Is $85k worth it for BSN program with no guarantee acceptance?

I wouldn't pay that if Florence Nightingale was teaching the course.

That will be the biggest financial mistake of your life.

$84k???? Hell,no! General rule of thumb I remember hearing from a financial guru years ago-if your spending over half your expected annual salary in tuition that you would make after graduating, you’re spending too much on tuition. Those lone payment each month will turn you into a potential psych patient due to anxiety.

At 38 yrs old I went to an accelerated BSN program and borrowed around 26K. But I had a BA from 1999. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I will say that paying the 26K off, along with my outstanding loans from the first degree is a real pain in the ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​?. I do it and it's not killing me, but I do not want to add any more.

I am starting NP school in May and I plan to get a job at the affiliated hospital so I can go for free.

Nothing wrong with thinking about your NP goals now.

PM me anytime.

Wow! I completed mine online (which is the most expensive way to go usually) and only spent $35,000. That included my books, fees and everything. I would not spend that much at all. You will not get your return on investment.

85k....No way!! Please don't do it. I already have a BS degree in other field and I could go to a 12 month ABSN program instead of community college but I didn't b/c of the cost. 85k is a lot of money seriously!!! I don't mean to discourage you but think about your other expenses while you're in school when you add it to the 85k it's a nightmare plus nursing school is not easy it takes all your time and attention to survive. It's better to take the cheaper and longer route than the shorter and expensive route. Imagine how long it will take you to pay back. Go to community college and save yourself thousands of dollars. Plus those NP schools require you to have some experience so you could be working and doing the 1 year RN-BSN online (your job might pay for this 100%) then apply for NP school. This is just my advise if you're my sister I would discourage you from going this route.

6 hours ago, Jory said:

I wouldn't pay that if Florence Nightingale was teaching the course.

That will be the biggest financial mistake of your life.

I wonder what Old Flo would say about nursing diagnoses? ?

44 minutes ago, Jedrnurse said:

I wonder what Old Flo would say about nursing diagnoses? ?

In fact, it was precisely she who made the first "nursing diagnoses" among many other things. Soldiers in Scutari was dying in droves not as much as of wounds but of infections and malnutrition. That was the time when infections were mostly not yet accepted as such, and the Lords of Admiralty would have kinda hard time explaining where money for army's rations and uniforms suddenly went to. Flo threw on the table just classic stat tables, not unlike ones still used in base-level descriptive statistics, and 80+% of losses were attributed to three conditions which were not even medical diagnoses at that time: malnutrition (including scurvy and everything else), "flux" (acute diarrhea and dehydration) and "unsavory conditions" (dirt and what it implies, typhus, frostbite, etc). If you would like, they were nursing diagnoses all right.

If you happen to be in London, UK, take a few hours and go to St. Thomas hospital. It houses great museum of Flo and nursing in general. You'll have fun there, I promise. Only info about those legendary rounds with the lamp worth's the trip (the rounds were indeed done nightly, only with the purpose to catch and eliminate any forbidden alcohol and women from wounded' quarters. And the lamp was needed for navigation in that long and very heavy (for the sake of protection against said men) skirt among spectacular mess that was there)

1 hour ago, KatieMI said:

In fact, it was precisely she who made the first "nursing diagnoses" among many other things. Soldiers in Scutari was dying in droves not as much as of wounds but of infections and malnutrition. That was the time when infections were mostly not yet accepted as such, and the Lords of Admiralty would have kinda hard time explaining where money for army's rations and uniforms suddenly went to. Flo threw on the table just classic stat tables, not unlike ones still used in base-level descriptive statistics, and 80+% of losses were attributed to three conditions which were not even medical diagnoses at that time: malnutrition (including scurvy and everything else), "flux" (acute diarrhea and dehydration) and "unsavory conditions" (dirt and what it implies, typhus, frostbite, etc). If you would like, they were nursing diagnoses all right.

If you happen to be in London, UK, take a few hours and go to St. Thomas hospital. It houses great museum of Flo and nursing in general. You'll have fun there, I promise. Only info about those legendary rounds with the lamp worth's the trip (the rounds were indeed done nightly, only with the purpose to catch and eliminate any forbidden alcohol and women from wounded' quarters. And the lamp was needed for navigation in that long and very heavy (for the sake of protection against said men) skirt among spectacular mess that was there)

The museum sounds interesting. I may be in London this summer- I'll try to check it out!

ADN then BSN for around 12-15K total.

Just curious, why nursing?

But I 100% agree with the people who recommend going the ADN route. It's the fastest way to bringing in a decent paycheck, and there are a lot of ADN to BSN programs that are geared to accommodate working nurses' needs.

On 2/10/2019 at 1:14 AM, Kooky Korky said:

Please do not take on all of that debt. You will be paying it back for many years, working yourself into exhaustion, trying to raise children while working and going to school. You are on a difficult path. Please try to take it more slowly and don't shortchange your kids or yourself. What support system do you have? Your ex? siblings? parents? friends? other? You are going to need help to not shortchange your children. Best wishes.

While I agree that's way too much for a school without guaranteed admission (unless the $85K was the total after the nursing degree and it's not all paid up front), private schools and the higher cost is a doable last option to become a nurse after making an attempt at every other reasonable route. The quality of education isn't necessarily lower at these school. And you're really not going to be working yourself into exhaustion if you approach this the right way.

But it needs to be an informed decision. Understand that sacrifices have to be made to cover the loans for private schools. You're not buying a house any time soon. You're not going to have your dream car until closer to retirement. You can definitely live a very comfortable life, but you're not going to have much luxury (though you CAN plan around making some big buys every year or taking vacations).

Take a tax return one year and get some kind of counseling, everyone, regardless of what you owe and where you are. A CPA costs a little bit of money, but it's worth it. A lot of times, your bank has advisers you can use for working with debt and planning. There's companies that work as your personal debt accountant. You send them money and they make your payments, and act as a middleman between you and the lenders. Let a professional plan a budget and debt repayment for you. If it's someone reputable and honest, it's very worth the money. This is how you repay an $85,000 loan while still functioning. That's really not that big of a loan over 10-30 years (you can extend your repayment up to a 30 year loan now) when you consider how many people buy a new car every 5 years at a way higher interest rate and pay off more than your $85K. It's all up to knowing how to manage your interest, and that's where counseling is priceless.

Also, a simple call to your lender will get you on a repayment plan that works with what you can afford. There's different repayment plans, and if it means that you're going to pay them and not default and force them to write it off as a loss, they're going to work with you, and they'll help you with a plan for how you're going to pay back your loans based on what you can afford. Though, it's still better to let someone make a budget, and maybe make the call to set up a payment plan for you.