How To Pay Off Nursing School Loans

Crna Student Loan Repayment Strategy

Posted: Jul 20, 2021 · Private Student Loans Management for CRNAs. Private student loans are usually more challenging to eliminate, but the strategy is straightforward: pay the debt off in full. The repayment urgency will depend upon the interest rates on the private loans. Loans charging 8-10% or more should be paid off as fast as possible.

How To Pay Off Nursing School Loans

This article is going to answer your questions about how to pay off nursing school loans.

Because we all know paying off your nursing school student loans can be a pain.

The good thing though is that its doable. This article is going to give you some tips you can start using today.

*Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you click and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. For more info, please see my disclaimer.

Have you heard the news?

You know the news.

The news that says the country is in a student loan crisis? I have and Im sure you have also.

As hyped up as the media can be. The United States does have a student loan problem. There are over 1.3 trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt. Honestly, the trillion-dollar student loan crisis probably means very little to you .

What probably does say a lot is the average student loan is almost $30,000 according to The New York State Nurses Association .

As you can see youre not alone in the student loan struggle. To help you out on this journey weve created this guide.

So lets get to it.

Washington State Health Professional Loan Repayment

The Washington State Health Professional Loan Repayment program was created to address the critical shortage of health care professionals statewide. The Loan Repayment program provides loan repayment assistance to licensed primary care health professionals. The Scholarship program provides scholarships to students training to become primary health care professionals. In return, participants in both programs agree to provide primary health care service in rural or underserved urban areas with designated shortages.

The NHSC Loan Repayment Program is open to licensed primary care medical, dental, and mental and behavioral health providers who are employed or seeking employment at approved sites.

Washington State Health Professional Loan Repayment and Scholarship Program

Washington has a loan repayment and scholarship program administered by the Washington Student Achievement Council.

• The State Loan Repayment Program is open to licensed physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, pharmacists, dentists, dental hygienists and registered nurses who are employed or seeking employment at approved sites.
• The Health Professional Scholarship Program provides financial assistance to students training to become primary health care professionals. The programs funding has been suspended since the 2010 Legislative session.
• For more information visit: webpage

MSN Admissions Resources

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Student Loan Forgiveness For Nurses: State Programs

Depending on where you live, your career may qualify you for additional state-based options for student loan forgiveness. Check out the programs available below.

Alaskas SHARP program is designed to recruit health care professionals to work in specified shortage areas in exchange for loan assistance.

Nurses are eligible for loan repayment under the Tier 2 program and can receive up to $27,000 per year in loan assistance, depending on their positions. Eligible sites must be designated service shortage areas, and each site must offer an employer match as part of the program.

Other Nurse Student Loan Forgiveness Programs

Additional programs offering student loan forgiveness for nurses are available if you live or work in certain locations, or if you serve in the Armed Forces.

Many states have their own student loan forgiveness programs for nurses, funded by either the federal government or the states themselves. You’ll typically qualify by working in a critical needs area.

For example, Florida’s nursing school forgiveness program offers up to $4,000 annually to licensed practical nurses, registered nurses and advanced registered nurse practitioners who work at designated employment sites in the state. The California State Loan Repayment Program is available to primary care nurse practitioners among other health professionals who work in a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area.

The Rural Health Information Hub outlines loan repayment programs for health professionals. You can filter its database for programs for nurses. Your employer will also likely be a good resource to ask about opportunities available in your state.

The Army, Navy and Air Force offer programs that provide up to $40,000 annually toward nursing student loans. Qualifications vary by program, and repayment amounts are taxed. Contact the medicine department of your specific military branch for more details.

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How To Pay For Nursing School Without Loans

I started out getting students loans to pay for my nursing school.

Unfortunately, I was young and naive.

It didnt occur to me that I would actually need to pay back those student loans.

I know.

It sounds kinda silly when you think about it.

But it happens to a lot of us.

Something about student loans makes us forget or not think about the fact that you do have to pay them back.

Worst of all, they have interest attached to them.

So what do you do?

