I have 60 grand of student loan when I finished BSN

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I had my ADN in 2014, then I went back to school two months later for BSN, now I just graduated from BSN, and the student loan I owe is little over 60 grand..Oh load. I had to pay over 600 a month for 10 payment. That seems a lot to me. Any suggestions? any programs that can reduce or forgive my loan? Thank you very much!

You can pay that debt off in two years if you work hard, scrimp, save and work a lot of overtime.

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I couldn't pay off $60,000 on an RN wage in2 years and I'm pretty frugile. I have to be I'm a nurse. If the irs didn't tax the heck out of your wage, you lived at home with parents, had no house or car payments and ate ramen noodles from the parents basement you may have a chance I suppose. Ha ha good luck:) Wait here's another idea drain the broth from your ramen and that can be your next meal, posh... How about the good ole work place starts paying the BSN prepared nurse more!

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Hi Extra Pickles, any financial advice in advance for a student about to go into an ADN program and then get a BSN after that? (I live in California and will eventually need a BSN to practice nursing, so I'm told). I appreciate it, thanks!

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Hello fellow Nurses,

I am looking for a little advise. I have considered going back to school to upgrade my ADN to a BSN but not sure if it is worth it at this time. I became an RN in 2008 and worked med-surg and on a pediatric neuro unit for almost 2 years but when I had my twins -twin boys that are turning 7 years old, I moved back to the city where my family was and started case management because there were no jobs at the time in the hospital. So I have been doing case management for about 6 years. Currently, I am in Utilization Review at an insurance company and the pay is good but it is 8-4:30 pm. Honestly by the time I get off work, get the twins from daycare and get home and attempt to make a decent meal I am VERY tired!!! I am a single parent. It seems like the market goes back and forth with hiring ADN's and not wanting to hire them and pushing ADN's to upgrade to BSN. I would like to make myself more marketable as eventually I would like to move out of state and not sure if I will have a problem because I only have an ADN. Is there a way to just take one class toward the BSN so I can at least be doing something toward that end goal? Or is it even worth it at all?

yes, you want a bsn if you want to be more marketable. I finished my bsn recently through WGU, it was self paced, affordable, and all online. You do need to find time to carve out for school though, and there is a self driven practcum requirement that requires you to spend 90 hours interviewing and observing for you community health credits. I did school work 15-20 hours a week and finished in just over 10 months. There is a Wgu forum on all nurses, go check it out and see if it's a good fit.

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I don't have a lot of advice for the OP, but for anyone else who is looking for bsn or MSN options there are some much less expensive options available. I got my ASN in 2000, I think I had under 10k in debt. I went back to school for my bsn in June 2015, finished in 10 months at a cost of less than 7k (paid out of pocket). Considering the fact that a bsn in most places will not earn you any more money going into huge debt is not cost effective. But, you need a BSN to be competitive in the market place. It's a crappy situation really. Get an potentially expensive degree that won't earn you anymore money.

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Hello fellow Nurses,

I am looking for a little advise. I have considered going back to school to upgrade my ADN to a BSN but not sure if it is worth it at this time. I became an RN in 2008 and worked med-surg and on a pediatric neuro unit for almost 2 years but when I had my twins -twin boys that are turning 7 years old, I moved back to the city where my family was and started case management because there were no jobs at the time in the hospital. So I have been doing case management for about 6 years. Currently, I am in Utilization Review at an insurance company and the pay is good but it is 8-4:30 pm. Honestly by the time I get off work, get the twins from daycare and get home and attempt to make a decent meal I am VERY tired!!! I am a single parent. It seems like the market goes back and forth with hiring ADN's and not wanting to hire them and pushing ADN's to upgrade to BSN. I would like to make myself more marketable as eventually I would like to move out of state and not sure if I will have a problem because I only have an ADN. Is there a way to just take one class toward the BSN so I can at least be doing something toward that end goal? Or is it even worth it at all?

Depends what state you are in. I've lived in CA and MO and currently live in Nevada. Hospitals with magnet status require 80 percent of their nurses to have a BSN. I was looking for jobs in Southern California and most of them want a BSN or enrollment in a BSN program within a year. I'm Vegas, where I live, it's not required but preferred

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Here in NY the only state schools with a BSN program have wait lists of at least 3 years. On Long Island there are only 2 community colleges but both only offer ADN programs which are basically useless on Long Island as no hospital I know of will even consider your application without a BSN.

That being said, the only BSN programs in the area run around $15,000 per semester for a total of $120,000 for 8 semesters/4 years.

Same thing with CUNY in NYC. There really is only one undergraduate BSN program (Hunter-Bellevue), the rest are either RN-BSN, ABSN or simply ADN.

