Finances while in LPN school

Jules A, MSN · May 24, 2008

I don't want to work during school so I can concentrate on my studies.

I hear ya and I would have liked to been born looking like Cindy Crawford but it just wasn't in the cards, lol. I'm sure you will get plenty of responses saying go for it, that school debt is good debt, personally I rarely think this is true especially if you arenot willing to work also. Just my two cents of course but I worked a min of 30 hours a week through LPN and RN school and did just fine as did many of my fellow classmates. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Hoping2beRN, BSN, RN · May 24, 2008

My advice is to talk it over with your husband, what works for some may not work for you.

I am working 20hrs/week, plus in school 3 nights and have 3 kids ages 7,5 & 1. It's very difficult to manage soccer and other kid activities while working and in school. If your going days? I assume since it's 10 months? Try to find a weekend job at a hospital where you can pretty much make your own hours. that is what I am doing.

Also, it can be done a lot of the people in my night class work 40-50+ hours a week and still go to school. Some of them don't have kids though!

Good luck with what you choose.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · May 25, 2008

You might not find a desirable situation around the corner if you borrow $15,000 in living expenses, with the end result being an LPN position that will start you off at $14 to $24 hourly. Your pay rate and benefits are dependent upon your local job market. If you end up earning in the lower range of the pay scale, it might take forever to pay the loans off.

My advice is to go for it, but tread carefully. I personally borrowed $20,000 for my LVN program back in 2004, but this loan was paid off over 1 year ago. I was able to pay it off so quickly because I'm a single female with no children who lives in an area that has plenty of well-paying LVN positions.

missjennmb · May 26, 2008

I'm in a similar situation. I have a 13 yr old son, a 2 1/2 yr old daughter and a 7 month old (they will be 3 and 1 when I start full time school) As much as I don't want the debt, I just cant handle the idea of how little I'm going to see my kids as it is w/ school & studies, so working on top of full time school just wasnt something I could bring myself to do.

I'm taking the government grants and loans, and we're squeezing the purse strings this year. Its going to be tough, maybe even impossible, but we have had a serious talk, my husband and I, and would rather move (we're planning on moving anyways once school is out) than not get through school. The payback rate for school loans is very very low, so if you dont get a private loan you will probably not have any issue if its anything like ours (I pay like $100 a month for my husband's school loan and I can consolidate ours once I finish school and only make 1 payment for them both).

All that being said, we are leaving it open and if we truly cannot make it work and the option for me to get a part time job in the medical field opens up after school starts, I will probably take it, IF its something I can work in without completely sacrificing my family's needs and w/out my grades suffering.

TimBukWho? · May 28, 2008

Well, I did a bit of both. I did take some school loans, and also worked. I'm glad I had the loan money because it would've been very difficult some weeks to work the amount of hours I needed to keep up with the bills.

As far as working goes, I chose to work as an agency CNA. In this way I was able to choose exactly when I worked. There were a couple of weeks through my program that I chose not to work because I had too much studying to do. Most weeks I've worked anywhere from 16-24 hours. I also only worked on the weekends. I would've been EXHAUSTED if I would've had to go straight from school to work. BTW, my program was M-F. Plus agency work pays more than facilities.

Hope this helps some.

missjennmb · May 28, 2008

well I think I jinxed myself with this post... because we've gotten in a serious bind now and I have to find a way to go to work asap or I won't be able to go to school in the Fall.

We bought me a car for school (paid in full, kind of a junker that was just supposed to get me through LPN school and till I found a job to get a nicer car) Well... it lasted about 3 days and died. The seller gave us about 1/4 of what I paid for it back, and told us to resell the car, which has not worked. So now I'm freaking out about not having a car, my books costing more than I had expected, and trying to figure out how to pull an extra $560 p/mo just for childcare out of thin air. We could have done it and it would be tight before our house payment went up due to some local politics and the price of gas practically doubled since I decided to start school (both my hubby and I would be driving 40 min in opposite directions for work/school)

So... now I'm going to start hunting tomorrow for a weekend job. I hope I can get something in the health field, but regardless, I am going toh ave to take whatever I can get.

Rhiannon, did you go to CNA school for the agency job before going to nursing school? I wish I could do something like that so that I could get exposure to the environment in addition to the financial gain.

Jules A, MSN · May 28, 2008

Best of luck finding a job quickly. Can you waitress or bartend? Its a great way to make really good money and the time management skills are a plus as you work toward becomming a nurse also.

missjennmb · May 28, 2008

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately all of my experience is as an administrative assistant and even that is not recent. I did wait tables in high school for a couple of weeks but then I dumped a huge glass of ice water on someone and that was the end of that, lol. I'm sure I can find something somewhere though. I've bounced around doing a little of this and a little of that for the past 10 years, never focusing on any one thing long enough to be considered "experienced" in anything. I just started working on my resume and it reads like a who's who of out of business IT companies and administrative temp agencies, lol.

But it will work out one way or another. :) It always does.

DebanamRN, MSN, RN · May 28, 2008

My suggestion: Go to the local hospitals and take what you can get, even housekeeping or dietary. Why? Because once you are there you can move around the system. Also, even part timers get tuition reimbursement. I started as a registrar and now I'm an LPN. The hospital where I worked paid for my LPN and my current hospital is paying for my RN. I took what I could get and ran with it. Look for facilities with nursing homes, lots of corporations will pay for your LPN even if you work in the hospital and then transfer you to a nursing home to fulfill your committment. Good luck!

missjennmb · May 28, 2008

thats great advice. thanks so much! I would kill to have my LPN paid for (although my hopes are not quite that high I'd be happy just to have the income and the "in" at this point)

I'm working on my resume and digging up old employment info atm (one hospital wants 15 yrs of job history).

My only stumbling block at this point is a serious lack of references. I've been a recluse for the past 3 years as a stay at home mom and there are literally no people that I know that are not family, and even most of them would not be a positive reference, lol. Too bad my kids dont count. :)

DebanamRN, MSN, RN · May 28, 2008

Re: References

Do you have any neighbors or parents of the kids friends who could give a reference? Otherwise, I would explain that I've been out of the work force for several years and my references are old. See what they say. Ask what an acceptible reference is. It's hard to go back all those years. I can hardly remember this morning never mind 15 yrs ago.