Cost of living help while going to LPN school...

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Mar 17, 2007

Hi Blondee. Most of us find a balance between working part-time for income while in school and taking out student loans. You might be able to find a hospital to employ you during school that has tuition reimbursement. Many hospitals will pay your tuition in exchange for a time commitment after graduation.

Because you are a single mother - there may be programs in your area targeted at helping single parents in school. I'd meet with an advisor at your college and find out about that. For example, at one university I am applying to - an endowment was just established that will provide $100,000 in scholarships annually to nursing students who are single parents. This is huge! See if you can qualify for Perkin's student loans too - in many instances these loans can be forgiven if you work as a nurse after graduation.

It might be worth it to explore the idea of going for RN initially. Your financial aid will be calculated based upon your income. This would mean that if you work as an LPN while continuing for your RN education, you will have less financial aid due to the LPN income. I switched my plans from pursuing ADN-RN to BSN. I was sure there was no way I could be in school for the longer time period - but it worked out!!! I changed because of the 3 year waitlist for ADN-RN at my community college.

A comment about what you said about pursuing RN online afterwards. Online LPN-RN programs are few and far between. If you can find one, it's important to remember that just the lecture courses are online. You will still have clinicals in person at hospitals.

Good luck! There are many programs out there. It can be hard to find them, though.

Jules A, MSN · Mar 17, 2007

I'd also speak to your teens about getting part time jobs to help with the extras. Good luck.

chris2227 · Mar 17, 2007

You can try work force development. They should be in your area, just search the web for workforce.org they should be able to help you as long as you want to pursue a career they can help. Check them out. good luck

justme1972 · Mar 18, 2007

One of the things to consider is how old are your daughters? Are they old enough to get a part-time job?

I have a close friend of mine that is a single mother to two teenage boys...her job is 100% commission and she has had a slump for the past couple of months and had to ask her sons to get part-time jobs (but very part time). They make more than enough to make their small car payments and car insurance.

The kids are also old enough to do the majority of the cleaning and your laundry...if you make it a small, everyday task, you'll probably never need a major cleaning day.

I know as a mother it's hard to ask your own children for help, but in the end, it's for the betterment of all of you.

Good luck! I'm sure they are great kids.

rierie · Mar 18, 2007

I am an LVN currently trying to find funding somewhere while I try to go back to school I have attentded school for some prereq's while working full-time and I have found that to be difficult. My grades are passing but I am unsatisfied with a B-C average in anatomy as a seasoned nurse. I am now trying to quit my job and attend school full-time. As the previous poster stated it is very hard to find a transfer program in most areas. I thought living in Dallas would make it easier. I soon found out that the only college was 45 minutes one way and I would have to attend classes for LVN-RN bridge 4-5 days a week. I moved to south Texas to get into a program but as I stated before the funding is the main issue for me. It sounds easy but once your into nursing you can't turn off that switch. I have found it to be too stressful to continue to work at all while attending school. I made too much money to qualify for any grants, but not enough to support myself while going to school. The financial aid people look at you like your crazy when you are trying to get a loan and they see that I made 45,000 last year. I sure wish I was a better saver. I do not have children, but I rely on myself for income. I was kind of talked into the LVN thing years ago with my mom (also a nurse) "you can always go back for your RN" head the advice of your future co-workers. GET YOUR RN!!! I wish someone had told me that or at least pounded it in my head about how hard it would be later. Good luck and I hope it all works out for you.