How did you fund your accelerated BSN?

[laughoutloud8]

Hi grads,

I am starting an accelerated BSN next month. I am getting nervous about funding the whole thing myself. I am not interested in responses that involved your parent or spouse paying for everything. I have been hunting for scholarships but trying to see what else is out there.

Was your stafford loan enough? What did you do if your stafford loan was not enough? Did you get private loans?

[linRdsNay]

i received less than 10k in stafford loans...the rest was funded by an "alternative" student loan, which actually got a way lower interest rate than the stafford loans did. good thing, since it's a lot more.

[laughoutloud8]

Does it make a difference to get a private loan or alternative loan while I am still employed?

[sweeetRN, BSN, RN]

Are you planning to work during nursing school? Is this school in your hometown, or are you moving away from home, which means you may or may not extra expenses for rent, living, food etc. In terms of loans, you should get as much as you can from direct loans, which your school should offer. My school went from offering staffords to direct loans which are directly from the federal govt without a middle man. I had to pay for living and everything and my direct loans were certainly not enough to pay for everything--- with expensive books and stuff. I had to take out alternative loans and a private loan as well. Apply for what you need while you're still employed because you may need a cosigner once you do not have an income on most alternative loans. Some schools have weird financial aid periods and made me reapply for loans two to three times a year because even though I applied for enough to cover the whole year, they had aid periods that only allowed me to borrow so much money during a certain period according to the classes I was taking. If you want more specifics, you can PM me and I can give you more specifics about my experience.