130k Student debt for Entry MSN worth it?

Agree with that. I just don't understand how you can be a master of something with zero experience. My favorite is the CNL that alot of these programs give just absurd to make someone with zero experience a leader...

I see that "don't spend more on the degree than you will make in your first year" thrown around a lot on this forum.

While it is a true you can get a nursing degree for next to nothing (did mine at community college for practically nothing and got the BSN for 10K), that is not the case for most degrees.

I am pretty sure a 4 year degree would run you about 100K at many public colleges even with in state tuition once you factor in room and board,but the average salary for nearly all college grads in nearly all fields is far less.

Heck no I'll only be 55k in debt for my BSN AND post masters FNP. 130k seems insane!

That kind of debt would crush my soul... I would only consider it if I came out of it making a doctor or lawyer's salary.

I have half that debt. It's difficult to pay off. I'm in a pretty high paying job. My payments are 650 a month. Imagine having over twice that plus an insane amount of interest. I've been able to pay down some. But student loans, especially private ones tend to compound the interest. As someone whose taken out loans I would recommend looking at other options.

The average student loan carries a 7% interest rate and takes 20 years to pay off. That means your initial $130,000 debt will have cost you $240,000 once it's paid off.

This degree will cost you $240,000. You will pay $1000 a month until 2038.

I would suggest looking at more affordable options.

I believe I read somewhere that MSN is usually a nurse practioner or Nurse anesthetist (am I saying that right? The nurse that deals with the gas? CRNA whatever?) and those two heavily demanded fields make over $100,000 a year, so I think it's totally find if you have to come out with that much in debt. Not to mention there is financial aid for graduate degrees after undergraduate as well as doctorate.

I don't think a lot of people know that and most are probably ignorant on how it works. As far as can you borrow loans for graduate school while working as an RN? Not sure, but I don't see why it wouldn't hurt because you're increasing your education and you know for a fact you'll make enough to pay that off.

Your debt is spread out over a period of time. What you can use as extra to pay down interest and principle will lower the amount of time it takes to pay it off.

If you're like my mother, who is not an RN or anything nurse or doctor related, has $60,000 in debt, pays a mortgage, has pets, constantly has a new car with car payments and an iphone a month since 2010 and tells people "I still can't get my student loans paid off" then no, you shouldn't even look into doing MSN school. There are so many irresponsible people out there who just make absolutely NOTHING BUT excuses.

Btw, her kids are grown.

I see that "don't spend more on the degree than you will make in your first year" thrown around a lot on this forum.

While it is a true you can get a nursing degree for next to nothing (did mine at community college for practically nothing and got the BSN for 10K), that is not the case for most degrees.

I am pretty sure a 4 year degree would run you about 100K at many public colleges even with in state tuition once you factor in room and board,but the average salary for nearly all college grads in nearly all fields is far less.

A lot of people don't pay full freight. They get financial aid, merit scholarships, help from parents, and work part or even full time to finance their education. Most college students commute from home rather than paying for a dorm. Often they will go to community college (less expensive) for two years, then transfer to the four year university to finish. Many people get a degree without borrowing or paying the whole amount. The majority of people who get a degree are not actually the "traditional" college student as we believe them to be, i.e. those who live in the dorm and pay full freight for a four year degree.

Thank you all. I've talked to many people and the only person that thinks this ISN'T a lot of debt is my mom, who is a nurse lol. I think she just wants me to start my career as I am nearing 30. I am in the process of seeing how I drop my seat, because $130,000 is way too much. This is one of the reasons why I didn't want to follow through with my initial plans to go MD.

The new grad article helped me make my decision as well. If I am stressed right now about the loans, which I haven't even taken out, I KNOW I will be stressed while working, and that just isn't safe.

I think you are making the right decision to NOT take on this debt. There are options out there and you just gotta do your research to find a program and path that works for you. I went to a public ADN school and tuition was ~$10k, I'm currently in an RN-BSN program that will cost ~$13k and I haven't look into MSN programs, but they probably aren't much more than $25k. I became a nurse at 32 so don't let age or pressure from others get to you.

I do not understand the point in going directly to Entry MSN when you have zero nursing experience. For one, such programs are super expensive. Second, many employers look iffy at you when they see you have MSN but zero clinical experience. Why don't you do an accelerated or a generic BSN? Get some experience and then decide what specialty you wish to practice.

Because it depends on what your intentions are with that degree. To work as a nurse practitioner under an infectious disease physician, it would probably be more beneficial to develop a plan for an RN license, a Bachelors in Biology, focused on Microbiology, then an MSN once you have those two. The BSN is pretty useless to you, since your nursing care is going to be more basic common care, while your primary role is going to be more based on treating infection, by viruses, bacteria, and fungi, all things you have to learn about very in-depth for a Microbiology degree. Which one do you think that physician wants? The one that's more skilled at being a bedside nurse, or the one that literally studied the things that cause the infections that they have to try to cure?

A BSN is only useful for that type of nursing.

The smartest thing to do, if you want any of the jobs in nursing, is to get your ADN and get licensed. Because no matter what MSN program you try to get into, 100% of them require that, either as a part of their program, or as a prerequisite of their program.

While doing that, research exactly what you want to do, which you should have been doing before committing to trying to get into nursing school. So if you want to be that Nurse Practitioner that works with infectious diseases, you should have AT A MINIMUM come to a forum site like this one, and asked if one can talk to you about the job, and let you ask questions about it. Lots of hospitals will actually let you shadow one and see the work first-hand (Yes, there's many ways that can be done while following HIPAA guidelines) without being a current student. Hopefully, you've already done this before making the commitment to go to school.

Now that you know exactly what the work is going to involve, figure out if a BSN or a different Bachelor's of Science degree is going to be more beneficial in that field. This is as simple as just asking someone, preferably through a letter, not just randomly showing up or calling them. In the nurse practitioner route, ask a physician who specializes in what you want to do. For a researcher, ask that department of some local hospitals. For a teacher, ask the local schools.

Once you know if your direction should be a BSN or a B.S.Biology or any other bachelors degree, then you start researching your list of schools that you're going to want to apply to, BOTH for your bachelor's degree and your MSN, the idea is that everything beyond your ADN is planned out already before graduating your initial nursing program.

Unless you're positive that you want to be a bedside nurse, I wouldn't recommend a 4 year BSN program. If you're positive that you want to be a bedside nurse, that's a great way to go, and a very competitive way to go, but hospitals LOVE you. Basically, your ADN is to get licensed to be allowed to do the job you want to do, your Bachelor's degree is to market yourself into a specific specialty, and then your MSN is to use your Bachelors degree in a healthcare setting.

$130,000 to do that though, is ridiculous and you can do that for way less, never having to live on campus.