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I took out an additional 13,000 for a BSN from the College of Saint Scholastica for a RN to BSN. I did not receive one clinical. I did not get my public health nurse license and it has still not been conferred. I am disgruntled RN because the title has done nothing for me. My fiancee is a ADN nurse and makes 83,000 based on experience and I cannot get a job past PRN with all my experience as a nurse. I believe this shows the male work force is still paid higher even in a role that is predominantly held by women. Ridiculous!!! I am grateful that my fiancee makes that kind of income however, I would be ecstatic if someone would show some recognition for my strong desire to continue my dream of being a nurse. I am always getting low balled or told after I arrive the full-time day position has been taken and there is a night position available. How the hell did a full-time day position become unavailable within 12 hours? Ya! I am NOT desperate for a job.
I thank my fiancee for allowing me to be picky. If you enjoy nursing and want to work nights great! If you are a nurse manager, please pay attention to the applicants choice of work hours. Do not treat working mothers like desperate unemployed losers willing to stay up all night, clean the house all day, struggle to stay awake for the kids and make mistakes later. Employ the nurses that do not have families for nights. Make them pay their dues. They might learn a damn thing or two.
I am baffled at how much this career has back fired for me financially. Truthfully, I would have done better working as a waitress with tips than begging to become employed a nurse. The nursing shortage seems to be a result of the old who you know, not what you know. Thank the incompetent inappropriately dressed person that got the manager's job because she knew someone that worked there to interview you. Now I know why the nursing field is still questioned as to whether it is a profession or an occupation. I have come to conclusion it is neither. It is a waste of time.
I would rather shovel **** than be treated like ****. The older nurses eat their young and cannot see the stress of change reflected in a new grads eyes. New grad. What an insult to a wonderful person that could save your life. Really???? Shame of the medical field and educators for not taking a more proactive approach in securing the future of great and wonderful nurses. I am not alone in how I feel. Feel free to make whatever comments you need. After being a nurse for 13 years, no negative comment could scathe me.
With my two degrees I've been looking to use the education and go back and get the RN. An additional 13k is not bad at all considering the earning potential in nursing. My costs would be a bit more, but it would ultimately put me in the best position to start paying down these student loans. The jobs are there, but might not be the optimal job people want (like working day shift). Get the foot in the door though and positions open up. There was just an Assistant Director of Nursing Position as well as a Nurse Unit Manager position posted in my area. Both positions pay very well. Actually a staff nurse would make about 2 to3 times as much as I was as a department head working in a Dietary Nursing Home (32k salaried comes to $12/hour calculating the 60 hour actual work week).
Find a good facility and get your foot in the door as a per diem employee if you're not in desperate need for work. Let Human Resourses/DON etc know of your desire to move into full-time status. Every nurse I know does well financially. I don't think gender has anything to do with it.
This is one profession in the medical field where the education still does make sense to pursue for the earning potential.. Can't say the same for therapy.
$50Kish in debt- don't regret it. My degree is required for my position. If I could turn back the hands of time, I probably would have gone to a community college for the first 2 years to save money- since freshman year, you are required to stay in dorms. However, then I would not have met such wonderful friends and had that college experience.
My monthly payments are around $350/month so they are not too terrible, and I usually pay at least $50 more to try to eat away at the principal. I just received a raise (effective tomorrow) so once I see what the difference in pay is I can hopefully pay more towards the payments. I would love to pay $1,000/month to really eat away at the principal, however, I am saving for a house down payment so it is not really possible. After I move, however, I plan to pay it back at a much quicker rate.
I definitely do not regret one thing about my degree, or school loans. Marketing is a field that will always have positions available (whether you are business side like me or design/copy side). Every company needs advertising & marketing. My parents did not have the money to pay for my education so I am grateful loans were available to me. Unlike others I hear planning to leave the country to skip out on their loans, I plan on paying every cent back for the next generation to borrow.
