$100,000 in student loan debt?

Nurses General Nursing

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I keep reading about new nurses saddled with $100,000 worth of student loan debt. I'm curious about this. Are these students using their loans to live off of while they attend school or are they attending very expensive schools? You could almost buy a house for that amount. How common is that level of debt?

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

The only way I would ever have 100 + thousand in debt would be for a home.

I currently have 12 thousand in SL, come 09/10 school year it will be another 9500 I think or maybe 10 and than another 10 for the 10/11 school year.

So what is that, around 32 thousand give or take.

That will be the extent of it. I never qualified for grants, this fall school year is the first and only year I have/ will qualify for grants.

Majority of my Student Loans go to Childcare. In august when my daughter starts day care when I start the NS Full time it will cost 250 a week. If it wasn't for the student loans I don't know how I would be able to go. My husband pulls in the only income and although it's been a great income thus far, the economy has taken it's toll and he is going to have to look at new business ventures to get into. He has been in Palm Springs working Since after thanksgiving while I am here alone with the kids and school just to make sure we have a good income.

So we don't use the loans to live off of, daycare will be the biggest thing they go to.

Specializes in Mental Health, Surgical-Ortho.

It costs around 20-30K a year or a private school. Valparaiso University charges $29,020 a year for tuition and university fee's. Forget about living expenses, that's $116,080 for four years of classes alone. Add on books, and you are looking at $120k+. My brothers girlfriend went there for a degree in English, and ended up with 65k worth of debt (she was lucky to have a scholarship, and a great deal of grant money). Education is not cheap.

Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.
I would remind a lot of the posters here that the cost of education has increased dramatically within the past few years.:o

The increases are insane. I went to NYU my first degree. Total cost was about 17k a year average (started at 15k, went up to 18 when I was done)...and that was with living at home--if I had to dorm/eat there I'd have to tack on an extra 5-6k/year. I emerged from it with 14k in loans to pay off.

Now the going rate is 17k per semester and dorm/meal rates are about 10-15k per year. If I went back there now for a BSN, considering that I'm no longer a NYC resident and living with the parents would be impossible, with all possible expenses, I'd be about 200k in debt! :(

I'm grateful that we pinched pennies so I could get my ADN paid in full. It's nice to be graduating without having to worry about when my first loan payment is due.

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

Man I am so grateful for my Community College Education after reading these. The total estimated costs for our Nursing Program for the 2 years (not including living expenses) is around 8500 dollars. About 4 thousand a year for Books, Supplies, Tuition and fees.

I plan on doing the RN-BSN program after I am working so I can get tuition reimbursement and it isn't to bad cost wise.

I told my kids if they go to College Instate I will help pay for as much as I can, but if they go out of state I can only pay for the portion I would have paid if they were instate. Out of state tuition is obscene.

I cringe whenever I see a post asking whether one should borrow money for living expenses in school.

I always shout, "NO!" at my computer screen.

As I understand it, some financial aid programs "penalize" students who have money saved for education, so some families don't establish college savings, thinking it will lessen their ability to get low cost loans for college. That's a shame, because such savings can go a long way toward meeting living expenses during college.

I can't imagine taking out loans for living expenses and paying 6-8% for 30 years for groceries and utilities. But since our public education system does such a poor job of providing the basics of financial and economic education, many young people don't understand the ramifications of doing so.

I understand the desire to get thru college as quickly as possible and begin earning a professional salary, but I think most students would be better off to work full-time for a few years to save for college and living expenses, or go to school part time while working.

Graduating with crushing debt is not necessary, and most who do, come to regret it when they realize the impact it has on their post-college standard of living.

Don't shout. :) If you have the resources to put yourself through school without financing that's great but not everyone has it like that. So for some of us there is no other choice.

Credentials are gold in today's economy - maybe even more valuable than a house. After all you if you can't afford a home you can always rent but without a license you are pretty much financially dead in the water. So if you need 100K in capital to stabilize your economic future (which is basically survival for you and your family.) If you don't have the credens to get work that pays a decent wage, and you can't feed your family then you are in trouble. So imo the investment is not a big deal if it's what you have to do. BTW - some ppl said 100k in loans sounds like med school debt. Wrong - it's common to have to borrow three times that much to get through med school.

Repeat - if you, your employer, your spouse, or your parents, etc., have you covered and you don't have to borrow to get your license/credentials then this is n/a for you. But not everyone has that kind of backing if you need to turn to student loans to get it then it's what has to be done.

You do have to be single minded about getting your credential and know what you're doing. If you're the type of person who isn't particularly committed to the idea of working in the field you're studying then of course you should not bother to finance it.

eta - someone said 100K was almost a house. Not in my area (although i wish!). Around here you need 300-400K. It was higher than that during the real estate boom, but then the boom went bust so housing costs are coming down.

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Don't shout. :) If you have the resources to put yourself through school without financing that's great but not everyone has it like that. So for some of us there is no other choice.

