Is it REALLY possible to quit my job and go to school full time??

manda314 · Mar 30, 2011

Do you know your monthly budget? For me, I've got 1200 in bills, 200 in gas, 500 in food (I never cook), plus misc. I figure 2000 a month over books, tuition, and supplies. I was given a figure of what I'd be approved for (without really knowing what I was doing at the time), did the math, and found that I was approved for about 1650 above said books, fees, supplies. A little short, so I kept the job and declined the loan. I'll try again and may even consider cooking. Just figure out how much you really need first, do your fafsa, go in and talk to financial aid. I could have done it if I tried. :) :) :)

horseygirl2rn · Mar 30, 2011

THANK YOU so very much for your help, I truly appreciate the feed back! This is all sooo new to me! (and it's been over 14 years since I was in school full time!)

Student4_life · Mar 30, 2011

You can also do what I did and squirrel away every un-needed penny for a while so you have supplemental income. There are also scholarships of every color out there.

UVA Grad Nursing · Mar 30, 2011

Schools estimate a Cost of Attendance (COA). This would include the tuition, estimated books, student health insurance, and the cost of living in a dormatory/basic meal plan. You can take an educational loan for the amount of the COA. So it is possible to roll some living expenses into a student loan.

Of course this does not mean that you can take out a loan to cover a nice apartment, cost of car, etc -- just what is the published cost of dorm/meal plan.

horseygirl2rn · Mar 30, 2011

Thank you so much, that's good to know. :)

staceym · Mar 31, 2011

Is there a chance you could go part time somewhere and just cut all unneccessary expenses? That's what I'm doing this fall. I also have a friend who is in nursing school right now and she said the director of the program told them that working part time was okay bc she knew they had families, bills, etc. So maybe working at a restaurant a few nights a week would work for you?

horseygirl2rn · Mar 31, 2011

I could go part time, but a few of the programs that I have looked into are "full time" about 40 hours a week and the one even said that they discourage students to try and work.

It just scares me to think about quitting my job (where I am making 50K and JUST barely keeping my head above water) and think that I can get by on just a few loans!

And what scares me more is if I don't get into a community college but get into a private school instead the tuition is about 3 X as much, so would there be anything to live off of after paying for school?

staceym · Mar 31, 2011

Well you could always apply for some kind of scholarships. I make less than you and I'm still able to scrape by while also paying for student loans so I would definitely take a hard look at your budget. I don't have kids so that may be our difference? I am also using loans to pay for the nursing program but I plan to pay them off and quick as possible after. I justify the loans by knowing I will make good money, stable money, not including overtime pay, once I am a nurse so it will be SO worth it.

horseygirl2rn · Mar 31, 2011

Yes, I think the scholarships are a great idea, I was holding off on applying until I get into a program though....how far out do you need to apply?

I think part of the problem is that I live in Northern VA and everything is so darn expensive here! I will definitely be moving to a cheaper place when I start school, but worry about all of the other expenses.

I truly appreciate your input, it's a tough process but as you said DEFINITELY WORTH IT! :)

staceym · Mar 31, 2011

I know once you are accepted you can apply for scholarships at your university... I am going to do that by making an appointment with the financial aid department and get as much info as I can. I also know that sometimes FAFSA can help too, especially if you have or can show financial hardship. I'm not terribly experienced with any of this but my school advisor was encouraging me to seek out as many financial options as possible.

I live in CA so it's pretty pricey here too. Luckily I share an apartment near campus so I'm not too worried about the price of that and I am planning on paying off all my credit cards before I quit my fulltime job this fall. I am applying for the spring 2012 program but as I have to take micro, phys and nurtition together this fall, staying fulltime seemed impossible. Therefore I will be using this summer to rack in as much cash as I can to help out.

I'm not sure if this is helpful at all but hopefully you'll figure out what works for you!

valleygirl99 · Mar 31, 2011

I'll tell you what I did. I had a really good relationship with my boss so I asked him to lay me off so that I could collect unemloyment...and you know what he did it. I'll be started a 4 week CNA program and then will roll right into summer session at community college to work on my prereqs. I'm single mom my oldes is in college so we'll be going to the same school and my youngest is in high school. This has been my dream for a long time and I'm not going to let anything stop me this time. We are going to figure out how to live on a lot less and with God's help we'll be fine. We can do anything if we want it bad enough. I thought I was going crazy when I came up with this idea, but so far it's working. I wish you luck!!