Paying For Crna School

William_SRNA · Aug 31, 2005

Make sure you have good credit and you can get all the loans you need. In addition once you have a year of critical care under your belt look into travel nursing and put some money back. You should be able to get about $120,000 in private loans and about $42,000 in federal loans for a 27 month program. As far as applying for schools look into the ones that fit your needs and apply to more than one. It is going to be difficuilt (not impossible) to get in with one year expereince due to the compettive nature of programs.

Good luck

Hello all. Im hoping that I am posting this question in the correct place. If not, mod, please move it to the best location. THANX! Ok, heres the question, I am a nursing student that wants to continue on to become a CRNA. Ok, we all know CRNA school is expensive. Ive scoured these forums over and over again and looking at all of the different ways people are paying for their education. So I've decided there are two ways I can go : 1) ::crosses fingers:: attend Northeastern in Boston and save all my pennies while working for a year and live on a TIGHT budget. or 2) join the military and let them pick up the tab, however work for them for 4.5 years. I have always wanted to live in boston yet i really don't mind military life. (well, i guess i could get used to moving around and being possibly deployed but the pay for CRNA's in the military really isn't all that great. But I guess the longer you're in the more you get paid, right?) Has anyone been faced with these decisions and if so, what did you decide? Do you regret it? And if ANYONE has any more info on military nursing, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

ashfost, BSN, RN · Sep 1, 2005

$120,000 in loans? greeeaaat day! ok, my goal is to do this with minimal loans. like the most would be $15,000 in loans. im single, no kids and such, so i figured if i worked like h*ll that first year in a half i could come up with at least half and use the rest of living purposes. i was thinking i could also work weekends during the very beginning of the program until things got really intense. has anyone else managed to do this without loans?

fungirl · Sep 1, 2005

$120,000 in loans? greeeaaat day! ok, my goal is to do this with minimal loans. like the most would be $15,000 in loans. im single, no kids and such, so i figured if i worked like h*ll that first year in a half i could come up with at least half and use the rest of living purposes. i was thinking i could also work weekends during the very beginning of the program until things got really intense. has anyone else managed to do this without loans?

Hi, I plan on going to CRNA school as well, and I decided to do travel nursing solely for the purpose of saving money, but to find out that it is so much fun also. Anyways, I would highly suggest travel nursing, there is a lot of money to be made out there, just research it on line. I was able to save approx. $1000.00 per mo. Just put the usual amount of rent and utilities in a savings account, and I've been doing it for almost two years. I will still take loans however. Good Luck with your endeavors. Don't work too hard when you graduate from nursing school, don't forget you have to have some fun too, so you remember what you are working so hard to accomplish, o.k.

William_SRNA · Sep 1, 2005

Hi, I plan on going to CRNA school as well, and I decided to do travel nursing solely for the purpose of saving money, but to find out that it is so much fun also. Anyways, I would highly suggest travel nursing, there is a lot of money to be made out there, just research it on line. I was able to save approx. $1000.00 per mo. Just put the usual amount of rent and utilities in a savings account, and I've been doing it for almost two years. I will still take loans however. Good Luck with your endeavors. Don't work too hard when you graduate from nursing school, don't forget you have to have some fun too, so you remember what you are working so hard to accomplish, o.k.

You should be able to save alot more than that I was seeing between 2500 and 4700 PER WEEK in California depending on how much I wanted to work the latter being 12 hour shifts for seven days straight.

fungirl · Sep 1, 2005

You should be able to save alot more than that I was seeing between 2500 and 4700 PER WEEK in California depending on how much I
wanted to work the latter being 12 hour shifts for seven days straight.

Sure you can save more, it's up to the individual. I only work 3 days per week and enjoy myself, I don't scrimp and save, that's what loans are out there for, you still have to live and enjoy life. That's just my opinion. I probably shouldn't be the one giving ashfost advice, should I?? Ha ha ha

skipaway · Sep 1, 2005

Sure you can save more, it's up to the individual. I only work 3 days per week and enjoy myself, I don't scrimp and save, that's what loans are out there for, you still have to live and enjoy life. That's just my opinion. I probably shouldn't be the one giving ashfost advice, should I?? Ha ha ha

Remember the Aesop's fable about the Ant and the grasshopper where one scrimped and saved and the other played: then hard times came?....I remind all who are going to take out these huge loans to pay for school that nothing is guarenteed in life. I don't mean to be a downer, but jobs are not a given for life. Things can happen where you loose your ability to work or loose your job altogether for other reasons ie...Katrina. You then have these huge loans that must be paid back. What a burden, and you and your family could loose everything.

I know people want to be a CRNA in the fastest and worst ways, but it makes sense to me to get experience in ICU and save as much as you can to avoid loans like these. Off my soapbox now.....

gasgiver · Sep 2, 2005

I am currently in CRNA school in Raleigh..... You need to plan not to work at all during school, esp in the beginning.... My usual week is 10-13hrs during the week studying and 10-11hrs on the weekends studying... You need to save money and forget the loans.... I will not go into my finanicial speech mode and lay out lashing towards borrowing money, but "it is crazy to borrow money". PERIOD, for anything.... I worked like a cash cow for two years and built a large savings that I could BUDGET off during my education.... You can not tell me that you can not make enough money as a nurse to save for education.... Anesthesia school is stressful the last thing you need to worry about is money and who you are going to have to pay back 125,000.00 DOLLARS..... Also, everytime I talked to ANY hospital about going back to school they wanted to shove money down my pockets to sign a contract to work for them after school..... Hard work before school and FREE money is the only way to go..... Work hard and prepare......

Gasgiver is stepping off the soap box now

ashfost, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2005

Im glad you mentioned that. Ive heard about anesthesia groups paying for their "future employees" education costs, but not too sure how prevalant that was. So you're saying that hospitals and groups actually do offer that? I was hoping so but not really banking on it.

William_SRNA · Sep 2, 2005

Im glad you mentioned that. Ive heard about anesthesia groups paying for their "future employees" education costs, but not too sure how prevalant that was. So you're saying that hospitals and groups actually do offer that? I was hoping so but not really banking on it.

My advice take the loans instead of signing on. Read the fine print salaries might go up alot while you are locked into a place with lower pay and not what you wanted when you finally get into school. They may work you to death for that chump change you received with little to no compensation for the overtime.

apaisRN, RN, CRNA · Sep 2, 2005

Gasgiver, is your school public? I don't think there's any way I could have saved enough to make a dent in my private tuition.

jewelcutt · Sep 2, 2005

Regardless of whether you want to work like a mule and save before school, or take out loans to get you through school (every individual is different, one way is not the best for everyone), the main point is..... you will be able to get school paid for. Don't worry about not becoming a CRNA becasue you couldn't pay tuition and living. It is good to have a plan to save, but don't go crazy, school is stressful enough and you don't want to live like a rat for more than 2 1/2 years anyway. Some of us didn't have the luxury of saving thousands of dollars (some of us were finishing degrees while working full time up until school started which = no savings). Do I let it bother me that I took out a lot of loans? No, I have the money I need to survive and I don't live off of ramon noodles. You will soon learn in school what things are worth stressing about and what things are not worth even a thought. And you won't be living poor to pay off loans when you're done either. Getting off of MY soapbox now......