Did Anyone Live Off of Student Loans While in School?

JaxiaKiley · Aug 13, 2006

Wow, that would be a lot of debt. Maybe one of you should work, while the other goes to school, and then switch?

moongirl · Aug 13, 2006

I was looking at Citi's website and it allows this:
Dependent undergraduate: $23,000
- Up to $5,500 a year
* Independent undergraduate: $46,000
- Up to $10,500 a year
* Graduate: $138,500
- Up to $18,500 a year
?????
Cheryl

you are an independent undergraduate. you can get $10,500 PER YEAR. at $4500 per month, with tuition at my college's fee ($1000.00 per semester not inlcuding books)and books at about 7-$900 per semester( depending on the classes) that gives you about $6000 to live on. that will get you approx. 40 days of paying your bills. Unless you have a pile of equity in your house to secure a private loan, federal student aid will not cover what you need

moongirl · Aug 14, 2006

Thank you. I think we may end up BOTH working part time and both going to school part time. If not, then hopefully his business will survie while i am in school then while i work, he can go and get a degree.
Cheryl

yes that would be the way less scary option!! good luck! If your dream to be an nurse is strong, you will find a way!!!!!!!

catlady, BSN, RN · Aug 14, 2006

Where we live, our property taxes alone are 7500 a year. We live in a very expensive area.

Then you're living beyond your means. A house with a $625 monthly tax bill--I can't even begin to imagine what your principal and interest must be.

With your husband possibly losing his job, this is not the time for both of you to be chucking it all and going to school. You need to go into survival mode. Figure out how you're going to live. Or else you're going to be homeless. There isn't a student loan program on earth that's going to support your lifestyle.

ibnathan · Aug 14, 2006

Hello,

Let me give you my background. I was a manager at a Major Grocery chain, they merged lost my management job immediate 20,000 dollar a year cut. Went bankrupt to try to save my home which I eventually lost. Decided to go back to school and start over at 25 yrs of age. I am the main provider of my home my wife is a teachers aide and is in school to be a teacher. I have taken 60,000 dollars in loans so far to get my AS in Nursing. Rediculous I know. It isn't that school costs so much it is the costs of living especially in California. I do work part-time during school. I originally thought it was going to only cost my about 30000 in school loans for this whole process. WRONG SH!t HAPPENS. Unexpected costs such as 5 month grocery strike, have to take weeks off unpaid to study for finals etc. etc.:angryfire This last 6 months have been brutal. I am in my last semester and graduate in December. YEAH!!! :uhoh3: :lol2: I do plan on getting my Bachelors and Masters degree. GO FOR IT! There is also a government repayment forgiveness loan program that I will be looking into. The way I look at it is this by the time I am done and my wife is done we will be making well over a six figure income. GOOD LUCK!!!

Megsd, BSN, RN · Aug 14, 2006

I'm about to live off loans, but my situation is somewhat different. I am single, though I do share a house with one other person. My total bills and expenses total around $1000-1200 per month. My tuition is about $2500 a quarter, and my program is 15 months long (so I estimate approx. $30000 for the whole shebang). I have a subsidized loan through school that pays about 1/3 my tuition, am applying for a stipend from a local hospital, and I have taken out a loan through Chase to cover everything for fall quarter. I borrowed $8000 from Chase under the assumption I don't get the hospital stipend, but if I find that is too much money I will borrow less in the future and roll the excess over into next quarter's expenses.

While the thought of paying back student loans does not thrill me, my program is accelerated and it is strongly recommended that we not work during the program, so loans are really my only option since I am the sole provider for myself.

Lisa CCU RN, RN · Aug 14, 2006

Then you're living beyond your means. A house with a $625 monthly tax bill--I can't even begin to imagine what your principal and interest must be.
With your husband possibly losing his job, this is not the time for both of you to be chucking it all and going to school. You need to go into survival mode. Figure out how you're going to live. Or else you're going to be homeless. There isn't a student loan program on earth that's going to support your lifestyle.

