Go to Nursing School for Free

How to go to nursing school for free

Welcome back to the Nursing School Week by Week podcast. I’m your host, Melanie, and today we are talking about what makes the world go round. Money. And how to keep more of your money in your pocket, and spend less or even nothing on nursing school. This may sound like clickbait, but actually, nursing is one of those few degrees that you can get for free, if you play your cards right. 

And this is one of those times when it pays to do some research, because besides paying for your first house, college will probably be your biggest expense in life. 

Paying out of pocket for nursing school is expensive. Average costs range from $12,000 to $35,000 for an associates degree in nursing; and a bachelor’s degree is $30,000 to $80,000. And if you go to a private college for nursing, you could be looking at more like $120,000! That’s a lot of money. 

But there are other options.  There are scholarships, grants, military options, tuition reimbursement, and loan forgiveness programs. We are going to talk about all of those options today, and I will let you know which ones are my favorite, and which one I definitely don’t recommend.

Now, I know a lot of listeners of the podcast are in Canada, Australia, and the UK, so this particular episode is not going to be as helpful to you all, since I will be focusing on how to go to nursing school for free in the US.

Alright, first up, are scholarships. It costs nothing to apply for a scholarship, and if you get it, that’s money that you don’t ever have to pay back. Win/win. There are many scholarships that you might qualify for based on what state you live in, what race, or gender you are. They even have scholarships that are super specific. Like for women who had a baby when they were teenagers and now are pursuing a degree in healthcare. Ideally, you want to start looking for scholarships during your junior year of high school, but there are many healthcare scholarships that you can’t even apply for until you are already in a nursing program. So, even if you’re getting a late start applying for scholarships, it’s still worth it. To find out which of the thousands of scholarships you qualify for, do a scholarship search on a site like Scholarships.com, and it will give you a list of scholarships that you match with as well as when the application deadline is, and whether or not you need to write an essay to get it. And don’t just apply to one scholarship and call it a day. Try applying for 5 scholarships a week, until you know you have enough to cover your costs. If you have a gpa of 3.0 or higher, then that is competitive for most scholarships. But if your gpa is lower, don’t despair, some scholarships have a gpa requirement as low as 2.0.

One nursing specific scholarship to look into is the Nurse Corps Scholarship program. Now this one does come with strings attached, because if you get the scholarship, they will pay all your tuition and fees, as well as give you a monthly living stipend of about $1600 a month. But, after you graduate nursing school, you will owe them 2 years working in an understaffed hospital. I believe you get to choose the area you work in, but it does have to meet qualifications of being a high-need hospital. You can work full time, or part time, but if you work part time, that will extend the amount of time you owe them. This is a highly competitive scholarship. Every year, only about 10% of applicants get it, but it’s definitely worth applying for. 

Another scholarship to apply for is the VA HPSP, or the Health Professional Scholarship Program through the VA. This one is a lot like the Nurse Corp scholarship. If you get it, the VA will pay for your tuition, fees, and give you a $1300 monthly stipend, as well as a separate book stipend. In return, you agree to work at a VA facility for at least 2 years. This one, to me, sounds like an excellent option. From what I have seen, VA hospitals have the best benefits, and several of my friends have left private hospitals to go work in VA hospitals and said it was a big improvement. It can also be very difficult to get that first job working in a VA hospital. It can be a long, drawn-out process. But if you get the VA HPSP scholarship, then you will actually get paid $1300 a month to go to nursing school, and then when you finish, you will have a guaranteed job at a competitive facility. Sounds like a win to me. 

There are also specific scholarships that you can apply for if you know you want to go into a certain specialty of nursing. For example, if you want to be a wound and ostomy nurse, there’s a scholarship for that. If you want to do home health care, there’s a scholarship for that. There’s one for oncology nursing. 

There are scholarships through specific brands, like Tylenol, and Johnson & Johnson. 

