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!

Actually, it isn't just for government agencies, but is also for people who work at non-profits too. This is why a lot of nursing jobs qualify for this form of forgiveness anf I personally know a nurse using this payment method under this forgiveness loan. Yes, income-driven can be over 20-25 years, but for the Public Service Loan, it is only 10 years at 10% of your income.

I didn't know that thanks for the info! I have to say it still sounds like an extremely difficult method to getting loans paid off since even what you're describing isn't going to work for most people. Usually people fresh out of school don't stay with the same job or the same employer or even the same employer type for 10 years, let alone 25! But if they do at least this is an option to know about.

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the person who posted this topic hasn't been back to say anything. did you get the info you wanted or needed? what are you going to do?

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I went to a top University (Creighton University in Omaha, NE). The tuition was $40k/year. I believed as the time that I wanted to be pre Med and I needed a top university to help me get there. I got a 75% scholarship for my first 4 years, so it cost me $10k/year. Unfortunately, by the time I figured out pre med was not for me and I wanted to do nursing instead, I was halfway through my second year. I got my BSN after a total of 5 years. My debt- $80k.

Yes, I was stupid for going to such an expensive school. That's on me and no one else (although my parents and college advisors should have been more realistic with me. They all kept telling me 'it's not a big deal to borrow so much, you just pay it back!').

That at being said, at least I can say I only borrowed tuition money. I lived off what I made from my part time job. As you can imagine, I didn't exactly fit into this school where everyone else had their parents paying their tuition and living expenses. And I never had time to join clubs. The nursing program was good. But everything considered, I should not have spent so much money when I got so little to show for it.

How is do I pay it all off? A small chunk at a time. I got income based repayment plan and consolidated all my loans (except Perkins-see below). My payments started off smaller, ~$400/Mo. Then I became a travel nurse and made more money without making my taxable income go up. Now I work a high paying per diem position and pay nearly $700/mo. And it's doable. I'm newly married now, but before I was married I lived with roommates. My rent/utilities were down to $300/mo. Couple that with a cheap (or paid off) car with low insurance and reasonably low "splurge" money per month, and it's not so bad.

Sticker shock tick is the worse. You go from paying nothing to $600/mo on loans, that seems like a lot. But if your other expenses remain the same, you get a job income of $2,400/mo (my first RN job), it's doable.

If any of that was a Perkins loan, you can get 100% of that forgiven as long as you work full time as a nurse after graduation. Look into it. ECSI is the financed for Perkins loan. Look for their loan forgiveness form on their website.

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Specializes in Oncology.
Of course people pay off debt.

Let's say OP was living off $35,000 prior to racking up this debt. She's now an RN and can make $60,000. She can live off $40,000 for a few more years, apply the difference to the debt, after building up an emergency fund.

These are rough figures of course, there's taxes, etc. It just means, no more lattes, frappes, eating out, just like billions of people in the world do without.

If only it were that simple. In some states if you make $60k and have no deductions you're making essentially $40k out of pocket after taxes, while the person making $40k is a lower tax bracket and is also making $40k out of pocket. It's not like $20k more income is $20k more spending money.

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Specializes in Emergency Medicine.

I Have 90k with MSN and undergrad... But I work in SF at two different hospitals both in the ED. I make well over 300k with both of my jobs combined... So I say don't worry about it cuz I don't... Just get a job that pays well...

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Wow----that's a lot of money for a BSN. I think the only thing you can do is to make paying off those loans your priority---no new car, no major purchases. Pay off as much as possible every month to get that off your back or you're going to be carrying it around with interest accruing for years on end. Get rid of that thing ASAP.

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I'm not sure where everyone else went to school..every school I looked into was $55,000-$60,000. I'm in the same boat as you, my loans are $56,000. I know some states offer programs that will repay your debt. In Colorado there is a program that will pay off 60% of your loan if you work in a rural hospital and then an additional 25% if you work a third year. I would look into programs like those.

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Another idea is this: If you can take out a personal loan or home equity line of credit if you own a house, you can probably get it at a lower interest rate than what the student loan is. Take out a personal loan/equity line of credit to pay off the student loan, then pay off the personal loan/equity line of credit at the lower interest rate. When I worked out the numbers, your student loan interest rate is extremely high---about 16%. You can definitely get a lower interest rate on a personal loan/home equity line of credit.

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Are you working in an RN position in the ED? Could you share with us your position and how many hours you are working at each ED to "make well over 300 grand per year". I'm assuming SF is San Francisco and anything over 8 hours there is overtime. Also please share if your position is agency, permanent, or casual . Thanks!

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Specializes in Parish Nursing.

I seldom write posts, although I find reading allnurses interesting. I appreciate the helpful thoughts here on possible programs and the wisdom on the lost art of financial stewardship. I earned 5 degrees with no loans, working full time and paying as I went along. Yes, I realize that is rare and requires self discipline (another lost art). My take away is this... 1. Wongshuwei has accumulated too much debt for the return, since BSN pays no more than ADN. BUT - 2. At least Wongshuwei has wisely taken a degree which is employable rather than someone graduating with $60k in debt and a degree that is worthless for gainful employment. I wish her well and encourage wise stewardship in an economy that can be stacked against moving ahead. My final advice is to see a good tax accountant. You are furthering yourself in a field to which you were already employed and therefore the tuition would be deductible. We also need legislation that allows the repayment of loans taken for the purpose of advancing in the field you are already employed in to also be deductible. Best wishes Wongshuwei.

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The National Health Service offers loan repayment facilities in underserved areas in the US. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to relocate though- I live in Tennessee and ever county in the state qualifies as an underserved area. I can think of 3 or 4 places to work in Memphis alone (my home city) that offer this program for nurse practitioners. Since you are working as a nurse- I would imagine that number would triple. Here is the website:

Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program

And you shouldn't necessarily make less than your nursing counterparts working somewhere where they don't repay loans. It might be a little more emotionally draining, though. Working with the indigent is a little harder because you have to be a little more creative sometimes to get them the care they need. Take care, Kim

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Specializes in Orthopedics, Med-Surg.

Times have changed, haven't they? I got my ADN free. All I had to pay for was books and my living expenses while I went to school. I had an employment obligation but was clear of that after two years. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made another dime in exchange for earning a BSN.

What I believe one gets for their money with the BSN is flexibility/opportunity. But there are still plenty of places an ADN can make decent money. Where I worked, they didn't reward advancing oneself educationally with money. So I didn't.

That doesn't help you but all I can really offer is sympathy and the suggestion you apply some salve where it hurts the worst. I'm fairly certain where that might be.

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