Financing your education

Anyone?!

Hello,

By the time I was done with just my associates degree I had 17 thousand in loans. I maxed out the amount I could take out which was about 7 thousand a year at 2.5 years this is where it ended up. I received a stafford loan. The payments were very reasonable. I then applied for and received a grant from the national institute of health which covered about 10 thousand or more of that just for working in the same hospital I planned on working in when I graduated.

Many hospitals will also help with tuition reimbursement as you go to school and work so after you finish your ADN start working and use some tuition support money from your employer to finish your BSN.

Some states are now even offering nursing scholarships. I know Michigan has a 2000 or 3000 dollar grant. Be creative!

There are many creative ways to pay off your education. If you look into states to practice in that have nursing shortages many have options to pay off your student loans if you commit to two years. I know the hospital I work at will pay for your nurse practitioner degree in certain areas if you commit to working there as well.

If you look at your income now (this is how I justified the debt) and the income you will make when you graduate, will your income increase? Besides that you are investing in yourself. It is one of the best investments you can make in your lifetime.

Hope this helps somewhat

hello newbeginnings...for my adn I worked ot when I could and saved...no loans, grants etc...I am now going on for the bsn/msn and I again will be working ot when I can and taking classes part time...ie I have been doing extra hours now...classes start in a week..it will probably be about 6 yrs worth of school to obtain my msn...but it is a small price not to be tied down with loans.

I took out private studen loans for my adn because I just couldn't live at home anymore. I am about 36k( for 3 semesters) in debt from it all and don't have my monthly payments yet as I don't have to start paying it back until 6 months after I graduate. I could have gotten away with less but I didn't want to live in the ghetto by myself so I paid about 200$ more or so on a nice apt per month. I didn't work much because it would have stressed me out having to be on the boarderline of pass/fail every time I take a test. A lot of people I was in school with played that game all through the program and a lot flunked out semesters because of working too much.

We're paying cash for it.

I know that isn't the answer you're looking for, but I think that is what we are going to do.

I'm applying to a 3-year program that costs about $100K, but we have savings and I think we are going to use it. Though I know it makes more financial sense to finance some of it if we can get low interest loans, so I guess that is a possibility of it too.

We are very fortunate that my husband gets large bonuses and we have the money to pay.

I went to community college, lived with my parents, didn't buy any minor books I could check out from the school library, and paid for it with my part time nursing assistant job. Books cost more than tuition at my nursing program, the tuition was that low. Of course there was a lot of competition to get in.

I have a BS in a non-nursing field and about 30K in loans from that. Which actually wasn't too bad since many friends had a lot more it was over 30K a year there. I don't want to add any loans to my total so instead of doing a local BSN program that is private and $$ I'm starting with my ASN from a community college and we'll be able to pay cash.