- Joined
- Jul 10, 2013
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Ok guys, let me tell you about myself. Im 23. I was accepted to only 1 out of 10 PT schools last year as the last person off the wait list in my first year applying out of undergrad. I was absolutely thrilled because I was (and still am) sure that physical therapy is a profession I can be very successful in and truly enjoy. My academic history was not the best and I worked my ass off the last 2 years of undergrad to have a chance and it came through for me.
The first semester of PT school was a battle. The program has a problem based learning curriculum and we are responsible for finding all information necessary from a list of books with essentially no guidance. This was fine, and it is doable. 49 other class mates did it. However, I struggled because of numerous factors. One being that I did not have the same mentality in undergrad, which got me into PT school. My transition to graduate school did not go as planned and I was offered to repeat the semester this coming August. After much time and thought, I have mentally prepared myself and know what it is going to take to be successful, graduate and pass the NPTE. I know I can do this.
Now for the complicated part:
With all of this time off, I have been thinking about the amount of debt that I am going to owe. With undergrad, grad, and living expenses im looking at 160k in federal loans before interest.
So the 160k does not include the cost of my first semester of PT school. After the semester ended, I searched for a job as a personal trainer. I started in March and am on pace right not to make around 70k in a year. A job with this company has around a 90-100k ceiling.
Therefore, in 4 months I have saved enough money to pay for the semester wasted.
I do not truly enjoy training people because it is not as challenging or interesting as physical therapy. I am very confident that my people skills and business sense (which has allowed me to do extremely well in the personal training business) will one day make me a successful owner of a clinic. I should add that I have excelled as a personal trainer. More so than anyone in the company ever has. I just don't see myself doing this for the rest of my life. I wake up at 5am most days to train people in the morning, have large gaps in my days, and then train people at night.
I ask myself, is going back to school worth taking on all this debt? Is it realistic for me to own a clinic before age 40 with all of this debt? Can you really live a comfortable life with 160k in loans? I'll be making about the same amount of money right out of school but with 160k in loans. I'm just curious to see what people think about this situation. I plan to go back to school, but would like to hear what others think. If you're interested, please leave your thoughts. Thanks.
The first semester of PT school was a battle. The program has a problem based learning curriculum and we are responsible for finding all information necessary from a list of books with essentially no guidance. This was fine, and it is doable. 49 other class mates did it. However, I struggled because of numerous factors. One being that I did not have the same mentality in undergrad, which got me into PT school. My transition to graduate school did not go as planned and I was offered to repeat the semester this coming August. After much time and thought, I have mentally prepared myself and know what it is going to take to be successful, graduate and pass the NPTE. I know I can do this.
Now for the complicated part:
With all of this time off, I have been thinking about the amount of debt that I am going to owe. With undergrad, grad, and living expenses im looking at 160k in federal loans before interest.
So the 160k does not include the cost of my first semester of PT school. After the semester ended, I searched for a job as a personal trainer. I started in March and am on pace right not to make around 70k in a year. A job with this company has around a 90-100k ceiling.
Therefore, in 4 months I have saved enough money to pay for the semester wasted.
I do not truly enjoy training people because it is not as challenging or interesting as physical therapy. I am very confident that my people skills and business sense (which has allowed me to do extremely well in the personal training business) will one day make me a successful owner of a clinic. I should add that I have excelled as a personal trainer. More so than anyone in the company ever has. I just don't see myself doing this for the rest of my life. I wake up at 5am most days to train people in the morning, have large gaps in my days, and then train people at night.
I ask myself, is going back to school worth taking on all this debt? Is it realistic for me to own a clinic before age 40 with all of this debt? Can you really live a comfortable life with 160k in loans? I'll be making about the same amount of money right out of school but with 160k in loans. I'm just curious to see what people think about this situation. I plan to go back to school, but would like to hear what others think. If you're interested, please leave your thoughts. Thanks.