After I realized my mistake, I made some changes and was able to finish my nursing degree with no more loans.

These changes were not easy.

Theyre also not fun.

But for most people theyre doable.

Before I begin I do want to mention that I do recognize that there are situations that might warrant student loans.

Everybody situations different and only you can really make that call.

What I would say is that even if you dont go through nursing school debt free, these tips are a great way to drastically reduce the number of student loans you have to take out.

Alright Ive rambled on enough.

Lets get to how to pay for nursing school without loans.

Determine Your Student Loan Balance

The first step on how to pay off student loans is to determine your student loan balance. Specifically, you want to gather the following information:

• Your total federal student loan balance
• Your total private student loan balance
• Which student loans are federal student loans
• Which student loans are private student loans
• Who your student loan servicer is for each student loan
• Your minimum monthly student loan payment
• The interest rate on each student loan

You can check your student loan balance and learn more information about your student loans through the National Student Loan Data System .

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Whats A Qualifying Employer

• A qualifying employer means that you work for:
• A government organization at any level
• A not-for-profit organization that is tax-exempt under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code
• Other types of not-for-profit organizations that are not tax-exempt under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code
• AmeriCorps or Peace Corps serving as a full-time volunteer

It is very important to note for this type of loan forgiveness that the owner of the healthcare system must be a not-for-profit organization. At times, a hospital will be not-for-profit or serve an underprivileged population but will be owned by a larger for-profit corporation.

The United States Military

When it comes to programs to pay for nursing school none is quite like the military.

If youre willing to go into the Army Nurse Corp, the Navy Nurse Corp or the Air Force Nurse Corp, the military is one of the best ways to pay for nursing school.

I havent even mentioned you get paid to go to nursing school.

Typically theyll cover all your school bills plus give you a stipend to live off.

In return you commit so many years to the military branch you sign with.

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Maximum Lifetime Limit For Student Aid

There are lifetime limits on the number of weeks you can receive student aid. This includes interest-free periods while you are in school. Once a lifetime limit has been reached, interest starts to accumulate. You will also have to start paying back the loan 6 months after you graduate or finish your studies.

Full-time students can receive student aid for no more than 340 weeks, except:

• students enrolled in doctoral studies can receive student aid for up to 400 weeks
• students with permanent disability can receive student aid for up to 520 weeks

How To Apply For Pslf

Applying for the PSLF can be confusing so the federal government has developed a specific tool to aid individuals in the application process. The tool accomplishes the following:

• Helps you understand more about the PSLF Program and what you need to do to participate and possibly have your loans forgiven
• Helps you assess whether your employer qualifies for PSLF
• Helps you assess whether your loans qualify for PSLF
• Helps you decide which PSLF form to submit
• Uses the information we have about your federal student loans to explain other actions you should or must take if you want to receive PSLF

In addition to using the tool, here are the basics you need to know before you can apply:

• The 120 qualifying monthly payments = 10 years, so you will need at least 10 years of qualifying payments before youre eligible to apply.
• You have to be still working for the qualifying employer when you apply.

When youre ready to apply–aka have made your 120 payments and know youre eligible–you can fill out the application and send it, along with your employers certification form, to:

• U.S. Department of Education
• P.O. Box 69184
• Harrisburg, PA 17106-9184

One note: If you already use FedLoan Servicing for your loan, you can upload both forms directly on their website instead of mailing your paperwork.

Another option for nurses is the Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program.

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Rn Loan Repayment Jobs Employment

Posted: 18,299 RN Loan Repayment jobs available on Indeed.com. Apply to Registered Nurse, Registered Nurse – Acute Care, Registered Nurse – Operating Room and more!

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Nurse Corps Loan Repayment Program

Pin it!

The government program NURSE Corps Loan Repayment is a loan repayment program for nurses who work in underserved areas.

This program can help take a significant chunk of your debt and in return, a minimum commitment of two years is required.

If youre eligible for this program, its worth checking out.

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Nursing School Debt Is Difficult To Escape

With the student loan crisis going on many people falsely think in a worst-case scenario they can declare bankruptcy and get rid of their student loans.

