Living off student loans smart idea or not?

Nurses General Nursing

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I am in the process of applying to some different nursing schools in NC. I am applying to Watts school of nursing ($11,300 per year) and a accelerated nursing program at another school ($3,000 per year). I am about to graduate with a bachelors degree in public health next december. I was wondering if I did the diploma program would it be possible to live off of student loans. I am highly interested in the diploma program just very worried about the expenses. The school that does the diploma program does a tution reimbursment if you sign a 3 year contract with the hospital. Just need some insight. Thanks!

Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.

I think the horror stories I have seen with student loans are with students who get degrees that don't go with a decent paying jobs. Of course there are exceptions, but if you are getting a BA in psychology, sociology, social work, art history, etc, your chances of paying the loans back and supporting yourself are NOT good. A nursing degree on the other hand, has good prospects (on average) for paying back loans and supporting yourself.

I've heard a general rule that you shouldn't borrow more than what you will earn your first year. Of course the danger in stating guidelines like that is that some will say "oh...I can borrow more." That's not the idea.

I have to admit I'm a bit surprised by some who would not take out any student loans even if it means not going to college. I look at my family and friends, and most of us were entirely self-supporting during college. Very few had parents who were able or took responsibility for helping with education. Without student loans we wouldn't be in the careers we have today. One of my friends, a teacher, had about 40k in loans when she graduated. She chose special education because she could get partial loan forgiveness teaching in underserved areas. She paid off the remainder herself. None of my friends have been unable to pay off their loans. But they all had degrees which went with actual employment, LOL.

I think it's important to note that we all have different abilities regarding work and school. Just because one person can work quite a bit during school doesn't mean everyone can. Sadly, I think the experience of going away to college and immersing yourself in your studies full-time (plus more!) and that being your full-time job is fading with so many students working. Also, many students trying to get into competitive programs cannot work much and maintain top grades to be competitive to gain admission. A bit of student loans may be worth it is these situations.

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Hello Motorcycle mama,

I DO encourage wise borrowing though, because it is a tool and a risk. Kind of like buying a house is a risk too.

Gen

You do not become prosperous by accumulating debt...of any kind.

Someone will catch where I got this from, I'm sure, but these are words to live by:

If you always live like the middle class, you will always be middle class (car payments, 90 days same as cash-which by the way 90% of these deals turn into payments, and then the interest rate is through the roof-VISA and Mastercard...)

If you live like a rich person (frugality, living within your means, hey, did you know most millionaires overwhelmingly don't do car paymentsand and drive 2+ yr old American cars?) in time, you will be one of those rich people. Uh, providing you are young enough to reap the benefits of saving and can get good control over your finances so you don't have to blow your families inheritence so you can stay in the nursing home....anyway...

it's your debt, not mine.

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Specializes in Acute Care Psych, DNP Student.
You do not become prosperous by accumulating debt...of any kind.

Someone will catch where I got this from, I'm sure, but these are words to live by:

If you always live like the middle class, you will always be middle class (car payments, 90 days same as cash-which by the way 90% of these deals turn into payments, and then the interest rate is through the roof-VISA and Mastercard...)

If you live like a rich person (frugality, living within your means, hey, did you know most millionaires overwhelmingly don't do car paymentsand and drive 2+ yr old American cars?) in time, you will be one of those rich people. Uh, providing you are young enough to reap the benefits of saving and can get good control over your finances so you don't have to blow your families inheritence so you can stay in the nursing home....anyway...

it's your debt, not mine.

I'm trying to understand what your viewpoint is, Motorcycle Mama. Are you arguing that it is bad to take out any student loans?

Let's look at a real-life example. My cousin graduated from law school with about $80,000 in student loans. He certainly didn't spend money frivilously in school, in fact he purchased his clothing at Goodwill, and he lived in a crappy apartment with several other students. Anyway, coming from our poor family - it was up to him to finance the entire thing. There's no way he could have worked to save up enough money for law school. He couldn't work during the semester and pass. He did work summers. Anyway, he paid off his student loans a few years ago. He earns about $200,000 per year now. If I am understanding your argument...he shouldn't have taken on those student loans? Where would he be? A high school grad earning $30k per year? I'm trying to understand your viewpoint.

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Specializes in Rodeo Nursing (Neuro).

My advice to anyone contemplating NS is to be as focused as you can and to marshall your resources. I learned to look upon pretty much everything as a resource: money, time, sleep, etc., and to ask myself "Will this help me get through school?"

