How much do you owe in student loans?

[Glenna, LPN]

I've been going to school on and off since I graduated high school in 2005. I finally finished all of my pre-req classes this last December at the community college. I also got my LPN in 2011. At the moment I am looking to get into an LPN to RN bridge program.

I work for the veterans affairs and I know that they help with student loans after you've been working there for a year. I was just counting up how much I owe...which is over 43,000. I laughed to myself...but this was the only way I could make it to where I am today. I'll apply for some aid from work after my 1 year point but it just has me thinking....

How much do you guys owe in student loans? What is the average?

[melizerd, ASN, RN]

Pre-reqs and nursing classes for my ADN just under $20,000 but that's because I wasn't working while in school. If I'd been able to work and do school then I could be graduating almost debt free. It's a community college which only costs about $5000 a year and my Pell Grant covered that. I took loans to live due to other family circumstances.

I'll be working when I do my BSN and several hospitals in our area are still paying for that also so I hope to add very little or nothing to my loan total. My area is also still hiring decently in hospitals if you don't want to pick a specialty you'll have a job within a couple months of graduation if you don't have one beforehand.

[bunger1963]

I am in my third degree; this is after going to school for social work in which I had to have a master's degree. Well, with the present economy, that career did not work out so I went back to nursing school now. Because I had a job while going to school the first two degrees due to being single mother, I did not get any assistance. I am not able to get assistance now and am going to be about $90K in debt after all of this schooling. Where I live also stating they may have a hiring freeze for nursing. Great. It makes me sick to think that I have all of this schooling only to now be able to find a job. I graduate from an accelerated BSN program in December. I am hoping and praying.

[WantAccel.BSN, BSN, RN]

I am in my third degree; this is after going to school for social work in which I had to have a master's degree. Well with the present economy, that career did not work out so I went back to nursing school now. Because I had a job while going to school the first two degrees due to being single mother, I did not get any assistance. I am not able to get assistance now and am going to be about $90K in debt after all of this schooling. Where I live also stating they may have a hiring freeze for nursing. Great. It makes me sick to think that I have all of this schooling only to now be able to find a job. I graduate from an accelerated BSN program in December. I am hoping and praying.[/quote']

Holy Moly! I feel for you and wish you the best. My accelerated BSN landed me with $16,000 in debt and that was after about $4500 in scholarships. I had to take out money for living expenses though....no way you can work in one of those programs. Wouldn't be so bad if I didn't still have over $9,000 left on the year long stint I did in law school...that I've already been paying on for 7 years (it was originally about $20k). Ugh. So about $25k in total for me right now :-/

[NurseKatie08, MSN]

I have about 10,000 left. I pay $200/month in student loans from my BSN at a public school...I just completed my MSN which I paid for out of pocket & with scholarships/tuition assistance. I don't know what the average is but compared to many I know I seem to owe less. I am blessed that my parents were good enough to pay what they were able to towards my BSN---once my own loans are paid down I will start sending in some towards my mom's parent plus loan.

[Mandy0728]

40000$. As long as I submit the paperwork every year that I'm working full time, I can get my pell grant(7k) written off after 5 years. I'm on an income based program since I just graduated and will be making about 35k a year, so we shall see how long it takes. My loan is our only debt, but we did relocate for my job and are living on a very tight budget, so here's Hoping it works out. My bsn will take about 12k at today's cost, who knows how much it will go up once I actually start![/quote']

What do you mean by get your pell grant written off? All grants don't get paid back, just loans.

[dansamy]

I have about 10000 left. I pay $200/month in student loans from my BSN at a public school...I just completed my MSN which I paid for out of pocket & with scholarships/tuition assistance. I don't know what the average is but compared to many I know I seem to owe less. I am blessed that my parents were good enough to pay what they were able to towards my BSN---once my own loans are paid down I will start sending in some towards my mom's parent plus loan.[/quote']

That's terrible. I am NOT taking out Parent PLUS loans for my kids.

My ADN was entirely paid for by PELL grants. I owe $0. I will be paying out of pocket for my RN-MSN. In the interests of getting it done, I'm seriously considering WGU. I'm not really interested in spending $20k for a BSN through my local program when I could get my MSN for about the same price.

[randyman986]

Dang! All these loans are really scary. I'm 39, BS in HS, have no debt, crappy credit score. Now, I got accepted for a 15 month ABSN program that costs 52k not including books, etc. Federal loans approved $12500 (that's $6250/payment), so I need to shell out at least 11k each payment --- 4 payments in the program!

I'm going to try and apply for private loans with a cosigner, as it seems that is my only route right now. Deadlines are getting tighter since school will start 10/1/13. Not sure what to do now. Go back to school and redo A&P classes since they're over 5 y.o. and try ADN with community college? Or suck it up and go the ABSN route?

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

I graduated at the end of 2008. I paid off my last student loan a few weeks ago.

[randyman986]

Wow! Grats!

[sarahmac09]

I will owe over 200,000 by the time I graduate. I've been out-of-state at both of the major universities I have attended, including the university where I'm working towards my degree currently. I used to spend quite a bit of time crying about how insane my loan repayments are going to be... but I know I have options. I've thought about quitting school to start repaying my loans but at this point I would be in a far worse situation if I gave up now!

[Carpediem1012, BSN, RN]

I owe nothing. I had full scholarship as a kid first time in uni. Now fifteen years later I am paying for my BSN out of pocket. But we live carefully and I invest everything I can in my kids' RESPs so that they will also be able to go through school debt free. Do whatever you can to stay out of debt.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

LPN>>ADN>>BSN>>MSN

No debt. Worked my sizable fanny off- but no debt. Drove a crappy (as in 21 year old) car, no cable, cooked every meal from scratch (no eating out). Four kids, too.

It can be done.