How much do you owe in student loans?

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I want to go back to school but I can't justify the cost since I am still paying on my loans. But, if I wait, the degree won't have much of a return on investment.

1 hour ago, Nurse SMS said:

I owe zero. Please investigate every possible way to do this without going into debt and, if you can't, really REALLY investigate if it is worth it to be shackled in such a way.

Also zero and I wholeheartedly agree with you here. (?). I believe it is very important specifically with regard to nurses' ability to act in patients' and their own best interests.

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Specializes in Psych, Addictions, SOL (Student of Life).

Not a dime

 

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Specializes in Emergency Department.

I'm going to upset you all, when I trained I was paid as an employee. Enough to keep my family. Was even paid extra for working weekend and nights.

Also, university is free in Scotland, but only if you're a student from Scotland or the EU. If that's you, you won't pay a penny towards tuition fees at Scottish universities.

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Specializes in Emergency Department.
4 hours ago, GrumpyRN said:

Also, university is free in Scotland, but only if you're a student from Scotland or the EU. If that's you, you won't pay a penny towards tuition fees at Scottish universities.

Also meant to add this bit; 

Nursing and midwifery students’ bursary will rise to £10,000, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced today.

All eligible students, who currently receive £6,578, will benefit from an interim increase to £8,100 in 2019/20, rising to £10,000 in 2020/21. This rise of £3,422 a year will help cover accommodation and living expenses during their studies.

£10,000 is equivalent to $12940.15

It's great to be Scottish.

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Specializes in oncology, MS/tele/stepdown.

I paid about 68k in total in school loans. I owed about 15k from my first degree, 5k was interest accrued before payoff, and the difference was from my second-degree BSN program. I don't think I'll ever get a graduate degree if I have to take loans out to obtain it, but I also don't have career aspirations that require it. Maybe someday after the mortgage is paid off I'll feel differently, but I doubt it.

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I owe 60k from BSN and MSN. Trying to work on my DNP but the money and debt is really making me hold back to some degree. I will be in debt forever and I don't think the return on investment is worth the debt to be honest. I won't make more money or be considered for other positions. I do leadership projects plus do advanced practice now and I do not have a DNP.

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Specializes in PACU, Stepdown, Trauma.

I owe $2800 from my BSN. I think I ended up with around 10K in loans between my ADN and BSN; all the loans for the ADN have been paid off. I 'm not pursuing any additional education at this time since I have no interest in management or being an advanced practitioner. 

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Specializes in Med-Surg/Tele/ER/Urgent Care.

No students loans ever. LPN & ADN lived with parents, worked  weekends as LPN. Paid cash for BSN, used GI bill to pay for MSN, FNP. 3 siblings with bachelors degrees; no student loans, both brothers Electrical engineers, sister accounting; no student loans for my daughter graduated 2017 with bachelors, used lottery scholarships, work study, waitress & bar tender. My ADN from community college. Current tuition at community college approx $800 per semester in state tuition, BSN program tuition about $3,000 per semester. Look at state colleges, community colleges.

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Specializes in Dialysis.
On 10/19/2020 at 11:30 AM, Nurse SMS said:

I owe zero. Please investigate every possible way to do this without going into debt and, if you can't, really REALLY investigate if it is worth it to be shackled in such a way.

100% agree. I owe 0 also. Never had a student loan. Saved money, used tuition assistance and scholarships, and pursued low cost education options (CC, state U for BSN bridge, online MSN).  Some of the debts that I read or hear about make me cringe. I feel badly for anyone who has to be in that position

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On 10/17/2020 at 2:00 PM, juan de la cruz said:

I personally think it won't add anything to my clinical knowledge because the way the programs are set up, I will only need the DNP completion courses which center around health program implementation, epidemiology, public health, health policy, etc.  They are good courses to learn about but a deep dive into them is not necessary to function as a good NP.  Research utilization was already part of the MSN program we had. 

The university we're affiliated with offers us full time employees a 2/3 reduction in tuition for all their graduate programs except the DNP (and the Master's Entry program for non-nurses).  It seems worth it for getting a PhD but then the field of academia with all the associated pyramid scheme and productivity requirements of achieving tenure doesn't seem appealing to me. FWIW, another Northern California university an hour away is offering free tuition for all their PhD in Nursing students from a philanthropic grant.

Juan, 

I always see programs implying and making it sound as if a DNP will be necessary for any type of FNP job anywhere in a few years.  I'm guessing it's because they are only looking to make $$.   Is there any truth to this?    I also thought I heard something to the effect that FNPs will only be offered as a DNP degree starting in a few years and MSN programs will be phased out.   If one does not plan on ever going into teaching or a public health field, will a FNP MSN program/degree still be acceptable?   Or are most healthcare systems jumping on this DNP wagon?

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Specializes in ACNP-BC, Adult Critical Care, Cardiology.
4 minutes ago, Mergirlc said:

Juan, 

I always see programs implying and making it sound as if a DNP will be necessary for any type of FNP job anywhere in a few years.  I'm guessing it's because they are only looking to make $$.   Is there any truth to this?    I also thought I heard something to the effect that FNPs will only be offered as a DNP degree starting in a few years and MSN programs will be phased out.   If one does not plan on ever going into teaching or a public health field, will a FNP MSN program/degree still be acceptable?   Or are most healthcare systems jumping on this DNP wagon?

To practice as an FNP, the current requirements are either MS/MSN or DNP and state NP license/certification with majority of states requiring passing one of two national FNP certification exams.  Early during the development of the DNP, the national association of US nursing schools came up with a recommendation to transition all APRN programs to DNP by 2015.  That's a tall order if you ask me and it never happened. 

It's now 2020 and we still have a number of MS/MSN FNP programs that did not transition to DNP.   Majority of schools now offer a DNP in some form or iteration and some have phased out their MS/MSN NP programs altogether.  As it stands, you have a choice between MS/MSN or DNP depending on what school you end up attending.

Nursing in the US is not a monolithic establishment -- it's composed of various camps each wanting to have their say on a specific issue to the point of making things more confusing than it should be.  As of now, there is no defined deadline for when NP programs will transition to "all DNP" after the 2015 time frame never materialized. 

The CRNA field, however, having been governed by a single organization with little "outside nursing" control has set a deadline for 2025 for all CRNA programs to transition to a doctorate.  They may be the only group to achieve that goal.

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$12,000

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