Different states have their own scholarships based on the gpa you got in high school. For example, where I am in Florida, we have the Bright Futures scholarship, with this, if you have a 3.5 or higher gpa and have completed 100 volunteer hours, and get a minimum of a 1340 on your SAT, then you get your college tuition paid in full. So definitely look at the state you live in to see if there is a scholarship program that you would qualify for.

In addition to scholarships, there are grants. Grants, like scholarships, do not have to be paid back. But grants are given based on financial need, whereas scholarships are given based on merit. Grants are usually funded by the federal and state government. 

If you are interested in joining the military as a nurse, there are options within each military branch. For this military option, there is an age cutoff. You must be under 31 years old when you will be graduating from nursing school. You would join the ROTC program at the college where you are going to nursing school. While you go to school, you would also attend ROTC meetings and physical training classes. During the summers you would work at a military hospital alongside RNs. The military would pay for your tuition, fees, and possibly give you a small monthly stipend of around $400 a month. When you graduate, you would join that branch of the military as an officer, making around $46,000 a year. So, joining the ROTC in nursing school is a great way to become a nurse for free, especially if you are also feeling called to serve your country. I am an air force veteran myself, and I highly recommend this route to becoming a nurse. Not only are you getting your education paid for, but once you’re in the military, there are so many other benefits. Free health care, including prenatal care and the birth of any children you may have; an excellent retirement plan, 30 days of paid vacation every year. The only caveat is that you have to be willing to move anywhere the military needs you. You could be living in a different place every couple of years. But to some of you, that will be very appealing. You’ll get to see the world. If you do get the ROTC scholarship, you will have to serve in the military for 8 years, 4 of those years must be active duty, and the other 4 can be in the reserve.

So that’s a bit of a commitment.

One thing that is a win/win with very little commitment on your part is a subscription to Picmonic. Picmonic is an audiovisual learning system with unforgettable stories and characters to help you remember Everything you need to know for nursing school. It has been proven to be extremely effective at helping you quickly memorize details by watching funny and ridiculous videos. Picmonic was definitely my most-used resource for studying during nursing school. I mean, why waste time reading the textbook for 2 hours, when I could watch a 2 minute video and remember the information for way longer? Picmonic makes it so easy to look up specific topics for your next nursing class, and feel prepared to answer any questions your teacher might ask. You can even do a search by the chapter of whatever textbook you are using. You can search for Picmonics using 42 different nursing textbooks! The videos are short and entertaining, so you can get some studying in even while sitting on a bus, or waiting in line. Picmonic is totally free to sign up, and just $12.99 per month if you decide to subscribe, or $67 for the whole year. I’ve included a link in the show notes for 20% off a Picmonic subscription. It’s used by over 2 million students all over the world. Check out Picmonic for an awesome study resource. 

Alright, back to the episode. So besides scholarships and grants, there are also student loan repayment programs. So let’s say you are already going to nursing school and racking up a bunch of debt with student loans. Maybe this is your second degree, so you don’t qualify for financial aid? Maybe your parents are still claiming you on their taxes, but they make too much money for you to get a grant. Who knows? Whatever the reason, you are stressing out because you are having to use loans to get through school and you don’t know how you’re going to pay them off. Well, that’s where student loan repayment programs can help. 

One popular one is the Nurse Corps Loan Repayment program. With this one, if you take a job at a high-needs, usually understaffed facility, and work there for 2 years, the Nurse Corps will pay off 60% of your student loans. If you work there for a third year, you can get another 25% paid off. So that’s a total of 85% of your student loans paid off just by working at a high needs facility in your area for 3 years. And this is available to both LPN’s and RN’s. 

In addition to the Nurse Corps Loan repayment program, each state has their own loan repayment program for nurses. Each state is a little different, so look into it for where you live. Some are more generous than others. For example, Alaska will pay $27,000 a year for student loan repayment, but Florida will only pay $4,000 a year. For most of the state-level loan forgiveness programs, you must work in a shortage area.

