Student loans?

i'll be interested to hear the responses on this thread... i, too, have a good bit of debt after my acnp program and go into repayment this month.:grn:

if you have done a fnp program, you may be able to qualify for the hrsa loan repayment/forgiveness (google it) for a commitment in a rural area... or as they say, "underserved area." they are in need of primary practitioners and will forgive your loan, or a part of it, for a time commitment from you. there are a couple different types of these programs, i believe. but if you go to the hrsa website, you can find the others i'm talking about. aside from that, i just googled (when will this be added to the dictionary as a verb? *hehe*) "loan repayment" and "loan forgiveness" which came up with some other programs aside from hrsa.

good luck... and believe me, i understand... wish there had been a way for me to do it on my own without the loans, but i don't think i could have. i use to be one of these people that saw it as an investment, but now that i am about to start repaying, i see it as... a new car payment, a bigger house note, a new four-wheeler, a boat, a new jeep... *lol*

I finished up grad school with about $26,000 in student loans (Stafford).

I first consolidated them into one.

Now my employer (hospital) is paying back $4,000 a year on them which is more than double what my minimum payment is.

It is part of my paycheck (they calculate it after taxes so I get the amount I was promised) in addition to my regular salary. It was something I negotiated for when I was interviewing. No other way for me to do it, I could not have repayed them on my own.

In MA there is also a state loan repayment program if you work at a community health center. I think between $15,000 and $25,000 a year.

i have about 80K in loans and am definitely doing this.

I believe there are also programs for loan repayment for nurse educators (I think the repayment limit is 50K).

Loans aren't fun, but like a house it is an investment for the future.

Which is a highly appropriate analogy for me, because I won't be able to afford a house with all my loans.

Would anyone like to share what they pay a month and how long they will be paying it for? I know there are a lot of calculators out there, but thy do not give me a very good picture.

It's not an exact science....but here goes.

I owe an astronomical 100K. I'll be paying it back on the graduated-extended plan for 25 years. I expect $600 or so per month if I keep the loans individual (that amount will increase a bit over the years). If I consolidate and thus reduce the administrative costs it could go as low as $500 a month. If I want to pay it all off in 10 years I'd have to pay more than $1200 per month.

I'll look into that.

Not as big a deal for me as others...I don't have a mortgage or a family or any other major financial commitments.

I'm not so sure...it only repays 60% of the debt, and you have to commit to working at a "critical shortage" facility for 2 or 3 years. Which makes me wonder if you'll be legally bound to work at some terrible facility, when you could find a better and better-paying job elsewhere that might help you pay off the loan.