Financial Aid - Arizona

[Amburgerz12]

I was recently accepted into Estrella Mountain Community College's Nursing program for the Fall and was wondering if anyone had experience working with any of the student loan companies? I am planning on taking out private loans so that I can quit my job and focus on Nursing full time and any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am also interested in any scholarship programs out there. I have read about a few and am going to look into them, but for now I am still searching...

I would be greatful for any help!:bowingpur

P.S. I know that this should probably go in the student section, but I thought that maybe some of the recent grads might have some better advice.

[catmania]

I'm in a rad tech program and I decided to do this very thing - live on student loans so I can concentrate fully on school.

I received one loan through Bank of America (think they call it their Education Maximizer) and several different ones through Sallie Mae. I would just caution you to really pay attention to how much money you're taking out and what your payments will be like vs. how much money you will realistically be bringing in.

Scholarship programs I have no idea about but I would highly suggest that you look into Project Ayuda. This is an Americorps program which is run out of Paradise Valley Community College (but available to people in other colleges and even other programs). With Project Ayuda, your clinical time counts as volunteer work and once you total up a certain amount of hours, you are given an educational award. In my case, I signed up for a 900 hour block of time and at the end of that I'll be getting just over $2K to be used towards student loans/tuition.

Hope that helps!

[Amburgerz12]

Wow that program sounds awesome! Let me make sure I read this right, because it almost sounds too good to be true... They consider clinical times to be volunteer work??? How did you get started and are there any requirements?

[catmania]

You can read about Project Ayuda here:

http://www.pvc.maricopa.edu/~ayuda/

One "catch" is that they only have a certain amount of slots open each year for people to be in this program, so if it's full you might have to wait for the next year.

When we had our clinical orientation last semester, the project coordinator for our school came in and gave a short presentation. This is how I got started. And yes, the clinical hours that you have to put in as part of your program do count as volunteer service. There's a little bit of paperwork in the beginning, every month you have to turn in a time sheet and before your service term is finished, you have to complete a few online modules at the PVCC site.

[MassagetoRN]

Catmania,

I was checking out their website, and their clinical sites. It looks like they contract through only a few hospitals, none in the east valley. Also, how many clinic hours did you do in nursing school that counted? Is it really 900 or did you have to fulfill some time outside of school? Thanks!

[catmania]

Hey MassagetoRN -

I'm not sure what to say regarding clinical sites. Mine is Banner Gateway in Gilbert - my school has clinical sites all over the valley and everyone in my program was eligible to be in Project Ayuda.

The Project Ayuda program coordinator, Katherine Forbes, could probably answer your questions better than me. Her contact info is:

Katherine Forbes

Project Ayuda Coordinator

Paradise Valley Community College

Office: 602-787-6657

Fax: [phone]

[email protected]

My entire 2 year rad tech program will consist of just over 1800 clinical hours. All of my hours will count toward two service terms of 900 hours each, so I won't have to worry about supplementing somehow. There are service terms smaller than 900 hours available.

[Amburgerz12]

I actually just got in touch with the project coordinator and they aren't accepting any applications until the Fall. I asked her for a certain date or even what month I should apply, but I haven't heard back from her yet... I'll keep you posted!!