student loans

[ginaw623]

Hi everybody, I am having a difficult time making a decision. I have a previous Bachelor's Degree with student loan debt balance about 65K after all the interest. I am set on going back for nursing...but I am very uneasy about accruing more debt. I want to do this accelerated 12 month BSN in my area...but it would probably put me up to close to 90K in debt! The good thing about that is it is quick, I would have the BSN, and I could get to working and making income. Then I would want to have my employer pay for my NP (which is probably my ultimate goal). I am also trying to get into one of the local community college ADN programs because it would be sooooooo much cheaper and I could later get the BSN online through a bridge program maybe paid by my employer. The problem is community colleges have long wait lists and they would take 2 years once in. So I do not know if I would benefit more just going for that ABSN and working sooner or do MORE waiting as usual and try for the ADN eventually. How are all you RNs doing paying student loans? Am I crazy for getting into this much debt? HELP!

[OCNRN63, RN]

The most recent issue of Consumer Reports deals with student loan debt. I encourage anyone considering going to school, parents of children wanting to go to school to get it and read it thoughtfully. There's some good information in there.

You're not going to like what I have to say, but you need to pay down some, if not all of that debt before you consider going back to school. You may not get a job for a while after you graduate, and there sit all those loans, just compounding interest away. How do you plan on paying back those loans if you can't get a nursing job right away? What if you don't like nursing...then what? Then you are sitting on a huge stack of debt, working in a job you hate.

Some of the posts I read about the debt people have and they still want to get a nursing degree just frighten me.