After seeing firsthand how expensive Grad School is (attended Fordham Graduate School for 1 semester for the Pre-MBA Program), I know that I do not plan on obtaining my MBA unless a future employer is going to pay at least 75% of the bill. I was thinking of switching from Account Management (agency side) to Brand Management (client side) and Brand Manager positions require an MBA, but for now I am more than content with being on the agency side- granted, less money, but also much less stress as well. Maybe 10+ years, when I am established and can really bring something to the table with my cohort at an MBA program, I will re-consider. Undergrad debt comes first though!
This has been what my research has brought me to as well. A college education (a Bachelors) back then held a lot more weight than it does now. There are exceptions; however, which is great while I read these threads of people telling us how it helped them.
In the area I'm currently in, there is not a lot of jobs posted that even require an education. There are a lot of your 18k-30k/year types of jobs being posted. Like others have stated, it actually I think makes you overqualified .. they don't see you sticking around.. so no hire.
After seeing firsthand how expensive Grad School is (attended Fordham Graduate School for 1 semester for the Pre-MBA Program), I know that I do not plan on obtaining my MBA unless a future employer is going to pay at least 75% of the bill. I was thinking of switching from Account Management (agency side) to Brand Management (client side) and Brand Manager positions require an MBA, but for now I am more than content with being on the agency side- granted, less money, but also much less stress as well. Maybe 10+ years, when I am established and can really bring something to the table with my cohort at an MBA program, I will re-consider. Undergrad debt comes first though!
If you plan on staying in NYC, consider Baruch's MBA program. Just as strong (if not stronger) than Fordham and much, much cheaper. Name recognition and network is good in NYC, but significantly weaker the further away you get from NY.
No regrets here. I had almost no loans to pay back fromy my undergrad (thanks, GI Bill!), but I decided at 33 to switch careers and so needed to go back to grad school. My GI Bill was all used up so I had to take out significant student loans. However, I'm now making twice what I was before grad school so paying them back won't be a huge problem. It was definitely worth it to be in a better field that I like more and that pays much better! There is no way I could have landed the job I have now without the degree.
I took out an additional 13,000 for a BSN from the College of Saint Scholastica for a RN to BSN. I did not receive one clinical. I did not get my public health nurse license and it has still not been conferred. I am disgruntled RN because the title has done nothing for me. My fiancee is a ADN nurse and makes 83,000 based on experience and I cannot get a job past PRN with all my experience as a nurse. I believe this shows the male work force is still paid higher even in a role that is predominantly held by women. Ridiculous!!! I am grateful that my fiancee makes that kind of income however, I would be ecstatic if someone would show some recognition for my strong desire to continue my dream of being a nurse. I am always getting low balled or told after I arrive the full-time day position has been taken and there is a night position available. How the hell did a full-time day position become unavailable within 12 hours? Ya! I am NOT desperate for a job.
I thank my fiancee for allowing me to be picky. If you enjoy nursing and want to work nights great! If you are a nurse manager, please pay attention to the applicants choice of work hours. Do not treat working mothers like desperate unemployed losers willing to stay up all night, clean the house all day, struggle to stay awake for the kids and make mistakes later. Employ the nurses that do not have families for nights. Make them pay their dues. They might learn a damn thing or two.
...The nursing shortage seems to be a result of the old who you know, not what you know. Thank the incompetent inappropriately dressed person that got the manager's job because she knew someone that worked there to interview you. Now I know why the nursing field is still questioned as to whether it is a profession or an occupation. I have come to conclusion it is neither. It is a waste of time.
I would rather shovel **** than be treated like ****. The older nurses eat their young and cannot see the stress of change reflected in a new grads eyes. New grad. What an insult to a wonderful person that could save your life. Really???? Shame of the medical field and educators for not taking a more proactive approach in securing the future of great and wonderful nurses. I am not alone in how I feel. Feel free to make whatever comments you need. After being a nurse for 13 years, no negative comment could scathe me.
I'm going into health care as a career change and dated a guy who was a nurse for a while. One of the strains on our relationship was his night shift schedule and picking up hours PRN.
