there are very limited/competitive bsn programs here in new orleans. i spent most of my college career doing my pre-reqs elsewhere and then applying to the well-known programs. charity is adn--and frankly, i've gone too far in my pre-reqs to turn back now for an associates. lsu has different pre-req requirements, so that's out-unless i want to take several classes over. those 2 programs are the only affordable options for me, but i have been accepted for the our lady of holy cross bsn program starting in august, tuition is roughly 16k a year. the point of this post is that, of course, i went to the cheapest school ever to do my pre-reqs but still accepted loans (it was a situation where i sort of had to), so i'm already entering with 30k in debt. olhcc is expensive...i am calculating that when all is said and done, i will owe roughly 70k. my soul dies a little more each time i say it out loud, but what am i supposed to do now? i was accepted somewhere, and in 3 years, i will be a rn bsn. i've never even had a car note, so i'm consistently worrying about the debt when i come out. i don't want to starve to death. i just need someone to tell me that i will be ok. that if i'm willing to work my a$$ off via prn and float shifts etc...that i can do this. i don't have children/car note/other debts, and i intend on seeking my msn as well. i am also considering the navel nurse officer program, and am open to any programs seeking my time in exchange for repayment of a % of my loans. will i be ok?
Have you spoken to the RN to BSN advisor at LSU? You can schedule an appointment with her and see what you need in terms of pre-reqs for the RN to BSN program which is only 28 hours. Lets say you need 4 classes, then you could take those over the next year, then goto Charity when you get in. Have you actually applied and gotten accepted into Charity? It's around $1,500 a semester depending on the level.
Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I'm already battling the terrifying concept that I will be 30 the semester I graduate!
It would be even more terrifying if you reached 60 years of age without a dime of retirement money because the student loans weighed you down financially for years.
Becoming a naval nurse officer is a highly competitive process, and this wouldn't be a sure thing for you since only a few lucky people are accepted. Due to the economy, military nursing positions have been hard to get because nurses have been unable to find work in the civilian sector. Also, loan forgiveness programs are not always available in our currently sluggish economy due to the lack of funds. In other words, you cannot bank on these options being available to you because they very well might not.
The worst-case scenario is that you'll be unemployed with $70,000 in debt. Many RNs from the classes of 2008, 2009, and 2010 have still not found their first jobs because there is a shortage of jobs out there for new nurses.
The most reasonable scenario is that you'll be hired into a mediocre-paying job as a staff nurse at some hospital, nursing home, home health agency, clinic, etc. The massive student loan debt will consume one-third (or more) of every paycheck you receive and steamroll your personal life.
It seems to me that you are in such a hurry to make up for your past mistakes, that you are hurrying into another mistake - taking on too much debt!
You may have wasted years of your life being a New Orleans party girl, and I understand that you don't want to waste any more time, but "wasting" tens of thousands of dollars is not going to make up for the years you believe you already wasted. Growing up includes learning patience and making good judgments about your life - your present life and your future life. All of that debt will be like a noose hanging around your neck for years to come. Sometimes, we really do have much more to gain by "waiting" than by "doing."
My advice is to get your degree as inexpensively as you can. Work on the prereqs. Take a phlebotomy course or CNA course and get some experience in the hospital while you wait to get accepted into a less expensive program.
Thank you for your input ICUEnthusiast. It helps to hear advice from someone who understands the complication of this situation. To me, taking more time and waiting for a different program is simply not an option--I'm already battling the terrifying concept that I will be 30 the semester I graduate! I wasted enough time being a New Orleans party girl before discovering the importance of a degree--and a BSN is what I've always wanted. I am careful with money, this will be the most reckless thing I've ever done---but do you feel it was worth it for you, the debt I mean?
I did not have a choice about getting a BSN or an ADN. Although my parents didn't pay for my living costs, tuition, etc. they still gave me health insurance and threatened to pull that out if I didn't get my BSN.. It would have been catastrophic for me because I have a lot of small health issues that would add up without the proper medications etc.
Like others have pointed out, really make sure you can pay off the debt after you accrue it though. That'll help you decide most if it's worth the debt. I knew from the start that several states on the west coast hire entire graduating BSN classes everytime cause the nursing shortage is very real out here. Even parts of California were offering to pay relocation to get new grads to go to cities like Bakersfield. So with that knowledge, I accepted I'd be paying of loans for a good while. I also have looked into repayment programs and the like, and because of my loan amount and the hospital I work at, there's a high chance I will get some repayment. If that's the case, my debt will be lowered to about $30k (very manageable). If not, I lost nothing and I know I can still pay off my loans. I also knew from the start the avg salary in the various areas hiring new grads en masse and the living costs and did some basic calculations including taxes.
