My frugal, no-student-loan path to a BSN
I'm on track to get my BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) in about a year, and as long as all goes according to plan, I will walk away with my four-year degree and no student loans.
If you've been following along with my journey this whole time, you already know allllll about my path! But after working at my hospital with people who went straight for their BSN, I have realized that a lot of people do not know there's an alternative.
So, I'm writing it all down in case someone out there needs to know!
Why is a BSN important?
It is mainly important because while hospitals will hire you as an RN with a two-year degree, most require their nurses to get one within five years.
If you want to practice nursing long-term, you probably will need to end up with a BSN.
My path
I got my Associate of Nursing degree (ADN) from my local community college, which has a very highly rated nursing program.
The whole program there cost me less than $15,000, which is a screaming bargain to start with.
However, I also filled out my FAFSA faithfully, and I applied for lots of scholarships. Because of that, I did not end up paying anything out of pocket for my RN degree, except for some things like clinical uniforms.
I also paid for my prereqs out of pocket, since scholarships do not usually cover those. I mostly did my prereqs one at a time, while Zoe was finishing up high school, so it was no problem to cash-flow them.
I took my NCLEX after graduating and passed it on the first try (my community college has an insanely high pass rate, near 99%).
During school, I had worked (very) part-time as a tech at my nearby hospital, and after passing my NCLEX, I got a job as an RN there.
And here is where the financial magic really comes in: since I'd been a hospital employee for over six months (as a tech), I was already eligible for tuition reimbursement.
I started my BSN classes shortly after starting my RN job, and almost the entirety of my BSN program will be paid for by my hospital.
Plus, since I am already able to work a nursing job with my two-year degree, I'm earning a nurse paycheck while also going to school for almost free.
In summary: the benefits of getting an ADN first:
Quickest path to a paycheck
Getting a two-year nursing degree is the quickest path to getting a paycheck. And once you've got that going, you can take your sweet time with the BSN classes if you want; you will at least be already paying your bills with your nurse paycheck!
Your BSN will be free or close to free
Most major hospitals will pay for your BSN classes, and my goodness, that's like getting a nice, fat hourly pay raise.
You do typically have to stay at that hospital for a certain amount of time after the reimbursement, but at my hospital, only one year is required.
Plus, it's on a rolling basis. So, for example, tuition reimbursement for the semester I'm in right now will be fully "vested" a year from now.
No (or low) student loan payments
You make a decent amount as a nurse straight out of school, but some young BSN graduates really struggle to make it financially because of their student loans.
A nurse paycheck goes much further without a $900 loan payment.
And even if you have to take out loans to get your ADN, the amount will be tiny compared to the loans you'd need if you went straight for a BSN.
No one cares if your degree is piecemeal
Once you have your BSN, no one is going to give a hoot that your first two years were at a community college. It seriously does not matter.
No one cares if you start practicing with just a two-year degree
Two-year program grads take exactly the same NCLEX that BSN grads do, and they have to meet the same standards for things like required clinical hours. You can be perfectly qualified to take care of patients without having a BSN.
Community colleges can have very good nursing programs
People sometimes pooh-pooh community colleges, but seriously, my community college has a higher NCLEX pass rate than many four-year schools!
And my hospital unit educator said she actually loves to hire community college grads because she says they are usually ready to hit the ground running.
I know not every school is the same, but do at least check to see if your local community college has a good program. Don't sleep on the community college!
I know it's not the only way
There are some good reasons to go straight to a four-year nursing school (like if you have a full ride scholarship!). So, I'm not saying the path I'm taking is the only good way to become a nurse; I'm just throwing it out there as a solid, money-saving option for aspiring nurses. 🙂
This is a smart path. I know a lot of high school graduates might want the residential experience (which is what I had), but I can see now that it is probably is not always worth the $$ spent.
My flying son will be going the community college route for engineering. He had wanted to go to the university right away because he didn't want to have to worry about credits transfer issues (and possibly having to take an extra semester or two) and because the bigger school had so many co-curricular opportunities and better facilities for engineering. But. He also doesn't have $15,000 to spend out-of-pocket. Although he doesn't have his financial aid package from the community college yet, I know he will likely have $0 to pay. That's a huge difference. Now he has time to save money for the rest of his degree. Plus he has more opportunities to earn scholarships for the last few years of his degree.
Another plug for community college: my husband went to community college, then 3 years of college, then 4 years of seminary. No debt. I graduated with fairly minimal debt from college, but when I married him (after 5 years of teaching in public schools), I still hadn't paid off the loan. He ended up paying off my student loan with money he had saved from his summer jobs.