I am one of those in a program that will put me into a lot of debt as an out of state student. Definitely over $100K and probably closer to $150K for total costs of school and living expenses. I did not want to spend a third year waiting to get into graduate school, and I have one area of weakness in my application that will make some schools not consider me.
I'm an older student and currently unemployed and withdrawing from my retirement savings to live. The cost of my living expenses to wait another year, along with foregoing earning a salary for a year, would be about equal to the difference in cost between those schools in-state where I'm living now. I went to a highly ranked, selective, extremely tough undergraduate school and had an engineering-related major. It's a small school, so perhaps people in admissions offices aren't as familiar with it. I've heard that schools in general have had grade inflation over the years, but I know at the time I went there, my school didn't hand out easy A's or even easy B's in most subjects, certainly not science and engineering schools. If I had stuck with my original major, I would have completed all the material for the first year of graduate school while still an undergrad. I realized much later that the major I chose wasn't one that was well suited for my personality and that probably contributed to why I didn't make great grades even in classes I worked hard at. I have an IQ of around 135, so lack of intellect isn't an issue. My college roommate failed a class in the subject she later got a Ph.D in and has been a college professor for years.
I came out with a 2.7 GPA as an undergrad. I got a master's degree and took all of my OT pre-reqs recently, so I have about 80 college credits and a 3.8 in those classes that I have taken in the 18 years since my original Bachelor's degree. That makes my cumulative GPA a 3.2, but my cumulative GPA in undergraduate courses is around 3.0. Schools look at the 3.0, not the 3.2 or 3.8, so I don't make the cutoff point to have my application even looked at for many OT schools. Doesn't matter that I have a high GRE score.
It's good for me that OT's in rural areas are most in demand. Those are the areas where I will be able to have the lowest cost of living, and where I wanted to live anyways.
I'm probably going to be paying for school by about 1/2 student loans, and 1/2 early retirement savings withdrawals.
