New York University (NYU) nursing - is it worth it?

FullGlass, BSN, MSN, NP · Dec 20, 2023

shirlsssss14 said:

To clarify I am a 22 year old born and raised in NYC with no children and no plans of having any soon. I will be living at home for the first year after graduating and if I do get my own place I will be renting in NYC! I am considered "low-income" and a minority so I believe I will qualify for some type of aid, I am only a little scared cause I went to my undergrad for free so I know nothing about the loan process. Thank you for your inputs though, I am applying to both NYU and Mount Sinai, I will see who gives me a better deal. I just think NYU is the better nursing school academically than Mount Sinai, but obviously more expensive.

You will definitely get a good aid package, then. Please do not just passively wait for an aid package form the school. Do some research and apply for other scholarships as well, as I explained.

Best wishes.

Blessed_Victorious · Dec 20, 2023

FullGlass said:

As I previously explained, very few people pay the full tuition, due to financial aid, which includes SCHOLARSHIPS and loans. Someone making $130K per year can certainly afford to have some student loans. Also, it is not clear if the OP is in NYC or elsewhere in New York state. Outside of NYC, New York state is pretty affordable.

There are plenty of scholarships and loan repayment options available.

The full price of NYU is $130K. What if the OP applies and gets scholarships amounting to $50K? That leaves 80K, which is not bad. Or what if the OP applies, gets loans, but then wins a Nurse Corps (full ride) scholarship?

Student loans can also be forgiven under certain conditions.

So go to a school that guarantees clinical placements!

When I was accepted to NYU, they came back to me with a package that still cost $25k a SEMESTER!! I had a friend who cared about me dearly pull me to the side & say "DO NOT DO IT!” She went to a very expensive BSN program & worked with colleagues who had BSNs from online programs like Walden, Chamberlain, etc. They paid $10k for their ENTIRE program. She was very regretful.

Don't take on loans with the chance you "might" get into this program or that because those programs require commitments to facilities that generally pay the lowest and are the most short staffed. That's why they offer to pay/forgive your loans.

Even if you are young & live at home, those loans are still with you. Unless you plan to pay them off aggressively, you will be 32 with that debt. Life changes in a snap. Don't spend money today because you never know what your tomorrow may look like.

Blessed_Victorious · Dec 20, 2023

shirlsssss14 said:

To clarify I am a 22 year old born and raised in NYC with no children and no plans of having any soon. I will be living at home for the first year after graduating and if I do get my own place I will be renting in NYC! I am considered "low-income" and a minority so I believe I will qualify for some type of aid, I am only a little scared cause I went to my undergrad for free so I know nothing about the loan process. Thank you for your inputs though, I am applying to both NYU and Mount Sinai, I will see who gives me a better deal. I just think NYU is the better nursing school academically than Mount Sinai, but obviously more expensive.

Waiting to start a family & staying at home are both good ideas. Just keep in mind that a lot can happen in the life of a 10 year loan. You may be blessed to meet someone, like I was and even more blessed to have a healthy baby. Life changes.

If a good education is what you desire you should widen your net. There are MANY places you can get a good education and CUNY is one of those. My preceptor from day 1 said her best students were from Hunter. I can also admit the new grads who treated me in L&D from NYU were surprisingly not as prepared as I expected them to be. My RN friend & I had a good chuckle over it, no shade but basic stuff they didn't know.

FullGlass, BSN, MSN, NP · Dec 20, 2023

Blessed_Victorious said:

When I was accepted to NYU, they came back to me with a package that still cost $25k a SEMESTER!! I had a friend who cared about me dearly pull me to the side & say "DO NOT DO IT!” She went to a very expensive BSN program & worked with colleagues who had BSNs from online programs like Walden, Chamberlain, etc. They paid $10k for their ENTIRE program. She was very regretful.

Don't take on loans with the chance you "might" get into this program or that because those programs require commitments to facilities that generally pay the lowest and are the most short staffed. That's why they offer to pay/forgive your loans.

Even if you are young & live at home, those loans are still with you. Unless you plan to pay them off aggressively, you will be 32 with that debt. Life changes in a snap. Don't spend money today because you never know what your tomorrow may look like.

