Paying for Nursing School

Congrats on your decision to go to nursing school. I also did not work much during nursing school and took out loans to pay for them. It left me with quite the debt. I joined the Army Reserves afterwards and they are now paying them back. If you join the army while you are in school, they will pay 100% tuitiion, room and books for you, you then are required 4 years active duty I believe. The Reserves have been wonderful for me, I've been to San Antonio, Germany and now I am mobilized at Ft Bliss. It can be very rewarding to take care of our injured soldiers. They are many other ways to pay for school as well, but this is just the route I took. I hope you find this helpful and good luck!

I quite working and took out student loans. It is a great way to take out a loan - low intrest rate - don't have to 'pay' until you're done with school. You can fill out the Fafsa forms online and that will let you know what you qualify for. Good Luck!

I don't know how you feel about debt, but I know that I don't like to have unnecessary debt (and my living expenses while I'm in school are unnecessary debt, in my book). I am a 32 year old female but I was pretty much in the same boat as you are with my job. I didn't like my job in business and the business degree I have wasn't going to afford me access to any of the jobs I was interested in pursuing so I decided that I'd go to nursing school. That was in 2005.

I picked my college by getting literature at each of the three in my area that offered the degree that I wanted and I talked to each of them regarding entrance requirements and the odds of getting in when I was done with my pre reqs. I also took into account that one school in my area offered a night and weekend nursing program and even though they are more expensive than the other two, they have an awesome reputation for having very high standards. These things definitely swayed my decision and if you don't have a college in your area that offers an evening and weekend program, then I guess you won't be able to continue working a 9-5 job.

I started my prereqs in 2005 at each of these three colleges (many online) in the evenings taking approximately 2-3 courses per semester. Just be sure you are working closely with the university you plan to attend to be certain that your prereqs will all transfer seamlessly. I was accepted into the nursing program in Fall 2007 (the actual meat of the program with the core nursing classes and clinicals) and I will graduate in May 2009.

I have done this all while working full time. It's not easy (I won't lie). My kids and husband rarely get any quality time with me. I don't have much of a life and I don't sleep enough, but it's totally worth it to me to do this for two years (up until I started the nursing classes, I had plenty of free time even with my pre reqs). Only you can decide what will work for you though!

Good luck!

Shanyone

you most certainly are not alone. i already have 75k in debt from my undergrad degree. i am about to quit my job and go back to school for my bsn. i am hoping i have enough federal money left to borrow since private student loans are the devil! i will probably have a part-time job to help pay rent, gas, food, etc.

if i learned anything in my first undergrad degree it is to borrow as little as possible (especially if it is private student loans) because paying them back is HARD!!!!

hang in there...we WILL be able to do it!!

Hey Jbjorn,

I have been in a similar situation and this is what i have done.

I decided to pursue nursing when i was 25....having already completed a BA. I am married with 2 kids so i needed to work this whole time. I have been taking classes 2 at a time or sometimes more if they were offered online. I finally got in to a ABSN and will start this May. (!) I'm 29.

I will now quite work and take out loans for the year.

Be careful about the excitement of not having to start paying loans back until you graduate, because though you don't have to start paying them back you DO accrue interest during that time.

I will apply for a loan forgiveness program at Kaiser N. Cal, but those programs are few and far between and highly competitive. Plus, they will only forgive half, so i will still need loans for the other portion.

Good luck in your decision process! Use your good business sense to weight the cost/benefit to both situations.

Crisbiss

Hey Jbjorn,

Be careful about the excitement of not having to start paying loans back until you graduate, because though you don't have to start paying them back you DO accrue interest during that time.

Crisbiss

I only have $100 of intrest for 4 years. Not really all that bad. I did however go to a Technical College so, it will be different for the private schools. You also have the option of paying that measly amount of intrestes while you are still in school. Not that bad if you think about it. At least in my case, others may be different!

Congrats,

I was in the same position. I kept working while taking my pre-reqs at a community college. I am currently in my 1st semester of a BSN program. Since I already have a BBA, that is technically the 1st of 4 semesters to be completed. I am still working, but I am planning on quitting my job next semester when I start Med-Surg. That way, my educational expenses were minimized. I only had to take loans when I started actual nursing classes. So, I would suggest that you keep working while taking classes to fulfill your pre-req, then take out the loans. Good luck.

If you can not work, go for it. Nursing school, and the prerequisites were crazy for me. And don't worry about your age...I will be graduating this May at 38 years young.

There are tons of scholarships and grants out there, but the difficult thing is to find them. YOu can check the Department of Health, they have scholarships and grants if you want to work in an underserved area after graduation (which are everywhere). That is what I am doing. There are pell grants, grants if you are the first one in your family to go to college, probably grants/scholarships for being a man in nursing, and grants for ethnicities. The trick is to search for them and keep your eyes open for them now and forever and always apply and keep record of the scholarships coming up. I kept a binder. Also keep copies of any recommendations you get from anybody so you can reuse them. And any essays you may write - to get into school, for a scholarship-keep a copy because you can reuse them and adapt them to enter scholarships/grants etc.

So where to find money - online google scholarships + nursing + men, or anything inbetween and see what comes up. Also places like Fastweb.com have engines that will search for you, but beware they hook you up with a TON of matches, so you have to screen them.

And ask the financial aide office of the college you get into.

I got into a BSN program at a private college, and I am single mother, who does not work and they helped me make it work. Plus I searched for scholarships - and all in all it paid off. My whole tuition of $40,000 a semester has been paid plus a few loans for living expenses.

So do what you need to do, because education is soo worth it. You will be in demand. Heck, we pay so much for a great car, so I figure my life career is worth that and more.

best of luck and keep your eyes open for money. It is out there if you are persistant.

Meliss

I think that we should try to keep the amount of the loans to a minimum, because at the end of the day whether we owe 5k or 150k in LOANS, do not lose sight of the fact that we have to repay that money. It is up to each person to decide what their level of comfort is with debt. Also, keep in mind that there are many students with completed pre-reqs who are on wait-list for a period of time. Again, it is a personal decision. Good luck