It explains why competition for admission to HB's undergraduate and ABSN program is so very competitive. Quite frankly it is the best deal for quality nursing education leading to a BSN that doesn't cost a small fortune.

OTOH it also explains why those not having been admitted after one or two applications go onto places like NYU regardless of cost. Last time one checked total tuition costs for an ABSN from NYU runs about $70k for the fifteen month program. Median starting annual salary for a new grad in NYC runs between mid $70k to low $80k. Thus in theory providing one manages to land a job after graduate in NYC or an equally high paying area *and* is conscientious about paying off that debt it may not be an issue.

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I have had this experience, yes I recently attended a local college tour, the college offers an LPN to BSN program, the tour was great, but when I was faced with the 90 GS price tag, yes that's correct 90 thousand dollars for 3 years, you had the option of taking or retaking your nursing prereqs at a community college and knocking down the price to 70 GS, ridiculous! Just ridiculous! But at the end of the tour we were lead to a break room, offered free bottled water, and there were several "instructors" present, I sat there for 25 minutes, and not one of them made any attempt to talk, sell, or promote there overpriced school, so I filled out the survey, told them what I thought, and left. I have come to believe that these schools are a racket, and the SBON, are involved, they say more nurses, specifically more BSNs are needed, so why are nursing schools so expensive?, and why can't more experienced nurses LPNs and RNs train for a BSN on the job, like an apprentice/or preceptor? I have been an LPN for 20 years, I work and do the same thing as an RN, they tell me all the time, "you can do it," and I say " of coorifice I can, I just need 90Gs".

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This looks like it's just what you need. You'll have to be willing to move for at least a couple of years but you could potentially have you entire debt forgiven in under 4 years while getting paid as a registered nurse. The downside is where you end up probably isn't one of the garden spots of the US.

The problem with this plan is that you have to move, get the job, and then HOPE you get the money.

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My advice to aspiring nurses is to get the ADN at the local community college, get a job, take the boards, and then do an online RN to BSN. You can do it in 3 semesters and the cost at many of the schools is reasonable. Most are accredited by CCNE. There's more than one way to skin a cat and why pay ridiculous tuition fees at prestigious 4 year schools when you don't have to?

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My advice to aspiring nurses is to get the ADN at the local community college, get a job, take the boards, and then do an online RN to BSN. You can do it in 3 semesters and the cost at many of the schools is reasonable. Most are accredited by CCNE. There's more than one way to skin a cat and why pay ridiculous tuition fees at prestigious 4 year schools when you don't have to?

Tommy, this is great advice for many people, but choices for an education are not "one size fits all." Your advice would be well heeded by those who don't already hold another degree, and actually have access to a community college, and live in a market which in which an ADN is still competitive in the job market.

In terms of paying ridiculous tuition fees, it does not always mean that one attended a "prestigious 4 year school." I racked up a whopping $70,000 student loan debt. For one year of school. At a state university. And trust me when I tell you that it is not a "prestigious" university. My in-state tuition alone for that year was $43,000 but I also accepted the money offered for living expenses because I had to significantly limit the amount of hours per week that I could work.

When I decided to go back to school to become a nurse, I already had an AS and a BA. In weighing my local options (relocation was not an option), it made little sense to go the community college route in this market; I would have "wasted" time on a wait list to get in and would have significantly limited my employment options. Starting over "from scratch" would have cost less than the route I chose, but would have taken me at least 3 years to get my BSN. I chose an option that was annoyingly expensive, but took me only 1 year to earn my BSN.

Now here I am, hired into my specialty of choice as my first nursing job and making a decent hourly rate. I've paid off a little more than 1/2 my student loan in the 2 years since I graduated by living somewhat frugally and saving a significant portion of my pay to throw at said loan. Would I make the same choice again? Absolutely.

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Live like you did before becoming a nurse for the next few years and get those silly loans paid off.......My guess is that if you would have chosen a cheaper school that is competitive to get accepted you would have been put on a 2 or 3-year waiting list. Here in Houston at cheaper schools, nursing students are usually on a 5-year waiting list because it is so competitive. So figuring you probably would have made several thousand dollars less during those 2-5 years while waiting to get into nursing school at a cheaper school, tell me how are you worse off now having a $60,000 loan? At least you're a nurse and you will continue each year to make several thousand dollars more with annual raises!!! If you do the math I suspect you will find that you come out ahead when it is all said and done.

Because she was already an RN with an ADN before she continued on to the BSN and amass a crudton of debt. She didn't go from Not Nurse to Nurse status, she went from ADN RN to BSN RN. With too much debt accrued along the way.

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