1. Loans are based on the cost of school one is attending. Prospective students do not get loans before they are accepted!

2. DO NOT go to shoddy for-profit schools like Walden, etc. I won't hire any NP that only attended such schools.

3. I do not know where you got your cost figures for Chamberlain, etc. Those schools are not cheap - they are actually expensive. Those schools primarily prey on people who don't know better and persuade them that they can just get a bunch of loans to cover their costs.

4. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to get clinical placements. Without those placements, I don't care how cheap the school is or if it is free, one can't graduate and become a nurse! I personally have witnessed nursing students scrambling to get clinical placements. If a student has to do this themself, it is a lot harder for people going to a crappy school. There are a lot of preceptors who simply will not accept students from crap schools.

5. Have you read anything I wrote? There are plenty of scholarships that go unclaimed every year. It is up to the student to research these and apply for them. The school will likely offer some scholarships, but that is only a small portion of what is available. Students must apply on their own to the Nurse Corps and state-equivalent programs for scholarships or loan repayment, private organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, etc. The school isn't going to do that for you.

6. It is almost impossible for the average person to attend a 4 year college w/o ending up with some debt. Should a person have too much debt? Of course not. But an RN making $130K per year can certainly afford some student debt. And as I have repeatedly said, there are loan repayment and forgiveness programs that anyone can apply for.

7. If a prospective RN would like to become an NP in the future, then school matters. Going to a crappy BSN program is going to make it very hard to get into a good NP Program.

8. The cheapest way to get an RN, at least in California, is to go to a community college, get an ADN, then do a bridge-to-RN program. Community colleges do a great job teaching. At least in CA, the cost for state residents is incredibly low and low-income students can go for free or very little money. That is a far better option than going to a crap school.

9. The 2nd cheapest way to get an RN is to attend a public state college or university in the state of residence. For example, the California State College System is a very affordable way to earn a BSN, and they will provide all the clinical placements. I'm sure New York state has similar schools.

Here are some additional ways to afford nursing school:

1. Join the military and they will pay for it. When I was at Hopkins, we had ABSN students from various military branches.

2. Americorps

https://americorps.gov/members-volunteers/segal-americorps-education-award/find-out-more

3. NHSC

https://bhw.HRSA.gov/funding/apply-scholarship

4. US Public Health Service

https://www.usphs.gov/explore-opportunities/

5. Some employers, like the Veterans Administration, will repay student loans.

shirlsssss14 · Dec 21, 2023

Blessed_Victorious said:

Waiting to start a family & staying at home are both good ideas. Just keep in mind that a lot can happen in the life of a 10 year loan. You may be blessed to meet someone, like I was and even more blessed to have a healthy baby. Life changes.

If a good education is what you desire you should widen your net. There are MANY places you can get a good education and CUNY is one of those. My preceptor from day 1 said her best students were from Hunter. I can also admit the new grads who treated me in L&D from NYU were surprisingly not as prepared as I expected them to be. My RN friend & I had a good chuckle over it, no shade but basic stuff they didn't know.

I should widen my net, but unfortunately these are the only school that accept a grade of C+ and higher. I received one c+ in general chemistry during the pandemic and it is the only "bad" grade I have. I decided to shoot my shot for these two schools for now because I was not able to afford retaking it nor did I have the time. I was in Lehman as an undergraduate which has one of the best ABSN/BSN programs in NYC but I was certainly not competitive enough, and both Lehman/Hunter require organic chemistry for some odd reason. Thank you for your perspective.

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Dec 22, 2023

shirlsssss14 said:

I agree, due to me already having a bachelors I do not qualify for more financial aid. I'm very stuck on this decision because I do plan on going to NP school in the future, and I am not sure if the school will have an impact on this.

If NYU is really going to give free tuition for people making less than 100K a year, I would think they need to pay for it somewhere, and a second degree ABSN might be one avenue. Talk to them and see what financial aid applies for this program if any.

