How much is too much for student loans?

caliotter3 · Nov 10, 2009

Each individual is different and only you know your personal financial situation. Remember that most medical students start out practice with well over $100,000 in education debt. However, they pretty much have a good means to pay it back. Like most schools, mine advised students against working and penalized those who did. They did not offer any advice as to how students were supposed to pay for school or support themselves or their families. There were not many in my class who had the luxury of not having to work. Some of us had multiple jobs. You do what you have to do. Good luck with your personal decisions regarding your finances.

jadedgreeneyes · Nov 10, 2009

Thanks so much for your reply! I know this is a very tough personal decision I am trying to make. It is just very frustrating that the school is not offering any good advice at this point!! They tell us not to work more than 15 hours a week or "you will be sorry", but they also do not help us figure out how to pay for things. I am trying to be very positive and confident that I will be able to get a job and pay back my loans without any trouble. I have 2 years untill I graduate and I am praying the economy will be better then but who knows. (Don't even get me started on the "nursing shortage" speech they gave us last week!) This is something I have always wanted to do and I guess I am just going to have to pray for good things to happen. I was really just trying to get an idea of who completely financed their education through loans etc.

Otessa, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2009

I graduated in 1992 so a recent situation may be more helpful but even back then there were loans and money issues.

How much debt did you end up in after completing a program? 0-this was pretty unusual-even back in 1992

Should I try to work while in school no matter what? I worked as a CNA in a nursing home and then in a hospital-my parents were able to help-I lived at home, ate their food(when I wasn't working or at school ), and a car with insurance (as long as I was in school full time ONLY)

How many of you did not work while attending school? How did you survive?see above

How on earth can I pay for all my books? (our school does not allow us to use financial aid) they don't allow you to use financial aid for books?-never heard of this...hmmm...

Personally, I would try to limit the debt as much as possible. I recall my brothers still paying off loans 10 years after school and by that time they were wanting to buy a house and it stunk to still have to pay on school loans.

caliotter3 · Nov 10, 2009

I was able to get a couple of student loans but they were only a drop in the bucket for my expenses and I was only eligible for loans at the time. I worked one full time job and as many as two additional part time jobs the entire time I went to school. Most of my classmates worked full time as well. You can't worry about the economy because it will be there whether you get a new career or not. You might as well make the commitment and deal with the job market when you graduate. You will make it, just as everyone makes it.

twinner2 · Nov 10, 2009

My program was an ADN. I graduated in 2008 with a total debt of $5625. My student loans were all federal loans.

I worked the whole time I was in school, only cutting down to part time hours when my credit hours in school went up to 19-21 per semester. I took all my gen ed courses along with the nursing courses, and had no problems.

I think this is a personal decision. If you feel like you are able to work part time and keep up with your school work, then that is what you should do. I would definitely keep down the debt to as low an amount as is feasible for your situation. It would be horrible to graduate and owe so much that you would not be able to finance a car or mortgage. Even worse, what if things don't get better as far as jobs go, then you may be stuck with debts that are very difficult to pay.

As far as textbooks go, you can save a fortune if you can find the ISBN numbers, and shop for used textbooks on such sites as half.com or amazon. Not only did I save money doing it this way, I was able to resell the books I no longer needed at the end of my nursing education.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

Lisa From Maui · Nov 10, 2009

how much is too much? $1

i'm a huge fan of daveramsey.com i hate debt! getting in debt is like being fat. easy to charge up the credit cards, easy to get the student loans, easy to eat the ice cream, and fries, and potato chips, and chocolate, and ribeye steak! oh, my gosh, ribeye, dripping with juices, fresh off the barbie! i could eat steak every night for dinner!

hard as h*** to pay off the credit cards, to pay off the student loan, to drop the fat that has made it's home around your butt, your belly, your thunder-thighs, and your chin.