Credentials are gold in today's economy - maybe even more valuable than a house. After all you if you can't afford a home you can always rent but without a license you are pretty much financially dead in the water. So if you need 100K in capital to stabilize your economic future (which is basically survival for you and your family.) If you don't have the credens to get work that pays a decent wage, and you can't feed your family then you are in trouble. So imo the investment is not a big deal if it's what you have to do. BTW - some ppl said 100k in loans sounds like med school debt. Wrong - it's common to have to borrow three times that much to get through med school.

Repeat - if you, your employer, your spouse, or your parents, etc., have you covered and you don't have to borrow to get your license/credentials then this is n/a for you. But not everyone has that kind of backing if you need to turn to student loans to get it then it's what has to be done.

You do have to be single minded about getting your credential and know what you're doing. If you're the type of person who isn't particularly committed to the idea of working in the field you're studying then of course you should not bother to finance it.

eta - someone said 100K was almost a house. Not in my area (although i wish!). Around here you need 300-400K. It was higher than that during the real estate boom, but then the boom went bust so housing costs are coming down.

I didn't say it was almost a house, I said if I was going to have a debt that was 100grand plus I better own a home for the debt.

You can't get much of a house around here for 100 thousand either. More like 300 for a decent one in a decent area. But my point was for that kind of debt I better be owning something like a house.

Don't get me wrong, a good education can be invaluable. But for Nursing let's say, when employers are looking only if you have a RN Lic. and not what school you went to, I can't imagine spending an extra 60 thousand dollars for a ritzy school. Especially when the end result gets you the same seat at the NCLEX boards.

Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

for MEDICAL school maybe. NOT nursing. Nope. NOt me.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.

For my undergraduate degree, I attended a private college which then cost ~15K/year and that was over 20 years ago. Fortunately I attended with a 100% academic scholarship so it cost me nothing. I tried to pay for grad school as I went but as it became more time consuming and I was able to work less, I had to take out loans. Fortunately I finished with "only" 11K in student loans but since I am debt averse, even that little bit bugs me. It's $88/month for 15 years (I'll probably pay off the balance next year because I am just sick of owing it).

That sounds like a lot. I have just over 30k, but that's for accounting and LPN combined. The accounting degree did'nt do me any good. It looks like I need an RN to make decent money as I have'nt found a full-time job yet in one and a half years. I don't know how I can go back to school though without borrowing any more (which I can't afford). If I could find a place that would pay for me to go, even if I had to sign a contract, or reinbursement maybe. But I don't know if I could do it while working, but that is'nt an issue right now as I'm on unemployment.

My school raised the tuition this year by 69.7% per credit. This was done after registration for fall classes and nothing was said to anyone out of my class when we applied to the program. So cost per credit went from $300 to like $500 and some. So, I can see how this is possible...

Specializes in Oncology, Palliative Care, Hospice.

$100,000 seems like a lot, it can add up fast, but it takes far longer to pay off. Isn't that always the way it is though...it takes a lot longer to earn or save money than it does to spend it.

Many schools offer their own need based grants, in addition to federal student grants and loans. My MBA student husband's expensive private school paid over 60% of his tuition with grants until I finished school. Now we make too much for that. Help and options are out there. If debt is your only option don't give up on your dreams, but try to take the cheapest route that suits you.

I busted my booty to get through nursing school. I graduated from nursing school (highly acclaimed commuity college ADN program) in december with exactly $321.79 in school related debt. Okay, not excactly school related...but we had a REALLY good time after graduation. :cheers:

I worked a full time job all the way through school, and during the summers I added a part time job on top of that. My husband (who is working full time through grad-school) and I both did without a lot of things we "wanted" but never, ever had a "need" go unfufilled.

I hated my classmates. I was so jealous that they had time to do volunteer projects, and be on the student leadership council. I envied the fact that they had time to study as much as they needed to. They did crazy stuff like SLEEP.

Shoe's on the other foot now. My bar tab...i mean...school debt is long since paid off and many of my classmates are shocked by the payments that their student loans are eating up. I feel especially sorry for the gals in my class who took the private TERI loans at something like 13%. OUCH!:eek:

I think my soon to be MBA husband said it best when he said that "It's okay to finance your classes, but not your lifestlye. One will benefit you while you're paying it off, the other you won't even rememeber."

Regardless of how you get in, get through, or pay for it...nursing school is ALWAYS worth it. :yeah:

I am looking at around 45-50 K and it was for a private BSN degree. Out of school for about 1 1/2 years. Like a previous poster, having three kids paying for school at 595.00 a credit hour and what did my loans go for? Tuition, books and my property taxes and small amount to daycare and not to mention gas. When someone is not used to paying $300.00 a month in gas to travel the 45 miles round trip approx 4-5 times a week it added up. (gas was close to $4.00 remember) so, I do take a little offense to those that say that we used it for non necessities. I couldn't work and go full time. I had 3 kids. Now I am paying and will be paying for 10-20 years. I am in my late 30's with no prior educational debt. If my DH passed tomorrow, could I survive on my salary, YES. Could I have even with his life insurance, not for long. If your salary is close to your debt per year, it's worth it. Think of it like this ..... would I like a new suburban? Sure, cost.... 45,000 ..... education debt for a lifetime of security..... worth it. It's realtive. However, I have a question for any of you, I need to consolidate and haven't started the process. I have no idea how to do this, can anyone help me???? Thanks!

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