Another good reason why you should carefully look into loan forgiveness programs

[peaceful2100, BSN, RN]

I am graduating a week from today and just the past week I did my exit loan counseling. Well, I owe a certain hospital in my city a 2 year work commitment and they paid 100% of my senior year tuition but I found out the past week that I would be taxed 50% of the total amount each year of my commitment. So that means each year they will take out $4,600 a year in taxes for each year I work because the total loan amount was $18,400.00. Each paycheck they will be taking out about 176 in taxes for JUST the loan that is not including the federal, state, local, Social security and other taxes they will take out. I can't believe I missed something like that. I just want to write this to make sure ALL students who are thinking about doing loan forgiveness programs like this to make sure they understand the program fully before they sign on the line. MANY of my classmates were like me and did not understand this at all either. IT comes as a shock to many of us.

[sheanndie]

Another thought on this 'program'. The avg age for nurses where is work is 10 yr below the national average. In my opinion, this is largely due to the community size, the large size of the employer, and their connection with the local college.

As a result, they lock in a work force, write off only about 200 - 250/month fulltime nurse on this forgivable loan program. There's also a non-competition clause for 2 years and a 30 day balance due if you leave.

Now, keep in mind, they already have a tuition reimbursement program that's less than 100% but no hand-cuffs restrictions beyond a "C" grade.

They've not given market adjustments to nursing staff in 2 perhaps 3 years.

So, perhaps, just perhaps, the forgivable loan is also a way to control wages on the local market. So much for obtaining the recognition and appropriate wages nursing deserves.

[2banurse]

Peaceful2100, thank you for the heads up.

[Rena RN 2003, RN]

so for the 2 year committment, you will pay a total of $9,200 for an education that actually costs $18,200?

[peaceful2100, BSN, RN]

I will pay a total of $9,200 in taxes for $18,400 in tutition that they paid and that is for 100% of the total cost of my senior year. I can understand now that they have to tax us on what they given us but I just did not totally understand it before when I decided to do all this because I am clueless when it comes to all this tax stuff and apparently many of my classmates did not understand that either.