JennBride

(Jennbride's hubby here) As far as I can tell the state by state theory was a myth I started based on poor wording choice in the slides from the class my wife was in. It made it appear that the state was recieving awards and then handing them out--when in fact it would appear Iowans were winning the awards and the state was just claiming how many of the winners had came from Iowa. That would also explain the variation in the numbers of winners that significantly exceeded the variation in total funds allotted to the program. Either Iowa would have to be increasing and decreasing its share percentage wise in subsequent years, or some years we simply had a few more indebted students living in Iowa than other years. IMO That makes more sense. They take so long from the application process. I really wish they would do this twice per year with an automatic update system so it wouldn't take as long as to get entered. We're looking at a 16 month wait to find out if she'll get an award--since we can't apply her until next year. She didn't start work as an RN until early March. At least she has a good hospital with good Nurses to work alongside her. Jenn's hubby 101%

I believe they ask for the full pay off amount so they know precisely how much you owe at that point -- the number is written down so they can multiply it by .3 for your payments for the first year, payments for the second year, and .25 for payments for the third year (.85 of the current total). Congrats Sara!

Oops. I had used the search feature wrong and didn't find the answer. Upon second use it was clearly there I feel a little silly.

Hmm, You may be right Tess. I pulled out the slides they gave us, and it is hard to be conclusive due to a lack of proper English in the slides. The slide for "2008 funding statistics" says "Iowa was received 3 awards for loan repayments-$147,244". Yes, that's word for word. It may very well be nationwide, and they are just posting what people from Iowa won in the national "debt to salary competition among first choice applicants".

Amy, I got the impression from the literature that it is a state by state basis with each state being awarded a set amount that they may spend on it. I suspect, though can not prove, that the reason lower percents occasionally get contacted first is that the percents in their state were not as high. It's possible that in NY the percent to win is 150%, and in Montana it is 97%. In such a situation someone with 155% in NY would probably hear much later than someone with a 130% in Montana. I live in Iowa, most years we receive 3-6 awards (around .3% of the total budgeted for the country), however that information was all based on 2005-2008. Ironically the instructors did not feel it necessary to provide updated numbers since the budget for Nelrp has changed dramatically over the last couple of years. Granted Iowa doesn't actually have any form of shortage of nurses. That's why we have one of the lowest pay-rates in the country. My job rocks though, so I wouldn't want to move. We may end up in that gray area where we can't tell in advance if we'll win and just need to apply and hope.

Thanks Rain, and congrats on your engagement! I'm hoping we have people around 100% who have won it. A few years ago that wouldn't have been possible, but the amounts nlerp has been awarded seem to have ballooned over the last few years. How long did it take you to put together your application the first time?

Hey Nurses, This is the husband of a nurse (on her account, with her permission). She's been so busy working at the hospital that I've taken over researching NELRP to help her with applying for it. I spent the last 2 hours reading over every page on the website, and then reading through about 33 pages of posts on the forum. What I would find so helpful is if people signed there posts in NELRP threads with a percent. It's already clear that applicants who are not in the first priority batch have no chance at obtaining funding. My research on 2008-2009 showed winners generally ranged 150% to 300%, though some managed to rack up ratios over 300%. For my wife her ratio is about 101%. She had not applied for this year because she didn't have a job at the time. Now she does work in a DSH and would meet the requirements. My requests are: Please sign your posts with your percent--aspiring nurses who hear if you've won or not would like to see the range as we try to narrow down what is required. As you all know, nurses are too busy to bother applying for programs that they will be denied. Also -- as of a year or two ago it was unclear if they picked people among first priority by lining them up based on debt ratio and went down the board adding them until the funds ran out -- or if there was any sort of lottery system involved. The literature suggests no lottery, yet there was a post or two indicating a lottery system. My suspicion is that they called the 1800 number and spoke to someone who had no clue how the system worked and started making things up. Your help is most appreciated! Thank you nurses, One very lucky man. 101% ratio

How important is it for me to use the latest edition of Mosby's or Saunder's NCLEX study guides? I thought the questions change some as the years pass, but would a 2005 edition compared to 2008 or 2009 put me at a large disadvantage? Thanks so much!! :)