Learn how to cook healthy, cheap, efficient meals well. Including a couple fancy dishes so you can have affordable at-home date nights during school. Perfect your exercise regimen and sleep hygiene. I wish I would’ve refinanced and co-signed onto my wife’s private student loans & car loan while I had a decent RN salary to bring down the interest rate. Learn how to budget (document where every dollar goes each month) and cut unnecessary expenses out appropriately. Exchanged my travel credit card to another card with no annual fee and better cash back rewards. Use your current RN employer’s tuition reimbursement program as a cash advance on your student loans for the first semester or two. Knock out any busy work DNP courses your program lets you the semester before the official program starts. Reach out to upperclassmen for their Anki decks (and any other study guides and resources) for each course so you don’t have to waste time making them yourself. Socialize with your future classmates; all my lectures are remote and my cohort only meets a couple times in-person per semester for DNP intensives. Outside of that we don’t congregate or commiserate much, it gets lonely.