Some people go the Direct entry MSN/RN/NP route as that way they can get government loans vs private ones, but be aware that the interest capitalizes from day one on grad loans, there is no longer a grace period while in school as undergrad loans have. Also the interest rates are higher for grad loans, but if your plan is to be an NP in the end it might be a route to consider. Especially since science classes expire within five years anyway in most cases.

Blessed_Victorious · Dec 22, 2023

shirlsssss14 said:

I should widen my net, but unfortunately these are the only school that accept a grade of C+ and higher. I received one c+ in general chemistry during the pandemic and it is the only "bad" grade I have. I decided to shoot my shot for these two schools for now because I was not able to afford retaking it nor did I have the time. I was in Lehman as an undergraduate which has one of the best ABSN/BSN programs in NYC but I was certainly not competitive enough, and both Lehman/Hunter require organic chemistry for some odd reason. Thank you for your perspective.

Have you looked at Mercy, Pace, College of Mount St. Vincent, etc? There were a bunch of schools in BX & Westchester, look into that. I feel for you. It's a difficult position to be in. Nursing education is a business for most schools. And then the nonprofits like CUNY make the requirements very demanding.

shirlsssss14 · Dec 22, 2023

Blessed_Victorious said:

Have you looked at Mercy, Pace, College of Mount St. Vincent, etc? There were a bunch of schools in BX & Westchester, look into that. I feel for you. It's a difficult position to be in. Nursing education is a business for most schools. And then the nonprofits like CUNY make the requirements very demanding.

I have! None of those accept grades below b-, if I don't get in this cycle I will have no choice but to retake chemistry in order to widen my net. It's very frustrating but it is what it is, I'll update this post whenever decisions come in for anybody in the same place as me.

karen623 · Dec 23, 2023

Any kind of debt carries risk and stress but student loans are particularly bad because they can not be discharged in bankruptcy, and they follow you for the rest of your life until you pay them off.

Keep in mind the following factors:

-The interest rate on the loans: it is very likely that you will be paying 500$ a month JUST on the interest alone. It is unlikely that you will get the full loan amount covered by federal loans and so you will have to resort to private loans. These private loans will have higher interest rates and do not qualify for federal income based repayment programs.

-The 130k plus hypothetical income is the best case scenario and will have substantial taxes taken off. Keep in mind this is also not the typical income for a new grad nurse.

-You may not be able to complete the program but yet you will still owe that huge loan regardless of whether you end up graduating and getting a RN license or not. Nursing school is an experience that is very much unlike the typical academic college experience. Even academically intelligent people find nursing school challenging. Some people find out in clinicals that this career is actually not for them. Inevitably some students end up dropping out by choice or failing out. It is something that you don't know until you experience it for yourself. If you need an 80% on a test and you get a 79%, it doesn't matter, you don't pass. Repeat the semester and get a 79% a second time? you are completely out of the program. You still made it halfway and also had to pay for an extra semester so you still owe 60k

- Read all the posts on this forum of nurses burning out, having panic attacks the night before going into work, being depressed and anxious. This is not a rare experience, it is an extremely common experience especially the first year. Look at how many nurses leave the field every year not due to retirement but due to working in a different field. This is not a career that you want to go into debt for. You want to have the option to walk away if you have to.

Now imagine this scenario: You took the time repeat some courses that you had low grades in. You get accepted into a community college of state school for nursing school. This might have taken you a year longer but you graduate with no loans. Lets say you absolutely love the career and you thrive in it, you find a specialty that you really like. You have no loans so you start working full time so that you can save up for a down payment on a home, or a car, or a savings account with 6 months of living expenses, or a vacation to travel the world. OR the opposite happens, you graduate and find that this field is emotionally draining and a bit traumatic. You have no loans so you can choose to work just two days a week and still have the ability to support yourself. You have no loans so you have the ability to take the lowest paid and more slow paced/enjoyable nursing job that still provides a living. You don't have loan payments so you get to start over in another field that you discovered is your true passion because later at 26yrs old you have learned more things about yourself. What you don't want to be is stuck, trapped, and regretting the life choices that the young version of yourself made. No debt (or low debt) gives you freedom of choice.

