERY DIME!

That's the mentality of most people, this is why most of these schools charge as much as they do. Sure, a nursing degree is worth every dime, the problem is-- there is no guarantee that you'll even be employed after you graduate. Private schools and several state/universities make $$$ telling people they can get jobs afterwards. As long as people continue to think they'll have jobs afterwards, schools will continue to rip people off. These schools really need a reality check. People who go to grad school paying as much as $ 50 K (or more)are worth it, since graduate degrees are almost a requirement now in several fields. Advanced degrees are worth the time and effort, job security also. But, I'm not sure of ADN/BSN programs for $ 50K?

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Specializes in MedSurg, Clinic, ER.

:spam:

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