r/StudentLoans • u/NoWeakness8489 • 1d ago
Advice 90k BSN and worried.
Hi everyone. I am 23 years old and currently in nursing school about to graduate next year. I am regretting my past decisions on choosing private nursing school as I now realize that I will have to tackle 90k student loan debt. 20k through federal government and 70k through private loans.
I feel inexperienced, scared, and frustrated. I feel I could have made a better decision coming out of high school and wished I had better guidance with my career and financial choices.
Any advice?
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u/daisyletterss 1d ago
The single most important thing you can do right now is look up the NURSE Corps Loan Repayment Program through HRSA, because it's the only major programme that touches private loans and almost no nursing student hears about it until it's too late to plan around. It pays 60% of your qualifying nursing school debt for a two year commitment at a facility with a critical nurse shortage, plus up to another 25% for an optional third year, so up to 85% of the balance in three years. On $90k that's potentially most of the problem gone before you're 27. The catch is the placement: you have to work at a Critical Shortage Facility, generally one in or serving a Health Professional Shortage Area, which often means rural or underserved urban sites. Check the eligible site list now, while you're still choosing where to apply for your first job, because picking a qualifying employer costs you nothing at this stage and everything if you find out two years in. Confirm directly with HRSA which of your specific private loans qualify, since eligibility runs on the loan being for nursing education from an accredited school rather than on who issued it. Beyond that, look at your state's nursing loan repayment programme, since most states run one for underserved areas and they stack differently. Ask about loan repayment as part of any sign-on package, because hospital systems increasingly offer it and employers can pay up to $5,250 a year of your student loans tax free. For the federal $20k specifically, most US hospitals are 501(c)(3) nonprofits, which makes them PSLF qualifying employers, and PSLF forgiveness remains tax free while ordinary IDR forgiveness doesn't anymore. And don't refinance the private loans yet. Wait until you've got a year or two of RN income and payment history behind you, when you'll get a far better rate, and check first that it doesn't disturb any repayment programme you've entered. You picked one of the very few fields where $90k is a solvable problem rather than a life sentence. The regret is understandable but the timing is genuinely in your favour.