After paying my loan payments and living costs etc, I still have about $600-800 leftover on my check. I'm stashing that away and will prolly sign up for 401k soon. Working nights severely limits how often I go out with friends (thankfully I guess LOL) but even when I go out, I still have some spending money. This isn't including overtime or holiday pay, which I can get plenty of at my hospital again...
I also something incorrect posted about bankruptcy and student loans. ONLY federal loans will not be dropped during bankruptcy. Private loans ARE dropped. Not that anyone wants to default on any loans, but I only have about $25k in federal loans, and if I have to, I will take bankruptcy in the future at some point and just deal with my federal loans. *shrug* This shouldn't be a problem tho because once you have the job as a new grad, and you stay for 1-2 yrs, you're usually experienced enough to keep a job for the rest of your nursing career unless you royally f up.
For future plans, I also want to get my DNP. And I really prefer going to a nice grad school for it (like Johns Hopkins). Knowing that, I do not expect to pay off all my undergrad loans right away before going to get my DNP. At the same time, I think about my professors, who were just getting their first MSN for NP (they already had like MSN with business or w/e) at the age of 50 and realize that a nursing career doesn't need to be rushed at all. :) So I'm just taking it by short term, paying off as much as I can now, and looking for ways to help get repayment funds as I go. That also said, there are MANY good universities that have been offering to reduce your graduate tuition provided you help teach their undergrad nursing students for x years. While doing prereqs, I was a teacher at a school so this idea does not bother me at all and is a possibility I'm looking into..
Like others have pointed out, really make sure you can pay off the debt after you accrue it though. That'll help you decide most if it's worth the debt. I knew from the start that several states on the west coast hire entire graduating BSN classes everytime cause the nursing shortage is very real out here. Even parts of California were offering to pay relocation to get new grads to go to cities like Bakersfield. So with that knowledge, I accepted I'd be paying of loans for a good while. I also have looked into repayment programs and the like, and because of my loan amount and the hospital I work at, there's a high chance I will get some repayment. If that's the case, my debt will be lowered to about $30k (very manageable). If not, I lost nothing and I know I can still pay off my loans. I also knew from the start the avg salary in the various areas hiring new grads en masse and the living costs and did some basic calculations including taxes.
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Ummm can you provide sources to support that? I live in the Pacific Northwest, live in one state, work in another and we are saturated with new grads, and most of the threads with new grads who can not find jobs are in California.
OP, I would look into community colleges for lower debt. In your first post you stated that you had done too many pre-reqs to get your ADN now, why do you feel that way?
I did a ton of pre-reqs so I could apply to not only ADN, but BSN programs as well, I got into a ADN program and so far only have 8k in loans, and I am 12 credits from my BSN.
I would urge you to really crunch the numbers, while you may think that you can get a job right away and start paying off the loans that may not be the case with so many new grads out of work.
6 months after graduation when my loans came calling I still did not have a full time or even 3/4 time job, so I went back to school to get the BSN to delay paying on the loans for awhile.
Ummm can you provide sources to support that? I live in the Pacific Northwest, live in one state, work in another and we are saturated with new grads, and most of the threads with new grads who can not find jobs are in California.
It's honestly been many months since I saw the postings for Bakersfield. But they were posted because a new hospital opened, needed nurses, etc. A friend of mine looked into them and was shocked by how much they were offering. Ofc the flip side is the fact it was Bakersfield, armpit of California.
Nevada hires just about every new grad that graduates in from a university in Nevada. They have stopped hiring California new grads because they're depleting our orientation funds by getting a year of experience then going back to California. Not to mention, it sucks when you're working and the new grads coming up on a year of experience, all of a sudden "hey guys I'm going back to California" and you're suddenly short staffed.. That said, I have noticed California has lots of open positions for more experienced nurses, as have other nurses recently. We have started saying it's a shortage of experienced nurses, and hospitals are too stripped of funds to orient enough new grads to fill those positions after a year.. the investment is indeed quite large when you consider orienting a new grad on avg is about $40-60k according to research.
