Nursing education is a very vast field. There are different types of nursing education programs starting from the basic nursing education, nursing and midwives program to advanced nursing education programs. The nursing education has become very much popular in the recent past and there are many different nursing education sponsorships also available. The nursing education has become very much popular due to the shortage of quality nurses. The students who are keen on pursuing the nursing education should find a way to pay for that education and that is an essential part of planning. The reason is that the nursing education is a four year course and the expense would include the tuition fees, books, lodging and boarding, transportation and miscellaneous expenses. The nursing education at the undergraduate level or the post graduate level is very much expensive ranging from $25000 to $30000. Therefore, it would not be a bad idea to go for the nursing education sponsorship in the form of financial aid. The financial aid is made available to the students by the government and other sources to help the students financially. Most of the financial aid is given to students who are not well off. Financial aid is also provided on the basis of merit and also to the students who display talents and show extraordinary promise. Types of Nursing Education Sponsorship Basically there are three types of sponsorship or aid for any level of nursing education. Many of the sponsorship programs are made available to the students on the need-basis. The government too has some sponsorship programs. The government financial sponsorship programs include the following: 1. Federal Pell Grants and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants for the undergraduates 2. There are also loan programs like Federal Perkins Loans, Federal Family of Education Loans and William Ford Federal Direct loan. These loan programs are made available to both the undergraduates and the graduates. 3. Federal Work-Study Program is a student employment program which is awarded to undergraduate and graduate students.

The student scholarships and the student grant are considered to be gifts to the right candidate and do not have to be repaid. However, the student loans are borrowed money that has to be repaid with interest after graduation. The students are paid for the work they do in the student employment programs. For the graduate students, the student employment includes fellowships, reduced or free tuition and paid stipend for living expenses. Eligibility for Financial Sponsorship Of Nursing Education The students who plan to undergo the nursing education and need to be sponsored have to fill out an application for the student aid. This application is free of cost and the student is required to fill in the family income, assets and the other required details. This is the part of the process called need analysis to determine student awards. This is to know what is the contribution of the family towards the education expenses. This is mostly applicable for the undergraduates who are dependent ton their parents. However, for the graduates, they are considered to be independent and only their income and assets are taken into account. If they are married the assets of the spouse are also considered.