I was fortunate to have a job that could schedule around school fairly well, and since I worked in a hospital I got some help with tuition reimbursement. But I had to cut back to 24hrs a week, so I needed to borrow some money to help with living during the two years I was in school. Ended up with a 15000 dollar debt, which costs about 175/month to pay back. I don't miss that money a bit--I could cover it by working 4hrs of "on-call".

I didn't live in luxury during school, but having the cash to cover things like car repairs and carry-out dinners made it a lot easier to focus on stuff like careplans and term papers. A lot of times I had to get by on 3-4 hours of sleep, so finding time to bake bread from scratch wasn't really an option.

There are also a lot of expenses in nursing school beyound tuition and books. A computer and internet service are pretty much necessities. A PDA is not a necessity, but it's a very handy tool (I keep a drug guide and Taber's encyclopedia on mine, plus some other stuff I don't use nearly as much). Even getting uniforms washed for clinicals requires time and money.

For most of my life, the idea of going 15000 in debt would have scared me to death, but there's a huge difference between student loans and credit card debt (besides the huge difference in interest rates). Money borrowed to finance frills is bad news. Money borrowed to meet basic, on-going expenses means you need desperately to cut expenses and/or increase income. But if you could borrow money at 2% interest to invest in a CD at 8% interest, you'd be stupid not to, right? Borrowing money for school isn't quite the no-brainer as that (unfortunately hypothetical) example, but I made back the amount I borrowed in my first year. Which isn't to say I paid my loan off in a year--the interest rate is so favorable, it didn't really make sense to, and after all my hard work getting through school, I don't really care to live like a pauper just to pay my loan off quicker.

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I currently live off of my student loans and I wouldnt say its the best way to go, but for me its one of the only ways. I think its up to you. As far as the diploma program I personally would rather go straight for the BSN. I have a BS in Public health as well. I could not find any jobs that didnt want you to have a nursing license. I think that going for the diploma will limit you and you will eventually be going back for the BSN which may cost you more money in the end. If its the loans your worried about I think you have some good advice on here about working for extra money and limiting your spendings. However I am using a lot of my extra to pay off my other debt that has higher interest rates than my loan does. At least if I am going to be paying all this money then I will be free from the credit card debt and so forth. Good luck

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I also have lived off of student loans during my clinical portion of nursing school which was 3 years. My school cost appr. 20,000 a year and I did some undergrad premed things at another school for a couple of years so I have about 60,000+ in student loans. I think that about 15,000 is a federal perkins loan (forgiven) and I am looking at a few hospitals that offer loan fogiveness in the amounts of 20,000. It sucks but I had to take out the student loans to get thru school. I dont have any credit cards, loan payments or carpayments. I am also a single mother so thats how I had to play my cards

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Specializes in psych, med/surg, peds, hospice.

Definitely take as little as possible!! We HAD to go with student loans for my education b/c with my husband's income we didn't qualify for pell grants. BUT...it wasn't enough to pay for tuition. We have 6 kids and that can be pretty expensive!! My education was something I decided to do after my kids were all in school and I don't regret it one bit, but I do wish we could have somehow managed with less student loans than we ended up taking out!! Good luck!!

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medical field degrees are expensive and require more study time , there is no way i can work over 20 hr per week with a toddler and husband and pass nursing school. I will have faith and take the loans and budget wisely as an rn

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

Take the loan, study and do good in class and clinicals, but remember your living on borrowed money, Not a good way to live, but your investing in yourself, If it was me, I would say that I am the best investment that their is, so yea go for it.

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

I can only offer my opinion that living off loans is not an investment. Loans for tuition if you don't have savings or scholarships is one thing but not working at all? Nope. In the four years I was in school I would have lost aprox. $120,000 in wages if I had quit my job plus any loans for tuition or living expenses. I would not have gone back to school if I needed to quit my job to "focus on school". I'm an adult and while I had a lot on my plate, to me, the sacrifice of my time and sweat equity was worth it to graduate debt free.

If you are considering this do yourself a favor and first read the threads about people drowing in school debt on a new nurses salary. I know no one wants to consider failure as an option but I went to school with a lady that quit her job and used her retirement account to pay bills while she did pre-reqs and then started nursing school. Well she failed out in our second year with over $30,000 in debt, three years in lost wages and only a CNA certificate to show for it. Not such a good investment, imo.

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student loans can be dangerous! believe me i know :chuckle

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