That's not entirely true. You can take out 30,000 dollars a year from a number of banks for living expenses above and beyond tuition. It's called alternative loans. Chela, Bank of America, Wachovia etc all have these kinds of loans. That's 60,000 a year they could borrow, if each of them took one out each.

Cammykiss · Aug 14, 2006

As an undergrad I used student loan money to pay rent, tuition, books and other expenses, but still worked. Another thing to consider is that the disbursal for student loans is sometimes erratic which could leave you in the lurch for bills that have to be paid on-time.

I would def. try to work part-time if possible. I have over 60,000 in loans from undergrad and grad school and it a serious burden to bear. Luckily I work for a hospital that gave me a health scholarship to start my RN-BSN and I received a health scholarship from the state of Maryland for tuition.

Definitly think hard about shouldering that amount of debt. It will take forever to pay all of that off.

RebeccaJeanRN · Aug 14, 2006

Gotta agree with those who posted above. Its just too much of a debt load to carry if you have almost $200,000 in tuition loans when you are both done. It will be like having two full mortgages!! So all the gains you will make in income, with two better paying jobs, will be wiped out for many years by repayment of loans. I strongly recommend one of you doing it at a time and the other working. Here's advice: do the Associates route for nursing school after pre-reqs while your husband works at anything he can (if job shuts down). You'll be done in just two years. Where I live, the two year community college nursing programs are very hard to get into but very inexpensive so I'm hoping that is the same by you. Then in just two years, you can work while your husband retrains for another job in school. Its do-able like this, with far less future debt burden! Best of luck- I hope you keep working on how best to achieve yours & hubby's dream!

cdietrich404 · Aug 14, 2006

Thank you very much. I think that is how we will be doing it.

Cheryl

peds4now, RN · Aug 15, 2006

I would recommend doing your prereqs at night or online as much as possible, to lower the cost. I didn't see how old your kids are, and I don't know if they will go to public school, but I highly recommend delaying your entry into school until they are all enrolled if they will (free daycare!!!!). That said, about loans.

If you have never gone to college, you can get the Pell grant and can qualify for federal loans (subsidized and unsubsidized). Even if you have a bachelor's degree, you can appeal and probably get federal loans anyway. At my school, I can get $3,500/yr. federal subsidized, up to $4,000 federal unsubsidized. These are great because they are not credit-based.

Once you go beyond that to alternative loans, it is credit-based, but also limited by what your school calls the cost of attendance. You can probably look that number up online at your school's website. I guarantee you, they do not use $4,500/mo.! My school gives me a $14,200/year (!) cost of attendance. I am in the process of appealing that and asking them to raise it by $8,000 because I have 6 children and that much in non-negotiable dependent care costs. But it will take a while.

THEN, there are the even more expensive (interest rate), credit based loans that do not have anything to do with your cost of attendance-too expensive.

But hey, if you own a home, why not take out a second mortgage?

BUT, please look at your budget-and I think your husband should keep working for now and you should put him thru school when you graduate. I live in L.A. (expensive) and put 4 of my 6 in private schools, pay $250/week for babysitter for the others, and my monthly budget for the whole family is only about $5,000.

ALSO, remember after one semester I think you can usually apply and get a CNA license and work nights while in school.

Fresh_Start · Aug 19, 2006

i am actually in the process of figuring out how to do this also. my employer pays for schooling but not nursing. i have a wife and a 1 year old daughter. my wife works part time at ups, 100% paid insurance! i have worked for 2 medical device companies over the past 11 years in r&d.

my plan is to sell my truck apply to live in married student housing, rent out our condo in salt lake city, and take out student loans for the next 2.5 years. i think this is doable. sallie mae will loan up to 100,000 for undergrads (dependent on credit, mine is good). i only need about 25,000-30,000 a year after luxury liquidation. i figured once i graduate in nursing i will work one year in icu and apply for anesthesiology nursing program (oh yeah) at westminster. once i finish i should be able to pay all student loans off within 2-3 years. any comments, suggestions, encouragement, and or concerns will be greatly appreciated.