Student Loans

B52, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN · Oct 17, 2014

My school also advised us not to work full time. They said the "average" student could not work full time and pass. Not true. Everybody is different. Do what you have to do. I earned a scholarship that covered tuition and books, and I worked as an LPN 32 hours a week, all on the weekend - 16 hours Saturday and 16 hours Sunday. I also occasionally filled in during the week. Monday through Friday was mostly all labs, lectures, clinicals, and studying. I had no social life, but socializing was not a top priority. For the record, I have no kids, but I do have a mortgage and 2 cats to feed, so NOT working was not an option.

Luckyyou, BSN, RN · Oct 17, 2014

The key thing is if you have not completed your ADN by December 31, 2014 , you will be required to get a BSN or at least show progress towards it. I am not sure of the actual ruling. You will need to check the rule for renewing your RN license on the National League of Nursing Website.

Where did you hear this? Definitely not true. Individual employers, however, may require a BSN or progress towards one. There's no national or state requirement. There's also very, very few places with a true nursing shortage. In some places the unemployment rate for new grads is nearly 50% in the first year. Not a lot of employers are offering tuition reimbursement or loan repayment when they have hundreds of applicants for very few postings.

lovelyb26 · Oct 17, 2014

Hello OP,
I just graduated from a BSN program 2 months ago. The general answer to your question is: Each student's case is different - one student can be completely independent and pay for everything(including their kids, etc), so they may or may not need to borrow and continue to work while they are others who have family support and can afford not to go to work and borrow or not borrow as well.
I know, that's very vague, so I will share my personal story for you and let you take away what you need from it.
2 1/2 years ago I did some extensive research on a bunch of local schools, both non-profit and for-profit, I ended up settling on a private, for-profit school. At that time, the school was in the process of becoming nationally accredited and they put out an incentive for students. The incentive was: If a student comes to our school, the costs of the master's degree in nursing will be waived. That was just one portion as to why I chose the school, the school also boasted high NCLEX passing rates, most graduates found jobs right away, and small classes. I also made sure their financial department was adequate and educated about Pell Grants, government Loans, and private loans.
My situation, financially: I was working two jobs as a pharmacy tech and living on my own. I was 27 years at the time too, so I am hardly new blood when it comes to the college experience and not really a good age to be a dependent student. HOWEVER! My immediate family knew how much I wanted to go back to school, so they invited me to come stay with them so I did not have to worry about rent at least (all my other bills, I was still responsible for). I accepted and I was able to quit one of my jobs and work part time. For me, I could only handle working every other weekend considering the workload from school. (Like I said, each student is different. Some students can do the full load and full time gig, I could not.)
My school expenses total was about $60,000, however, after Pell Grants and paying off what I could on my own, I ended up only with $42,000 with the government loans, which have fairly low interest rates. So my monthly payment will be about $400 (but I plan on paying more than that when I can to get the amount paid off faster.)
Again, this is something I know I can financially do, because when I did my extensive research on schools, I also made sure to plan out the financial portion of it and whether or not I could handle the costs after I graduate. That and having family to help me save money (rent, etc) helped me pay off other bills (like my car).
My final piece of advice: RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH! Make sure you think about your future too and ask yourself, if you were to borrow money, will you be able to handle the payments? Is there anyway you can pay on your own? Scholarships are big, big, big. Some are highly competitive such as: NHSC Scholarship Program - NHSC (They have both a scholarship and loan repayment program) while they are others are that people did not even know that exist and people never apply for. I found one that gave scholarships away for having brown hair. Some scholarships go unclaimed because no one knows about them. One of them was from Subaru. Even though it was an engineering scholarship, I had a fellow student get awarded the money because there was no other applicants.
I hope that helps, sorry for the length! Good luck to you.

Yes! This is what I needed to hear.

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Oct 17, 2014

The key thing is if you have not completed your ADN by December 31, 2014 , you will be required to get a BSN or at least show progress towards it.

This information is categorically false. At this time, no state in the union is legally mandating attainment of the BSN degree.

North Dakota had a legally mandated BSN degree requirement for RNs in the distant past. That law went into effect in 1987 and was repealed in 2003 because North Dakota couldn't keep enough nurses.

Natasha A., CNA, LVN · Oct 17, 2014

I have heard about going after local scholarship in your area since they are not as competitive

Tracy724 · Oct 20, 2014

I currently have student loan debt from attending a 4 year college. And let me tell you: try your best to borrow as little as possible. Sally Mae and Discover will be BFFs for quite some time. I have returned to school and paying out of pocket. I say try your best to work as much as you can to save up. I dont' have any kids nor am I married so I am using one income for current bills and saving for future education expenses.