Although getting into a nursing program would have been cheaper and quicker than the path I chose, I wouldn't have been able to tolerate night shifts because of my own health problems.
The day shift position gets filled within 12 hours because someone on night shift had heard about it first, and they had made a good impression on the nursing manager. It's not paying your dues within the profession, it's paying your dues within the hospital. Unfortunately, you might have to end up paying for childcare just to be able to sleep. People do it.
There is still a nursing shortage, but it is regional. You might consider moving to another part of the country where unemployment in general is lower. Unfortunately, that might mean higher cost of living. If you live in a part of the country (Texas, California) where there is much of a Spanish speaking population, take some courses in medical Spanish. Apply for positions in a SNF as opposed to a hospital. Have you looked at applying for LPN day positions instead of RN and explaining that you will take the lower pay?
I think men may get a little preference inside the nursing profession because they are bigger and better able to lift patients. I've heard comments from taller women that they always get called whenever there is a transfer needed.
If you have family in the area that might be willing to do temporary low-cost/free childcare, find some public health nurses, and explain that you will work for free in order to gain experience. Or if fiancee works 3-4 12 hour shifts a week, volunteer/intern on the days he's not working, and ask if he'd be willing to work mostly weekends for a while. I know a lot of people without medical backgrounds who graduate with a BA in something not very employable in a recession, who then go and get a Master's degree in Public Health. That's who you are competing against.
Curious to hear from those who bit the bullet, took out student loans, and now have been working in the "real world" for some time... Was it worth it to take out those loans? How are you making a dent in them? Did the resulting degree really make a big difference?
18 months or 2 years, the point is the same. He's just starting out in his career. Depending on where he goes in his industry he can make six figures or he can make millions. His college degree was the foundation but he needs additional licensing and certification, so his education doesn't end.
You can't really look four or five years out when you're talking about an investment that will pay off the rest of his working career into retirement.
If you don't feel college is worth it, then don't go. As I always say, it's not for everyone.
My point is the degree doesn't actually do anything for you, outside of just eliminating the low-end of the pay curve.
In my example, the high school degree employee would still have the potential to make 6 figures if the company had already employed him for 5 years.
He could get the licensing/certification without having a college degree.
Is that really how it works though? Every article I've read about the subject notes that on average, college graduates still make $1M+ more than those without college degrees over the course of their careers. I assume that's how the quoted poster came up with "an additional $20k / year" for college grads.
What percentage of high-school only graduates do you think are making $50k / year at 22 years old? Do you think it's greater than the percentage of 22 year-old college degree holders making $50k?
I would say most of those articles don't factor in the fact that most people who go to college are incredibly hard-working anyway and more hard-working individuals tend to be more successful.
Even if there are more 22-year old college degree holders making $50K, you still have to factor in you spent $100K over the 1st 4 years to get there, whereas the high-school only grads actually made money during that 4-year span and have 4 extra years of seniority.
I, like many people I knew were poor and never saw that much money in our lives, had to go to public college.
Because you are 18 and everyone tells you to? That you are cut off if you don't...not that anyone was helping you financially at all. Plus college was the only option to escape abuse at home because really I couldn't support myself in Manhattan on $8 an hour with social anxiety. I had no idea what to do at that age. Someone should have told me that it wasn't like this anywhere else. ~rant over~
That's why most of us go to college at 18- because we are still kids being told what to do and scared ****less and not all of us are geniuses or incredibly talented at something lucrative. Want to complain about us not studying actual salable degrees? Complain to the HS and college advisors. Complain about us taking out loans when there was nothing to fall back on? Complain to our boomer parents. I am sick of being blamed 100% for everything that ever went wrong in my life. *sigh*
If you're really poor, then you'll probably make a killing in financial aid, so that's not an excuse.
And doing something because "everyone tells you to" is a HORRIBLE reason to do anything. You just admitted here that you listen to college advisors telling you to go to college. I guess that means you think car salesman are incredibly unbiased sources of info too?
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