If you can get a job at a VA facility, they have an excellent student loan repayment option, the Education Debt Reduction Program. They will pay $40,000 of your student loan debt every year for up to 5 years. And, there’s no mandatory service agreement. So, that means if you leave the VA before the 5 years is up, you don’t have to pay back any of the money they paid you already. Just make sure you get it in writing as part of your work agreement before you sign the paperwork, or they probably won’t include it. It’s something they can use to recruit nurses, but if you agree to work for the VA without getting it in your contract, then they don’t have to give it to you. 

One option to have your student loans completely paid off is to join the military as a nurse. Whether you join the Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard, or the new Space Force, all the branches have the Active Duty loan repayment program. This program will pay up to $120,000 in student loan debt in exchange for a 3 year commitment to being a nurse in the military. And just like if you had gone the ROTC route in college, you will be joining as an officer, as opposed to enlisted. So you will have people saluting you, instead of having to salute others. You can join the military as a nurse as long as you have your BSN, since you would be a commissioned officer, and all officers must have at least 4 year degrees. You must be under 52 years old and in relatively good medical health, and have no prior criminal charges. This is also a good route to take if you’re interested in becoming a flight nurse. The military regularly gives out bonuses to nurses who want to join. Currently, nurses who join the military are getting a $30,000 bonus for a 3 year commitment, or a $50,000 bonus for a 4 year commitment. So joining the military as an officer once you’ve already gone to nursing school is a great option if you don’t want to take up college time going to ROTC classes. Maybe you want to participate in a sorority or a sport and it would be too time consuming to do that plus ROTC. You could graduate, take the NCLEX, then join the military and attend the officer candidate course for 12 weeks, and become an officer, making a good steady salary, with potentially a $50,000 bonus!

Another option is to use tuition reimbursement to have your classes paid off as you go. This is probably my least favorite option though, because it requires you to work a significant amount of hours while you are going to nursing school. Nursing school in itself is a full-time job if you are putting in the study hours necessary to do well. Most hospitals have a tuition reimbursement policy, but make sure you read the fine print, because usually, you have to be a full-time employee to take advantage of the program. I can’t even imagine working 36+ hours a week in a hospital while going to nursing school. Ideally, you would work on a very part-time basis as a nurse’s aide, I’m talking like 2-4 shifts a month. Just enough to get some experience and not feel so nervous just entering a patient’s room. The rest of your time should be spent studying and taking care of yourself. 

Alright, so we have talked about nursing scholarships, grants, loan forgiveness, and tuition reimbursement options. What we haven’t talked about is paying out of pocket vs taking out loans. Now, I can just see the comments already in my mind, and I’m sure I will get a lot of push-back against this, but I don’t care. My advice is to not pay out of pocket for your nursing school tuition and fees. Apply for scholarships first. Apply for FAFSA, or Federal Student Aide. But if you aren’t able to get any federal aide, take out a private loan. Try to get a private loan with the lowest possible interest rate, but I would advise to take out a private loan before you dip into your own savings account. Now if we were talking about pretty much any other degree, I would say don’t take out private loans, but because there are so many loan forgiveness programs for nurses that include private loans, definitely don’t pay out of pocket. The Nurse Corps Loan repayment program will pay off private loans, even for your prerequisite classes, the VA debt reduction program pays off private loans, if you join the military as a nurse, they will pay off your private loans. Many private hospitals will pay off private loans. But if you paid your tuition from your own savings account, you are never getting that money back. Now, I’m not saying go crazy and take out a loan for your new college glow-up wardrobe; definitely stick to a budget, but don’t spend your own money on tuition and fees, when you could get that reimbursed later. 

Alright you guys, I hope hearing about different options for getting nursing school paid for helps you in your planning, or just relieves some stress. I will have the transcript for this episode on the website, NursingSchoolWeekbyweek.com, so you can revisit it. Also, if any of you know of an option that I didn’t mention for scholarships or loan forgiveness, please include it in a review of the podcast. I love reading your comments. OK, have a great week, and I will talk to you again soon.