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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
paying for school....
So remember how a few weeks ago I posted something about careers and things like that. Well I really want to go back to school but for my degree it will cost about 10,000 dollars. So Im trying to figure out if there is a way I can get help to pay for it. I dont think ill qualify for financial aid, any other ideas? Are there grants or loans you can pay back later and not right away? Thanks ladies! 
Re: paying for school....
i have not done financial aid in a long time but apply nonetheless. you never know what you may be eligible for.
Good luck!
Hello. I've waited here for you. Everlong<3<br>
I work at a college and am familiar with some financial aid stuff.
Grants/scholarships are free money and don't have to be paid back- TAP is from NYS, Pell/SEOG are Federal. These grants are income driven and you must take a certain amount of credits and meet GPA requirements (significant changes were made over the last 2 years). See hesc.com for TAP and loan info.
For loans, you will want to see if you qualify for anything subsidized, even an unsubsidized Stafford is a great start if you qualify. Is this a 2nd bachelors, Masters/PhD or professional school? There are a ton of regulations for the stafford program. You can always go the private loan route.
A grad assistantship, if your program offers them, would also be a great option. Perhaps a payment plan option could work instead of a loan? If it's a 10 month program, maybe you can do 1K a month?
If you go the institutional aid route, start out by filing your FAFSA and once your SAR is generated, you'll see where you stand with some of the grants. I'd start off calling the financial aid officer and seeing if you can meet with a counselor to go over your specific situation.
Good luck!
One more thing- I don't want to be a downer, but seriously consider your employment chances after completing the degree, before you take out loans. My sister just graduated from Domincan College- she went for her second bachelors through the accelerated nursing program. She earned a great GPA, passed the nclex right away and received her license. She still hasn't found a job (no one is hiring new grads) and will have to start paying back her loans soon. At least have a Plan B set up if you aren't working after the grace period expires.
TAP is NOT for Grad students. Just throwing that out there.
You can get federal loans though, I have them now for grad school (I am taking classes this semester). I think they cap at 8,500 for a year.
I have all my loans of hold from when I graduated UNDERGRAD. As teacher I found different ways to get some of them paid/reduced each year. While teaching in a Title 1 school you don't have to pay either. (I know you mentioned nursing find out if certain nursing fields have programs).
File FAFSA forms EARLY, the earlier the better when it comes to money from the school (fed loans don't matter) (Jan 1st is first you can file for the Fall 2012-Spring 2013 school year).
From what I see with my sister (she also wants to work in a hospital- not a dr office- she has found jobs that don't require exp in offices), a lot will depend on the economy and which degree you graduate with. Lenox Hill, a place in Jersey, and possibly Nyack are offering opportunities for new grads- but they are like glorified internships and very competitive. You get paid a little less than what you'd like, but you get the experience so that you can apply for a new position later and you gain confidence. I know a guy who received a nursing degree a year ago from our local community college and had no problem finding a job, so degree type may factor in along with it being economy driven.
Can you talk with Career Services at the school and find stats on employment rates? Where are you applying? If you're going to go speak with Financial Aid anyway, you may as well visit.
What Navy said about graduate TAP may be true- I've never seen anyone in grad school receive a TAP grant. Even though I knew I wouldn't qualify or need it for my degree (I went for free through tuition remission; great option if you can get a job on campus), I had to fill out the FAFSA and prove I tried- it made no sense. I believe grad TAP (if it hasn't been cut) ranges from $75 - 550; it's a far cry from the $2500 max per semester for undergrads. Do you already have an undergrad degree for which you received TAP? Students are only entitled to 10 payments all together, so if you took 5 years to complete a first BA/BS and received TAP each semester, your supply is exhausted. Now the grad TAP thing is annoying me- I'm going to think about it until my next check in with the office. I looked on-line and found this link that may help you; I didn't find traditional grad TAP:
http://www.hesc.com/content.nsf/SFC/Financial_Aid_Programs_for_Graduate_Study_in_New_York_State
I don't know where you're applying or what the exact degree is (or if you need prereqs), but maybe you can take some classes at a community college non-matric and get them to transfer to your degree program (I have the feeling this may not work if it is a ABSN you're applying for). My sister had to take a lot of pre-reqs and she did them at RCC- she saved so much money per credit that way. The year long tuition hit at Dominican was over 30K- I can't imagine how high her loans would have been if she had taken her prereqs there.