Help me pay for nursing school

July 1, 2008 12:59 PM

Scholarships for nursing students?

I’m starting nursing school at a small community college. Their financial aid department bites – they have zero information about scholarships beyond the Pell Grant/Cal Grant and they won’t even talk to me about loans until August (when I’m starting school). I’ve been trying to research scholarships on my own and have found a couple, but not the dozens that I imagined when everyone told me that there was lots of help available for nursing students. I know the basics: fastweb, google, and I've looked through some askme scholarship threads, but with no help from my school financial aid department, I’m floundering a bit.

I know I’m late to apply for many awards (the program didn’t tell me I was accepted until May, a couple months after most scholarship deadlines passed) but I would love any suggestions for nursing related scholarships, grants, loan-forgiveness, etc. I’ve applied for this one: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/nursing/scholarship/ but haven’t found others.

If it helps, I’m also an “older” student and a single parent.

posted by serazin to work & money (6 answers total)

Are there any hospitals in the area that sponsor students? I had several friends in college (in South Dakota) that got substantial assistance from two area (private) hospitals. After they completed their degrees, they had to work at the hospital for X years to "pay back" the scholarship. If they ended up moving, they only had to pay back what they had not worked off. Seemed like a pretty great deal, especially if you are established in the area and planning to stick around after graduating. Good luck!
posted by sararah at 2:12 PM on July 1, 2008

The National League for Nursing has some information/links here.
posted by DiscourseMarker at 2:27 PM on July 1, 2008

Discover Nursing
posted by caddis at 2:31 PM on July 1, 2008

I am not YOUR former nursing librarian...OK, actually I totally am.

First, general stuff: Have you filled out the FAFSA? You don't need cooperation from your school to do that. http://www.fafsa.ed.gov.

Second, nursing stuff. (Some very obscure, like nursing scholarships for grandchildren of Legionnaires from Montana...really!)

http://www.minoritynurse.com/financial/scholarships.html

The National Student Nurses' Association (the student arm of the ANA)
http://www.nsna.org/foundation/scholarships/ (Not for this upcoming term, I think, but maybe for the 2009 school year)

Here's an article from Peterson's on paying for nursing school:
http://www.petersons.com/nursing/articles/paying.asp?sponsor=1

If you search on allnurses.com there are some anecdotal posts about how people swung nursing school and single parenting.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:37 PM on July 1, 2008

Many nursing schools start revealing scholarships after you've proved you can hack it. The attrition rate is fairly large for the first couple of terms/semesters. (I think it was around 25% in the first 6 months at my school.) Approximately 40-50% of the students were single parents, but there wasn't anything for those with just financial hardship. Every place is different, though.

If you can find a way to get started, it's not unlikely that you can qualify for help as you progress in your studies. I got a number of small scholarships and grants that helped with textbooks (EXPENSIVE!) and other costs. Most of us worked part time and went to school full time.
posted by reflecked at 4:24 PM on July 1, 2008

Thanks folks - I'll look into these resources tonight.
posted by serazin at 9:16 PM on July 1, 2008