Is it common nowadays for nursing students to graduate with >100K in student loan debt? I am trying to wrap my head around how this is happening so let me throw a few questions out there.
Did you go to a public or private university?
If you chose a private university what advantages did you expect over a public university?
Did cost play any role in selecting what university you went to?
What was the cost of tuition per year?
Did you use the student loan money for anything other than tuition, books or school fees?
When you signed for the loans, did you have any idea how much the payments per month would be?
If you are a working RN, what percentage of your monthly take home pay goes to servicing your school loans?
If you are a working RN, knowing what you know now what if anything would you have done differently to keep the debt to a minimum?
I was feeling a little lowly about my state university education after reading some posts here, but I just read that my alma mater's nursing program ranks top 25 in the country.
I really don't get paying 100K for a BSN, but it's those who assume that much debt and then end up not enjoying their career that truly baffle.
Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
[*]Did you go to a public or private university?
Public for prereqs, private for LVN, public for RN (will graduate this semester)
[*]If you chose a private university what advantages did you expect over a public university?
The advantages for my private LVN program: No waiting list. The was 6 months shorter than the public program, as well.
[*]Did cost play any role in selecting what university you went to?
Yes. I'd always intended on attending public school for nursing. However, along the way, my financial situation changed and I needed to be able to earn an income sooner, rather than later.
[*]What was the cost of tuition per year?
Prereqs and RN school were basically free due to fee waivers. The tuition was around $400/semester at the community college and $3500/semester at the state university. That doesn't include books, which cost around $500-$1500 per semester.
The private LVN school billed $42k for one year, I did receive some grants and discounts, and I think it cost me around $20-25k for the single year.
[*]Did you use the student loan money for anything other than tuition, books or school fees?
Yes, I used my loan money to pay for costs of living, such as rent and gas.
[*]When you signed for the loans, did you have any idea how much the payments per month would be?
When I first took out loans about 20 yrs ago, no I didn't know. (I accrued around $25k during that time.) However, before I took out loans for nursing, I calculated what my total debt repayment would be. (I ended up around $55K total)
[*]If you are a working RN, what percentage of your monthly take home pay goes to servicing your school loans?
When I worked as a full time LVN, about 10% of my take home pay went to my loans.
[*]If you are a working RN, knowing what you know now what if anything would you have done differently to keep the debt to a minimum?
I'm not a working RN, but I was a working LVN. I don't have many regrets about my loans. They were necessary for me due to my life circumstances. Now, if I could change some of my choices that led to my difficult circumstances, sure, I'd change those choices. But, for me, as a single young mom with no support, if I hadn't taken out loans, I wouldn't have been able to attend college.
When I took out loans as a very young fresh out of high school single mom in college, I wish I would have considered living more frugally. I have taught and encouraged my college aged daughter to live more simply while she's in college so that she can keep her loans to a minimum.
I'm currently in the process of applying for financial aid. I plan on going to a community college to earn an ADN, then I plan to transfer to an accelerated RN-BSN program immediately after. I plan to be done in about 3 and 1/2 to 4 years. Reading this topic has given me some food for thought when I comes to deciding on the amount I will ask for. My goal is to not go over 50K. I will most likely spend considerably less then that in tuition and fees and books, but I'm including COL with it. The way I see it, I have 3 kids who still need me and while I could work full time and go to school full time (I would like to graduate as soon as I can), my family life will suffer and as a mother my time with my children is priceless. My plan is for my half of the mortgage (My BF pays the other half) to always be paid with student loans and to work part time on the weekends when I don't have class. I will be going PRN at my job, so that I can have flexibility with my schedule. Any and all bills and expenses will be paid with my paycheck, but I want that padding there in case I get busy with school and don't work as much as usual. I wanna make sure my half of the mortgage will always be paid regardless of if I work that month or not and my BF can pick up the slack if need be. I can always pay back student loans, but I personally can skimp on my attention when it comes to my kids. And I refuse to skimp when it comes to school. I don't want to have to choose between working, getting good grade, and my kids. They are my reason for going to school and my reason for wanting to excel and giving myself the best possible environment to study in is important. Taking on to much so I graduate debtless isn't worth it IMO. I might be tempted to do it if I were single with no children, but no. So 50K is my limit and I can see myself paying that off in a decent about of time, if I budget correctly.
Pray, beg, look for scholarships, deliver pizza, work at the local grocery store, take more time to finish your nursing degree but DO WHATEVER YOU CAN NEVER, NEVER, NEVER go into debt. Live like a poor person. Ear noodle soup out of a can for 2 years. Debt is a hellish nightmare that many face coming out of school. DO NOT DO IT. You will thank me for this advice. Why? Because I have seen so many nurses go into the loan nightmare. Some didn't but many did. I didn't. I worked as a singer in a bar at night, many times until 4 am and then go from there straight to school at 0600 for clinicals and then back to work at night after studying. I was tired all the time. I looked tired. I lived a poor life of a pauper to pay for school. But I came out of it with my earnings in my pocket. And a load off my shoulders.
In fact, NEVER GO INTO DEBT unless it's to buy a home. Nobody ever got rich by being in debt. Period.
It's sad that schools are so expensive and inflated in costs... I spent 60k on my BSN and I honestly regret spending that much.
I went to a state college and it was actually one of the cheaper options for state schools. Out of the schools I applied to it actually was the cheapest.
A lot of my loans covered for my rent while I was away at school which I regret as well. (That's actually where pretty much half of my loan came from)
So when I graduated high school everyone was going away to universities and I decided to join in on the bandwagon. I didn't really know how much it was going to cost me a month when I graduated and my parents did not have the money to help me out at all.
