take out school loan even if I do not need to??

hapeewendy · Feb 14, 2003

maybe I'm the only one

but to me this is such a no brainer

if you don't need the money don't take out the loan

besides all the ethical stuff, I can tell you firsthand that its a pain in the butt to be paying off a loan , interest is a B---h

I paid my own way thru nursing school entirely , from working and also a student loan which I am still paying off..

there was no other way around it, my father wouldnt help and my mother couldnt help...

I had a "friend" In nursing school who was ripping off the student loan ppl big time, said she was an independant student, got tons of cash for that ,meanwhile her mom was paying for everything , she bought a new stereo and car with her student loan

and all I could help thinking was someone didnt get as much money as they could/should have because she decided to apply for a student loan and spend it frivirously..

peeves me off...

-jt · Feb 15, 2003

Take the student loans now because by the time you have to repay them, the Nurse Reinvestment Act will have been funded by Congress and you could apply for that to repay the loans while you are still in school if you agree to work in a facility or area that is experiencing a shortage. Through this new law, once you have your RN, if you still have outstanding loans, 85% of the amount can be paid through the Nurse Education Repayment Loan Program under the same conditions. (hapeewendy, you still have time to apply for that assistance - deadline is 3/31)

also, borrowed from the sticky: Funding Nursing Education:

check with your state nurses association for state-sponsored educational grants for nurses and students nurses. Thanks to the hard work & political activity of a lot of pro-active RNs, many states now have legislation to compliment the federal Nurse Reinvestment Act and Nursing Education Loan repayment Program.

Legislation passed in 2001 to help fund nursing students:

Illinois legislation amends the Nursing Education Scholarship Law. Rhode Island legislation allows interest on student loans to be forgiven. Texas law makes grants to nursing programs to increase enrollment, so check with the individual schools on that. Oregon legislation repays student loans for nurses practicing in nursing shortage areas. Two bills were passed in Nebraska - The first provides eligible students with a loan forgiveness program after practicing nursing for an agreed upon period. The second bill provides loan repayment to nurses who agree to practice in a shortage area (so a student takes out loans while in school & the state later forgives the loan or pays them back for her). Legislation passed in Virginia provides scholarships and loan repayment programs for nurses.

In 2002, CA, CT, ME, MN, NV, NJ, NM, NY, and PA were also working on state laws to help nursing students go to school. Contact your state nurses associations for details.

If you work in a healthcare facility, check with your employer and union about tuition reimbursement or loan forgiveness if are willing to commit to work at that facility for a certain period of time after you graduate. And dont forget to go to the online scholarship search engines & use keywords: Nursing, medical, health, sciences

fergus51 · Feb 15, 2003

I don't think hapeewendy can get the money, unless the America congress wants to start giving money to Canadians;)

I would add a lot of places experiencing a real shortage and offering tuition reimbursement are complete hell holes. I worked at one such place for 3 months as a new grad and can say with all seriousness, a year or 2 commitment might as well be an eternity.

TX Guy · Feb 15, 2003

JGG

Great post!

With all due respect I would highly discourage you from borrowing money you dont need. That is a cardinal financial rule. Im confident your financial advisor will tell you this.

Paul

Coytoy · Feb 17, 2003

It might be good to pay for as much as you can until the money runs out. I did it this way and only owe less than 5 grand. My new employer will pay $2600 for tuition reimbursment and pay for my NCLEX review class. All this after orientation. My classmates and I were surprised when we learned during our last semester of school that there was almost $1000 in graduation fees. That hurt.

Some of my friends quit or flunked out of school and still owe for their student loans. Some of them used the money for things that were not related to school such as Christmas presents. Since they had the student loan money they used it. Now that they are not in school they still have to pay it. So it might be best to avoid tempation. Good luck.