Going back to school?

Question

I want to go back to school and finish my nursing degree. I have alot of obsticals right now but I feel like If I keep putting it off I'll never go back. My first obstical is work, I work 8-5 and almost all nursing programs are durring the day. I can't afford to just quit, I have a daughter and family to take care of. That leads to my second obstical; money to pay for school. I am a returning adult but im only 23, where can I find scholarships? Are there even any for my age? Third problem is my husband. He acts like he doesn't really want the expense of me going back to school. Wich I can understand but I'm in a job that I HATE and he says we will never be able to afford for me to stay home... Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Has anyone else had the same issues and foubd a way to overcome all of them? Please help, This is really important to me.

Answer 1

Going back to school is wonderful, I went back at 30 and just finished  First off, apply for federal financial aide, FAFSA is what it's called.  This will put you on the radar for loans and grants.  Apply to your college to get some of the classes out of the way at night, if possible, or maybe online.  How about working in a local hospital or nursing home as an aide?  i know that many facilities have programs that help their employees through the process of becoming a nurse.  As for your husband, he's scared and rightly so, but maybe if you sat down and figured out how much you would make once you completed your nursing degree he would see that it would be well worth it.  Best of luck, YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Answer 2

There are some nursing programs that are offered during Nights and Weekends.  Also, you could always become  a Licensed Practical Nurse, which takes way less time and money.  Then get a job as an LPN (which will be a change in work environment/$ and you could possibly work different shifts,) and then sign up for the LPN to RN program and see if you could go part-time.  Or you could maybe get into a hospital that may train you to be an RN.  Community Colleges have pretty cheap tuition.

If you're looking at the RN route, try and get *all* your non-nursing courses done and out of the way before you start your practium.  Most community colleges offer classes on-line- even some nursing courses.  You could be enrolled and still be working.  Then maybe you would only need to be out of work for 2 semesters.

Like the other poster said, fill out your FAFSA, which can be done on-line at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov

My husband was like that my first time around, which is mainly why I quit in the first place.  I'm going back now and he's realizing it's for the better.  You could try telling him that RN's make an average of over $50,000 a year starting out, and it would be worth it to sacrifice a year or whatever.

There's always a way to cut back.  We're cancelling our family plan through Verizon ($70/month) and go through Virgin Mobile for a prepaid phone for emergencies (about $7/month), and then using a home phone through Vonage ($15/month.)  I had our cable internet's speed downgraded one notch and we can't tell the difference except $17 a month we don't have to pay. We also cut our cable down to lifeline ($13 a month) because we're not home to watch it.  It's also got us outside in the evenings.  We grow and freeze vegetables in the summer, which means free, almost year-round green beans, peas, pasta sauce, salsa, peppers, etc.

Hope this helps  :)  Good Luck!!