Nursing Student Loans

Students considering a career in nursing or students that have already chosen nursing as a career choice will have likely noticed that there is a large shortage of qualified nurses. The high cost of any kind of medical programs including nursing, with the necessary internships, supplies, tuition and other expenses, probably contributes to the lack of skilled, qualified nurses. Nowadays, with specialty student loans available to students pursuing a nursing career, it is less financially difficult to become a nurse and certainly more promising, with incentive programs offered in many parts of the country such as loan forgiveness.

Now more than ever before there are numerous scholarship and grant options available but even with those funds obtainable, most nursing students still require loans to help pay for their education expenses. A Federal Nursing Student Loan is money borrowed directly from the U.S. Department of Education or the U.S. government to help students finance their university or college nursing education. Sites for finding further information include the FAFSA website and the Federal Direct Loan website. The Federal Nursing Student Loan program offers nursing students long-term loans if enrolled in a graduate, bachelors or associate degree nursing program at least half time. Nursing students can apply for this loan at the nursing college or school through their financial aid department or office. Federal Nursing Student Loans have very low interest rates like other federal student loans and the repayment of these does not start until after graduation. Federal Nursing Student Loans can be either unsubsidized or subsidized. They base subsidized loans on the financial needs of a student with deferred interest charges while the nursing student attends school either half time or full time. On unsubsidized loans the interest starts from the loans disbursement.

EdAmerica has the Florida Nursing Edloan, which is a non-profit secondary student loan market that offers nursing students discounted interest rates of up to 3% on Stafford loans. The incentive or goal of the Florida Nursing Edloan is to make the repayment plan for a nursing education financially more affordable. Care for Virginia Student Loan, which is a Sallie Mae and state partnership, provides Stafford loan low-discounted interest rates for nursing students in exchange for them agreeing to take nursing assignments after graduation within the state. The subsidized Stafford loan is for nursing students that are in extreme financial need and attend Nurses College half or full time. The government pays the interest on the subsidized Stafford loan. Available to any student, the unsubsidized Stafford loan accrues interest from the day a nursing student receives the loan. Becoming more and more popular are the state-funded nursing student loan forgiveness programs. They established Iowa's loan forgiveness program to keep from losing so many nurses after they graduated, to other states. They also use this program as an incentive for both nurses and nursing students thinking about going back to college for their graduate degrees. Graduates that commit to taking a nursing position in the state administering the program receive forgiveness on a specific amount of their loan.

Resources:

• FAFSA
• Federal Direct Loan