I notice a lot of postings for Arizona positions (rural and urban) for nurses w/ or w/o experience..
All you have to do is go to hospital sites and look at job postings and how often they change. Even then, I know my hospital sometimes doesn't have postings for new grads / non-experienced, but if one sends in a resume and isn't a CA new grad, they get hired into somewhere in the hospital as many of the hospitals up here are doubling their beds in the recent months.
Ofc a common theme is moving out of the big metropolitan areas, something that a lot of people that grow up in them don't want to do... If only I had a penny for everytime a new graduate, nursing or not, said I can get a job out in middle of nowhere, (state), but it's MIDDLE OF NOWHERE not happening.............. but to me a job is a job, and the banks don't care if you don't wanna move to Bakersfield, or even worse, rural Nevada/Arizona.
Although it does not totally apply to nursing, I suggest people take a look at a documentary on YouTube called College Conspiracy by NIA. I don't agree with everything in the video, but it is very insightful on incurring college debt with our current economic crisis. A doctor is also interviewed in the video, and tells her story of the debt she incurred, and how she wants to help others not make the same mistake.
Have to fix something, I was half wrong about bankruptcy. I remember student loans being eligible for chapter 13 and there are chances for some student loans to be dropped in ch 7. I was thinking it was changed that private loans are to be dropped now because of several bills that had gone thru, but in the end were not voted on as of now.....
I think that if you're banking your future on "well, I can just settle for bankruptcy" then why even get started in a field or go to school? My parents went through bankruptcy and it takes TEN YEARS to recover from that. I wouldn't take it lightly.
Is it an option to commute to another community college? If not, why not work full-time (maybe going to school part time so that the loans don't kick in) until a spot opens up in one of your first choice colleges? If you've already got debt it wouldn't hurt to save money while you wait to get in.
I'm planning on getting my ADN and working (IF I can even find a job) for a while so that my employer will pay a bit on my tuition for RN-BSN. It only takes a year that way and I can get my prereqs out of the way in the summers when I'm out of regular nursing classes. It costs about $1500/semester at the community college, and it's $8,000 a semester at the local university. I'd much rather spend 1 year at university than the 2 it would take me to transfer straight to BSN.
Wait the extra year and go to Charity instead. You sound so much like me when I was deciding between getting a cheaper ADN vs expensive BSN, and like you I chose the BSN route because I didn't want to wait any longer. I was also your age, 30, when I started nursing school. I foolishly thought I could do something like IHS or one of those gov't programs that pay down your debt for working in a rural/urban/financially challenged facility. So, I incurred 50k in debt, and completely regret it.
First off, you are falsely believing that getting a gov't subsidy of whatever sort will be easy. I listened to everyone who told me to take the debt, that there were options galore for paying down the loans when I become a nurse. Not! It takes years to get one of those gigs, if you get it. I know nurses that have applied 3 and 4 times before being accepted. In the meantime? You have to keep making those monthly loan payments (you will have to keep making those monthly payments even if you are accepted to some of those programs, so read the fine print before signing on).
Another thing to remember is that one year in the grand scheme of things is not that long at all! And many hospitals WILL help you pay for your BSN.
To echo the other posters, please carefully consider your decision! I became a nurse in order to work in public/community health, but unfortunately I can't go that route right now because I have to feed my "kids" first lest the government garnish my wages and ruin my life in general. Because when you take on that kind of debt, your loans do become your kids, like it or not. And kids, of course, always come first.
Specializes in L&D, High Risk OBGYN, Patient Education.
Well, as I always say what is money! Do seriously, my daughter lives in New Orleans and according to her the pay is low there for just about every job. I wouldn't take on all that debt at this point in your life. Go get the ADN, get your license and start working then later on in your career go back to school for your BSN. It is too hard to get jobs and paid your bills in this day and age. I am an older nurse with many years experience, making a fairly decent wage-because I live in California-and still have a mountain of bills. Take the money and run with it!
su9032
129 Posts
thislife,
Have you spoken to the RN to BSN advisor at LSU? You can schedule an appointment with her and see what you need in terms of pre-reqs for the RN to BSN program which is only 28 hours. Lets say you need 4 classes, then you could take those over the next year, then goto Charity when you get in. Have you actually applied and gotten accepted into Charity? It's around $1,500 a semester depending on the level.