Unfortunately, that is unlikely to happen.

Except for death or declared permanent disability getting rid of your student loans short of paying it back can be difficult .

Federal Perkins Loan Cancellation And Discharge

If you have federal Perkins loans and work as a full-time nurse, you may qualify to get up to 100% of your loans discharged. While new Perkins loans are no longer being made to students, borrowers who already have them can still get them canceled according to the rules of the program.

Nurses must be employed full time to qualify for discharge, and loans will be forgiven incrementally over five years. You must apply either through the school that disbursed the Perkins loans to you or through your loan servicer.

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I Made Many Short Term Sacrifices And Got Used To Being Uncomfortable

No longer was I spending money on anything that wasnt a necessity. I did this by taking a look at the things I could reasonably live without. This was the first time in my life I stopped buying clothes and shopping for things I didnt need. To my own surprise, Im still alive. In some ways, life is actually easier now because I dont have a ton of extra stuff hanging around cluttering my house. I spend the time I would have spent shopping on doing other things that are more important to me.

Dont Do Repayment Programs

You might get some paperwork in the mail talking about how your monthly school loan repayments can be reduced.

If your goal is to pay off your nursing school loans as quickly as possible, then you probably want to avoid these programs.

Most of the federal student loan repayment programs lower your monthly payments by increasing the term of the school loan.

Let me rephrase it another way. If they reduce your monthly payments for your nursing school debt, they will increase the number of years you will have to pay.

The result is you will be in debt longer. If your thinking about doing a program like this, make sure you understand the terms.

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Scholarships For Disadvantaged Students

The goal of the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students is to increase the number of practicing professionals in the health professions and nursing workforce by providing awards to students from disadvantaged backgrounds who have financial need and are members of racial and ethnic minority groups.

Eligible disciplines for this scholarship include: Nursing health profession allied health public health behavior and mental health and physicians assistant.

The scholarship maximum, as of 2016, is $30,000 per student, per year. Approximately 25% of the awards are designated for graduate programs in behavioral and mental health science. Geographic regions are taken into consideration when making the scholarship awards. There is a limit of three awards to a single institution.

Students must be enrolled full-time and the award must cover at least half the cost of the annual tuition.

Failure To Repay A Loan

Default is defined in detail in the Terms and Conditions section of the MPN. Serious consequences occur with default:

• The United States Department of Education will require immediate repayment of the entire unpaid amount of the loan
• ED may sue, take all or part of the borrowers federal and state tax refunds and other federal or state payments, and/or garnish the borrowers wages so that the employer is required to send ED part of the borrowers salary to pay off the loan
• ED will require the payment of reasonable collection fees and costs, plus court costs and attorney fees
• ED will report the default to national consumer reporting agencies
• The borrower may be denied a professional license
• The borrower will lose eligibility for other federal student aid and assistance under most federal benefit programs
• The borrower will lose eligibility for loan deferments

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Low Cost Government Student Loans

Apply by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid by the deadline. Miss the deadline and youre out of luck for the upcoming academic year. Dont think youd qualify anyway because your family isnt poor? Guess what? Most students with that belief are wrong. The Stafford Loans are some of the most popular and most disbursed college loans in the country, for good reason9 times out of 10 students qualify for some level of aid. And many more actually qualify for Pell Grantsand thats free money you never need repay. True, your Stafford Loan allowance may not be much, but every few hundred dollars is that much less you have to pay out yourself.

Another argument for filling out the FAFSA: many scholarship and grant programs will not consider your application unless youve applied for your federal loans via the FAFSA. Thats like leaving thousands of dollars on the table for others to snag.

National Health Service Corps

Through the National Health Service Corps Loan Repayment Program, nurse practitioners or certified nurse-midwives who work in facilities that are located in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas across the country may be eligible for loan assistance.

The program requires a two-year commitment in exchange for an award of up to $50,000 for full-time workers and up to $25,000 for part-time workers. Apply online and provide additional supporting documentation as required.

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Nursing School Debt: A Repayment Guide For Nurses

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