Student Loan Spinoff: How much?

[luckymichelle]

This is a totally personal post about money, so feel free not to reply!

Is anyone else taking on a lot of debt to go to school? I'll admit, in order for me to not work these 3 years while I'm in school, I'm going about $25k in debt. This is SUCH a huge amount to me, I'm having a hard time justifying it. Unfortunately though, I have no other way to stay afloat and pay tuition. I have never owed any money on anything other than a car loan. I feel guilty going into debt, and I sure hope that I'll be able to pay it off easily when I'm all done.

So, here's my question, what's the normal amout of student loan debt for people in the nursing profession?

(Again, totally personal finance question, please feel free to tell me to mind my own business.)

[shumarka]

Wow, I love this board. It's nice to find my concerns addressed by people in the same boat!

Everyone I've talked to has told me the same thing-- that education is never a waste of money. I managed to get throught a bachelors without any debt, so taking out loans for nursing school has been a real worry for me. I've decided the loans are OK, but I'm doing everything I can to minimize them, because the nurse recruiters i've talked to have told me they reimburse soemthing like $5,000-- which is actually in lieu of your sign on bonus (some education reimbursement).

[Nemhain]

I just wanted to add to what everyone else is pretty much saying; this is not money being wasted! I feel much better going into debt for nursing than for anthropology (my former major). Regardless of how many loans we all take out, we can at least feel good knowing that we'll all find jobs once we are done! Yay!

:balloons:

[GracefulRN]

Wow, I love this board. It's nice to find my concerns addressed by people in the same boat!

Everyone I've talked to has told me the same thing-- that education is never a waste of money. I managed to get throught a bachelors without any debt, so taking out loans for nursing school has been a real worry for me. I've decided the loans are OK, but I'm doing everything I can to minimize them, because the nurse recruiters i've talked to have told me they reimburse soemthing like $5,000-- which is actually in lieu of your sign on bonus (some education reimbursement).

I have heard that Perkins Loans can be up to 100% forgiven for those working as full time nurses. Has anyone else heard anything about that?

[rasmu]

I have heard that Perkins Loans can be up to 100% forgiven for those working as full time nurses. Has anyone else heard anything about that?

The Federal Student Aid Web site lists a series of conditions, where Perkins loans can be cancelled:

http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/publications/repaying_loans/2003_2004/english/loan-discharge-cancellation.htm

Person working as a "Full-time nurse or medical technician" is on the list.

That web page also talks about something called "NELRP", which is a loan repayment program for nurses (this is something different from cancellation). The only problem with NELRP is that the program is tiny, and it gets far more applicants than it can fund - in 2003, for example they only gave 22 awards for the entire state of New York, where I live.