It is a huge amount of money, but there are lots of options for paying school loans back. I am in the Oakland ABSN and I think it is a great way to do it. Three years is way too long to wait. You could pay back a huge part of your loan by then. There are programs that help you pay back your loan too. In Oakland there is a Kaiser scholarship that gives you 25k towards your loan while working at Kaiser. I felt a two years program would be too long for me. I am not worried about the job situation. Everything could change in a year.