Did you know that the average student loan debt for 2020 graduates was $28,400. The average student loan debt for a nursing degree is between $40,000 and $54,999 . This estimate is according to a recent report by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
I am still working on paying my student loans back but I do not regret taking them out because without those student loans I wouldn't have my nursing degree! There are so many different pros and cons involved when it comes to student loans. I think the pros far out weigh the cons based on my personal needs and lifestyle.
There are also so many different types of student loans available including:
Federal Perkins Loan
PLUS Loan
Private student loan
Direct Consolidation Loans
Stafford Loan
Direct Unsubsidized Loans
Direct Subsidized Loans
Direct Unsubsidized Loan
The Pros of Students loans include:
Federal student loans are fixed rate
Subsidized student loans don't accumulate interest on your loan while you are in school.
There are lots of repayment plan choices to choose from so when the time does come to pay them back you have options. There are all sorts of different federal student loan repayment options. I think the best one is a standard repayment or income driven repayment option but it is all depending on your specific goals and your needs. The income based repayment or also called the income driven repayment is a popular student loan repayment program. It is figured out by calculating the amount that a person needs to pay back each month based on the person's current income and the family size of the borrower.
Another pro is that you can also lower your student loan payments with the graduated and extended student loan repayment plans. I think these are great because these kind of loans don’t base everything on your income. They have less benefits than the income driven repayment plans. I think they are good if you want to have predictable, set payment amounts or if you make a lot of money.
No credit check so if you do have bad credit it won't disqualify you from getting a student loan.
Some of The Cons of student loans:
There is a cap to how much you can actually borrow on federal student loans each semester and each year.
They must be repaid and you can't write them off as part of a bankruptcy
Subsidized loans are only available to undergraduate students, while unsubsidized loans are open to undergraduates, graduates and those seeking professional degrees.
Not all students qualify for subsidized student loans. All subsidized loans do always require students to demonstrate financial need.
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Did you know you can easily
keep track of your student loan debt while you are in school by simply visiting the National Student Loan Data System. This is a very easy tool that I use and I think every student that has a student loan out there should check it out because it has all your basic loan information in an easy format and it's only about all your federal student loans. https://nsldsfap.ed.gov/nslds_FAP/
To find out 9 Effective Ways to manage your student loan debt click here