Hey everyone, I have been really looking into being a PA but the programs are so, so expensive. I know that PA's make good money but probably not after all the loans I'm going to need to take out on top of undergrad loans. I have zero help from family so I'm gonna have to take out loans for living too. I know that medical school is an obscene amount of debt but I feel the odds of paying all that back after finishing residency is easier than PA.. This is just a guess, anyone care to clue me in? I'm gonna be coming out of PA school with around 150k+ debt with around 7% interest rates if I choose that and seems like I won't be making anything with having to pay all that back.
PA vs. MD student debt?
- Thread starter JustiLynn
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Regardless of whether you go the PA or the MD route you will likely have debt; there are many, many ways that people choose to tackle this issue but most of them are some variation of the following choices:
-Live like a monk and get it paid off in 5 years or less
-accept a lower salary than what you actually earn as a fact of life and pay it off gradually over 30 years
-join the military or the health services corps
-marry rich
That's about it, take your pick.
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-Live like a monk and get it paid off in 5 years or less
-accept a lower salary than what you actually earn as a fact of life and pay it off gradually over 30 years
-join the military or the health services corps
-marry rich
That's about it, take your pick.
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Work for a non profit and have uncle sam pay off the balance after 10 years of Income based repayment
Work for primary care in an underserved area and have uncle sam pay it off after some time(i dont know the specifics)
Work at the NIH in research and have uncle sam pay off 25k per year for four years.
Move to Norway and change your name to Svern
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You also need to take into account the longer duration of training for MD vs PA. PA is two years and you earn a good income post training. MD school is 4 plus residency median of 5 CI 3-9. and you earn after the residency. Money compounds and at 7ish years you owe twice as much Yay!
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Either way you're going to be in debt. Either way you're very likely to be able to pay it back. Your estimates of how much debt you'll be in are on the high side (>$150k debt would put you in the top 9% of PA students in terms of anticipated debt), but let's break it down using your numbers:
--PA: $150k in debt from ~2.5 years of school, start working as a fully licensed professional immediately. PayScale lists entry-level PAs as making an average of $83k/year. You'll probably end up earning $100-120k as you get more seasoned.
--MD/DO: ~$300k in debt from 4 years of school (putting you in top 8% public/18% private of medical students). You work for a minimum of 3 years making an average of $55k as a resident, during which you start paying off your loans. After that, depending on specialty, you will be making at least an average of $140k/year (family physician) and more likely upwards of $200k/year. Specialize and you can make substantially more.
Either way, once you make full salary you have the capacity to pay back your debt within a decade. Now that that's out of the way, worry more about which career is appropriate for you.
--PA: $150k in debt from ~2.5 years of school, start working as a fully licensed professional immediately. PayScale lists entry-level PAs as making an average of $83k/year. You'll probably end up earning $100-120k as you get more seasoned.
--MD/DO: ~$300k in debt from 4 years of school (putting you in top 8% public/18% private of medical students). You work for a minimum of 3 years making an average of $55k as a resident, during which you start paying off your loans. After that, depending on specialty, you will be making at least an average of $140k/year (family physician) and more likely upwards of $200k/year. Specialize and you can make substantially more.
Either way, once you make full salary you have the capacity to pay back your debt within a decade. Now that that's out of the way, worry more about which career is appropriate for you.
PA will result in less debt and give you a quicker start to paying off debt. MD will be more debt over a longer period of time, but once you start getting that attending money, there's no better place to be. Choose PA for short term gratification, or choose MD for greater reward and satisfaction long term.
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There are pros and cons to both PA and MD/DO, and a lot more than money should be considered when choosing a career.