.

brandy1017, ASN, RN · Dec 24, 2023

karen623 said:

Any kind of debt carries risk and stress but student loans are particularly bad because they can not be discharged in bankruptcy, and they follow you for the rest of your life until you pay them off.

Keep in mind the following factors:

-The interest rate on the loans: it is very likely that you will be paying 500$ a month JUST on the interest alone. It is unlikely that you will get the full loan amount covered by federal loans and so you will have to resort to private loans. These private loans will have higher interest rates and do not qualify for federal income based repayment programs.

-The 130k plus hypothetical income is the best case scenario and will have substantial taxes taken off. Keep in mind this is also not the typical income for a new grad nurse.

-You may not be able to complete the program but yet you will still owe that huge loan regardless of whether you end up graduating and getting a RN license or not. Nursing school is an experience that is very much unlike the typical academic college experience. Even academically intelligent people find nursing school challenging. Some people find out in clinicals that this career is actually not for them. Inevitably some students end up dropping out by choice or failing out. It is something that you don't know until you experience it for yourself. If you need an 80% on a test and you get a 79%, it doesn't matter, you don't pass. Repeat the semester and get a 79% a second time? you are completely out of the program. You still made it halfway and also had to pay for an extra semester so you still owe 60k

- Read all the posts on this forum of nurses burning out, having panic attacks the night before going into work, being depressed and anxious. This is not a rare experience, it is an extremely common experience especially the first year. Look at how many nurses leave the field every year not due to retirement but due to working in a different field. This is not a career that you want to go into debt for. You want to have the option to walk away if you have to.

Now imagine this scenario: You took the time repeat some courses that you had low grades in. You get accepted into a community college of state school for nursing school. This might have taken you a year longer but you graduate with no loans. Lets say you absolutely love the career and you thrive in it, you find a specialty that you really like. You have no loans so you start working full time so that you can save up for a down payment on a home, or a car, or a savings account with 6 months of living expenses, or a vacation to travel the world. OR the opposite happens, you graduate and find that this field is emotionally draining and a bit traumatic. You have no loans so you can choose to work just two days a week and still have the ability to support yourself. You have no loans so you have the ability to take the lowest paid and more slow paced/enjoyable nursing job that still provides a living. You don't have loan payments so you get to start over in another field that you discovered is your true passion because later at 26yrs old you have learned more things about yourself. What you don't want to be is stuck, trapped, and regretting the life choices that the young version of yourself made. No debt (or low debt) gives you freedom of choice.

.

This is the best response! I agree the OP should really retake the chemistry class and look for the cheapest nursing school program. If she can't afford to take one class over, how will she pay back the extreme student loan debt from one of these private colleges!

There are plenty of resources out there to help improve her grades such as Khan academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/ and extra books supplements and study guides. There probably is an additional study guide, a "solutions" manual like math text books offer if you order it that goes thru the process of the how to arrive at the right answers, since if I remember correctly a lot of chemistry involves math, simple algebra. I used a solutions manual I bought for my algebra class and it made all the difference so you didn't waste time trying to do homework and getting wrong answers. It showed you how to get to the right answer. Doing the homework is essential. Do what is needed to raise the grade. Use a tutor if needed.

The extra time to retake the class will pay for itself in spades vs the regret of potentially decades of high interest student loan debt dragging you down. A mortgage without a home! I've heard of private student loans of up to 18%!

Rates are rising and no sign of stopping. While the feds paused this month and claim they might start lowering rates I wouldn't count on it. Inflation is not over! The cynic in mean says they did this to let their buddies in banking and finance get their year end Christmas bonus!

And yes student loans, both government and private, do not have bankruptcy protections. It is literally the most dangerous and worst debt out there. There have been cases where students have died and their parents have been stuck with the private loans because they don't even go away when you die unlike government loans that at least will go away when you die.

shirlsssss14 · Mar 31

Hi all,

just a quick update, I got into Mount Sinai! It is over half of the cost of NYU, I decided to not take on so much unnecessary debt.

Natou · May 14

Hi ! How is your experience at mount Sinai? Do you like it so far? And do you have any regrets?