RN's, how much did you borrow for school?

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

Well, I "only" have an ADN, but that is ok because I worked all the way through the program and had zero debt. Just payed cash along the way. Not easy, but doable if you get enough caffiene.

My ADN has worked fine for 18 years. I would love to get my BSN, but i just cannot bear to take on debt. A mortgage and car payment are enough!

My husbands field and mine are to prone to layoffs to rack up more debt. If I ever do get the cash I will get my BSN.

Not because i think it will make me a better nurse, but just because nursing is snotty about the BSN thing and now that there is a glut it looks like it is becoming much more of a factor.

TickyRN · Apr 28, 2011

I am glad I did not have any school loans, but I have a friend who had 30k plus loans. He paid it off in 2yrs. Another got a business degree from an ivy league school for 110k and paid it off in 3. these were not nursing degrees which is why they were able to pay if off that fast.

I dont think it is advisable to have a high amount of loans when the earning potential is not that great.

hecallsmeDuchess · Apr 28, 2011

Sometimes, loans are unavoidable not because a person does not work while going to school but because the money earned is insufficient to take care of tuition and all other school expenses.

When I went to school, I worked full time but the money I earned as a CNA during all those years was nowhere near enough to cover my tuition. Now I'm done, I'm about $35,000 in debt. Not what I planned but glad I got the education to show for it and I'm slowly but surely paying it back.

joanna73, BSN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

I worked part time through my 4 year BSN, but I finished owing 34,000. It's now 1 year later and I owe just under 26,000. My monthly payments are 300 a month. As you can see, I pay more. I plan to be rid of this debt in 3 years.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

Well. I already had a bachelor's degree previously which sent me up to 40k in loans.. then I went to grad school for a year which doubled that. Now I'm going for a BSN for 2.5 yrs.. so I would suspect around 140k by the time all is said and done. This is through the govt and private loans. Plus my husband has loans as well from undergrad so total it may reach around 200k, maybe 180.

$140k would result in a repayment of $1611.12 for a govt. student loan financed over ten years at 6.8 percent. Your payments might be higher since you have indicated that some of it is private student loan debt. That is very staggering.

DutchRN09 · Apr 28, 2011

I borrowed zero. Worked FT during nursing school, and now am starting BSN and will be reimbursed by the hospital.

evolvingrn, BSN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

I graduated with 30 thousand in loans and paid it off in less than a year , by living off my spouses income and hitting the loan hard. good luck

soxgirl2008 · Apr 28, 2011

It is really cool to read about all the people posting here that worked and were able to graduate with little or no debt. I cringe whenever I read that someone is living off loans to "focus on school". I actually went to school with a girl that did that, was $40,000 in debt after 3 years, failed out of the RN program in the last semester and was not re-admitted the following year. I just can't imagine.

I know a lot of people who have done that...I can't imagine doing it either! I think it's easy to do because since you are not paying them off anytime soon it's easy to just not think about the fact that you're going to have to pay them off eventually...I know some people realize what they are doing but I think there's a lot of people that don't really think it through.

Jules A, MSN · Apr 28, 2011

Sometimes, loans are unavoidable not because a person does not work while going to school but because the money earned is insufficient to take care of tuition and all other school expenses.
When I went to school, I worked full time but the money I earned as a CNA during all those years was nowhere near enough to cover my tuition. Now I'm done, I'm about $35,000 in debt. Not what I planned but glad I got the education to show for it and I'm slowly but surely paying it back.

Kudos because working as a CNA is HARD! Imagine how much further you would have been in debt if you didn't work while you were getting your RN. :eek:

coconutzz · Apr 28, 2011

I will owe around the amount you do ($60,000) but that is for 2 bachelors degrees. I worked when I could and received loans and grants to get me through. We live off a combination of my loans and my husband's income. I figure you do what you have to to get through school. Sometimes I wish I could have worked more but I had to raise my daughter during both my degrees and my husband deployed twice during that time. But I'll tell you, I would do it all over again the same way cause I am graduating in 2 weeks!!!!!! No more bachelors degrees here, next is grad school!

hecallsmeDuchess · Apr 28, 2011

Kudos because working as a CNA is HARD! Imagine how much further you would have been in debt if you didn't work while you were getting your RN.

Thanks. You have no idea how much I shudder in horror to think how much more it would have been! I knew of people in my class who talked about being over $60,000 dollars in and this was like a semester before graduation. If I had that much money in debt, I would just hand myself over to the government in servitude for ever.

KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

Well currently I am in school now..My BSN program has a LPN exit option after the first year, so I will take the NCLEX & work as a LPN while I finish up my last year. I am currently a CNA, but I only work weekends & that's just to cover my car payment & other miscellaneous bills. When its all said & done (and if I don't take out loans to cover my last year of my program), I will owe about $17,000. Not really great..but on the other hand I was considering going to a very expensive university & at the end of the program, I would have owed over $90,000:eek: