Nursing student loans

Nurses General Nursing

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So I've recently finished nursing school- and now my loans are beginning to come due. I find it crazy that a job, like nursing, can't get their loans repaid easily. I've tried every avenue I can think of and can't come up with a thing!! My loan repayment will be over 1000/month!! It's crazy... nursing is a higher paid profession but still, something's gotta give :\

:mad:

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Specializes in Hospice / Ambulatory Clinic.

Try and get put on a graduated or income sensitive payment plan

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Can you consolidate to lower your payment while you get yourself settled?

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Nope I can consolidate my Federal loans, but they're already in 1 place with an already low interest rate. I called 3 banks and all said nowhere would consolidate the amount I have in private student loans. (nowhere is really consolidating student loans at all...)

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Specializes in tele, CCU.

I feel your pain! I too, have quite a few student loans....

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Specializes in NICU.
I find it crazy that a job, like nursing, can't get their loans repaid easily.

You mean like a loan forgiveness program? Those do exist, but generally they require a certain amount of time spent working in rural or otherwise underserved areas.

Other than that, why would you expect a nurse to be able to "get their loans repaid easily"? If you borrowed the money, you entered into a contract to repay it yourself. A nursing job gives you the means to do so, it doesn't entitle you to have someone else do it.

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Over a thousand dollars per month? How big are your loans?

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Specializes in L&D,surgery,med/surg,ER,alzheimers.
Over a thousand dollars per month? How big are your loans?

Ditto.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
I find it crazy that a job, like nursing, can't get their loans repaid easily. I've tried every avenue I can think of and can't come up with a thing!! My loan repayment will be over 1000/month!! It's crazy... nursing is a higher paid profession but still, something's gotta give :\

:mad:

Do I understand correctly that you took out the loans expecting them to be repaid/forgiven? I'm guessing that's what you mean by "repaid easily." If so, I'm not sure where that expectation came from....?

I have never seen an advertised nursing position that offered repayment of previous loans, nor have I ever worked for an employer who offered that benefit. Of course, some employers do pay for future education, undertaken while employed.

I think your energies will best be directed toward finding out how to engineer the most manageable repayment schedule. That can be accomplished by communicating with the lender(s). I hate to be so blunt, but I don't think that you will ever be able to find anyone to repay your student loans. And to make matters more serious, student loans are notoriously "sticky." They don't even go away with bankruptcy claims, in most instances.

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Public health? I was on the NC Public Health Nursing website today and they will pay a percentage of student loans you incurred while you were in school if you are hired to work for them now.

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Specializes in ICU, M/S,Nurse Supervisor, CNS.

Honestly, I can identify with the OP. No, I did not expect my loans to just go away and yes, I knew I would have to pay them back, per the agreement. I have absolutely no problem with that because I was the one who took out the loans. However, I thought being in a "public service" type of career might help me find a private or government loan repayment program for people in the field to help with paying them off. I was not depending on this, but did see it as a potential option.

I have seen the governments nursing loan repayment program, but I don't really have the debt-to-income ratio to even compete with some of the other applicants. Also, there were some VA nursing jobs that offered up to $38,000 in loan repayment, so there are willing to help with previously acquired loans. These offers are now very far and few between since the economy downturn, though.

So, I am paying my loans off on my own (and am extremely grateful to have a job to be able to do so), because of course in the end, it is my loan, thus my responsibility (just would have been nice to snag one of those jobs that offered loan repayment assistance before they all went bye0bye :D).

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I understand it has to be paid back, by me, that was never in question.

I'm questioning that being in a public service type job should have some kind of education reimbursement. Esp. because soon it will be a requirement (for all the hospitals in my area) for a BSN.

I was lucky enough to obtain a job within a month, but that's because I maintained full time employment while in school and went without sleep many, many many nights! I have friends who haven't gotten a job yet and they graduated in may ;09... now some of it I attribute to them not being as proactive as others, being lazy and not really following through on prospective job offers. but they are defaulting on education loan payments... because many lenders only allow 12 months of no payments, for the life of the loan.

It just stinks that education can be so costly.

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