I worked full time while at school but I used that to pay for my gas, car insurance, food, utilities, books, and more. (I was only making about 7/hr)
So now that I'm graduated I pay about 800/mo in loans. This is about 1/3 of my monthly income with no overtime.
I work a ton of overtime right now to pay them off as quick as possible. If I were to do it all over again I would have went to a community college and then transferred out after getting an associates.
I am also currently trying to go back for my masters but only because my work is paying almost 100% of it as long as I keep my grades up.
I wish I had that option for my BSN. Lol you live and you learn though.
What a difference a generation makes! I got my non-nursing BS degree in the 1970's by taking on campus jobs and working as a Hall Director for the dorms. Graduated debt free. When I wanted to career change at 30, I went to a private Accelerated BSN program which cost 8K. I used a small inheritance and my husband worked while I went to school.
That same program costs just under 50K today. I could never have wrangled that. Also, to the point of paying for a career that people didn't end up enjoying, half my BSN class was out of nursing by the first year. Another 25-30% never made it to the 3 year mark. I am the last clinician in my class to still be working as an RN. My advice now and always is to work a year as a nursing assistant; if you can do that you probably have a good mindset for nursing. But to load on 100K of debt for a career that so many find disappointing? Tragic.
To be honest, this isn't always possible when you have children. I have a 12, 10, and 6 year old. I refuse to work long hours in addition to school and ignore their childhoods, because by the time I graduate my oldest 2 will be nearly grown, my youngest entering middle school. Debt sucks, but missing out on your kid's childhoods sucks even more. That's time I won't be able to get back. I can ALWAYS pay debt back. I cannot go back in time and go to my 6 year old's ballet recital or help my soon to be 13 year old prepare for her first formal or cheer my son on in his first hockey game. That makes the debt worth it to me.
I got my ADN through a community college, and am currently working on my BSN online. So, no debt. Some of my nursing friends have like 30-40k, but the thought of >100K debt is making my stomach hurt. Best of luck!
Did you go to a public or private university? Private. There was no BSN program in my town, so for college I moved to a very expensive city a few hours away that has many highly ranked programs.
If you chose a private university what advantages did you expect over a public university? My program specifically was a 5 year co-op program. I went to class for 6 months then worked full time for 6 months. It was an extra year of living expenses in the end but the experience was so valuable to me. While these jobs were paid, they didn't pay as much as an RN job obviously so it didn't balance out the extra year of expenses living in a really expensive city, but I worked as a tech at 2 different top 10 hospitals and in 3 totally different specialties, so I learned a ton about what kind of nurse I wanted to be, and I felt really prepared upon graduation.
Did cost play any role in selecting what university you went to? Yes. The actual tuition for me cost less than a public program in the same city because I got so many scholarships, but the living expenses are what really added up for me.
What was the cost of tuition per year? I'm not sure exactly, but somewhere around $45,000 x 5 years. The 3 years where I spent 6 months working on co-op were less than the other 2 years. Like I said, I only paid a small percentage of that because I got a lot of scholarships.
Did you use the student loan money for anything other than tuition, books or school fees? Yes. This is what killed me. I lived off of student loans in a very expensive city for 5 years. 5 years of rent at 1,000 per month = $60,000 just for living near school! Not to mention transportation to get to class and work, food, books, etc. My mom was out of work with cancer and my dad lost his job right before I went to college so they were unable to help me in any way. Rather than delay going to college I chose to live off of loans.
When you signed for the loans, did you have any idea how much the payments per month would be? No
If you are a working RN, what percentage of your monthly take home pay goes to servicing your school loans? I'm getting help with my student loans, but they are about 1/2 of my take home pay. I now live in a city with low living expenses and low wages and am getting help through the HRSA loan repayment program. If I didn't get that award I would not have been able to afford to stay at my current job in public health.
If you are a working RN, knowing what you know now what if anything would you have done differently to keep the debt to a minimum? I would have applied to schools out of state and in less expensive cities, but at the time I didn't want to be farther than a few hour drive away from my sick mother. I had a great college experience and felt really well prepared after, so I don't regret my decisions.
I think it's really easy to judge other people and say that a BSN is not worth $100,000, but I feel very fortunate that student loans made it possible for someone like me to have the experience I did. My family was really struggling financially and I was still able to pursue my dream (and I still am!) I would have loved to have been able to get my BSN with less debt, but everything has worked out so far and I feel very blessed.
Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.
I am curious what does a "prestigious" school offer that your average school does not? I am asking this in all sincerity. What do they provide to justify the added cost?
I already work there on the hospital side and I get great tuition reimbursement plus other benefits. I wouldn't go there if I didn't already have a relationship with them. I am doing Informatics and already have relationships with people in that field there. I do not think there are many MSN programs in Informatics so with my employee benefits, it will probably cost less that if I chose to go to an average school. For my BSN, I chose a regular, average state school (they are B&M but have a great online program) that cost me hardly anything with a scholarship and renting books. I got my ADN at the community college. I have nothing against the "average" school. I just have been presented with an opportunity that I felt I could not pass up.
Thank you for asking!! I hope I answered your question.
Libby1987
3,726 Posts
I was feeling a little lowly about my state university education after reading some posts here, but I just read that my alma mater's nursing program ranks top 25 in the country.
I really don't get paying 100K for a BSN, but it's those who assume that much debt and then end up not enjoying their career that truly baffle.