i'll be honest. i took out a $3,000 student loan to get my lpn. that was $3,000 too much! i'm a new grad, i can't find a job because no one is hiring new grads. i still have the loan to repay. for those of you who have kids, who don't have family support, who have to work pt or ft to get through school... for those of you who don't have any other choice, i don't know how you do it. bless you! if i was in your situation, and i had no other choice, i might do the same thing.

i sometimes wonder... if there were 75% fewer student loans given, and 75% less money to pay for school, would all these colleges and universities learn how to manage their money better, stop building expensive buildings, cut their costs, and cut their tuition? i wonder... if there were fewer student loans, would tuition be lower?

how much is too much? $1

Lisa From Maui · Nov 10, 2009

Jaded: You wrote, "Tuition alone is going to put me around $18,000 in loans." Is that for one semester? One year? A 2-3 year RN program, including prerequisites? A 4 year BSN program, including prerequisites?

Are you going to a community college, a university, or a private school like Excelsior or Univerity of Phoenix?

proudnurseRN · Nov 10, 2009

I'm not proud of my debt, but I am proud of my degree. I have close to $40,000 in student loan debt for a BSN that took 5 yrs to complete. That was with pell grants and scholarships.

Things were going well until I was in my 2nd year. I passed out in my very first clinical and found out that night I was pregnant. A big surprise! My husband had recently been laid off, and wasn't finding anything out there, so things had to be reconfigured.

The student loans essentially paid for living expenses. I worked part-time, doing jobs that I could fit into daycare schedule. I worked at a daycare, did tutoring, did Americorps. However, it was important to me not to spend the first year of my sons life in nursing school and working, so I took an extra year to graduate.

The last year of nursing school I had myself established in a hospital with a definate job after graduation. I also maintained my grades, graduated with a 3.96 GPA (stupid French class).

Essentially, I did what I had to do to get through. Had it not been for that accidental oops that I'm so thankful for, my debt would have been less than $10,000, and had my husband had steady employment, it would have been 0.

I think the biggest issue with work and nursing school isn't necessarily work and nursing school. It's the going out, partying, extra activities. That's what seemed to get people while I was in school.

Good luck to you. :)

tfleuter, BSN, RN · Nov 10, 2009

Just like others have said, take out as little as possible, and just b/c a school advices you not to work, doesn't mean you can't. My program strongly suggests students not work either, or at least only part time, but the only ones I know of who don't have jobs are moms with young children. A lot of them still work too. It's whatever you can handle, as long as you are able to maintain acceptable grades then there's no worries. $18K total for a BSN seems pretty acceptable if you ask me, but I've also read up on Dave Ramsey's advice and agree that any debt can lead to trouble. Debt = risk, so the question is, how much risk are you comfortable with?

jbjelus1 · Nov 11, 2009

Taking out loans for school is a good debt as long as you are able to pay it back. A lot of people will look at 18k in student loans as a bad debt, but the surprising part about that is that people pay that much for a decent car. I look at it like this, your education is something that will prove valuable to you for the rest of your life if you use it correctly, where as in contrast if you took that same 18k and purchased a car, ask yourself how long will that car actually last. One, it is going to decrease in value over time, and after so many years you will probably purchase another one, so what i am saying is decide what is important. Think about a 18k student loan like an 18k car note. That is the way that I did things when I had student loans. I started paying my student loans like I had a car note. Also I eliminated unnecessary debt like credit cards and car notes. This provided me with more money to pay towards my student loans, and finally when I got money in lump sums like gifts or maybe even my income tax return I would use the money to pay down any outstanding student loans. By doing this I payed off my loans quickly. Also remember there are some employers that wil offer to pay off student loans if you give them a work commitment, so all this is to say that an 18k student loan can be paid off in a reasonable amount of time.

WindyhillBSN · Nov 11, 2009

i'm estimating i'll be in about 50,000 dollars debt when i finish my bsn, and yes i am sick about it.:hdvwl:i also did not really work during nursing school. and, my husband couldn't find a decent job to save his life during that time, so now we have to suffer for it.