School Quality vs Cost (Pitt vs South Carolina)

[MKSzczygl]

I realize debt it pretty vastly covered, however I was hoping some of could offer me some general advice in terms of choosing which school to attend for my DPT. I was accepted to several good schools, but ultimately it has came down to University of Pittsburgh and South Carolina. I am an American Citizen, but since I have lived in Canada from ages 12-23 (BSc. Kinesiology, University of Western Ontario), I am out-of-state anywhere I go.

I am aware that Pitt has a great reputation, and placements through UPMC which I hope would provide great experience and connections. However their tuition is now ~$44,000 a year. With fees and cost of living, this will put me in ~$180-190K of debt (including the ~$1400/month stipend through UPMC in year 3).
South Carolina is a small program (18 students/year), however they are confident in establishing in-state tuition by year 2 due to SC residency laws. This bring my expected debt to ~$130K. They mention that clinical experiences may be mostly outside of town, so I am not sure how that will impact this figure. I have also recently applied to McGill as a back up, however I wish to practice in the USA, and Canada still only offers a Masters. I am pretty sure I would not be able to practice straight out of a degree from McGill in the USA

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[jesspt]

I realize debt it pretty vastly covered, however I was hoping some of could offer me some general advice in terms of choosing which school to attend for my DPT. I was accepted to several good schools, but ultimately it has came down to University of Pittsburgh and South Carolina. I am an American Citizen, but since I have lived in Canada from ages 12-23 (BSc. Kinesiology, University of Western Ontario), I am out-of-state anywhere I go.

I am aware that Pitt has a great reputation, and placements through UPMC which I hope would provide great experience and connections. However their tuition is now ~$44,000 a year. With fees and cost of living, this will put me in ~$180-190K of debt (including the ~$1400/month stipend through UPMC in year 3).
South Carolina is a small program (18 students/year), however they are confident in establishing in-state tuition by year 2 due to SC residency laws. This bring my expected debt to ~$130K. They mention that clinical experiences may be mostly outside of town, so I am not sure how that will impact this figure. I have also recently applied to McGill as a back up, however I wish to practice in the USA, and Canada still only offers a Masters. I am pretty sure I would not be able to practice straight out of a degree from McGill in the USA

You don't need a doctorate to practice in the USA. You would need to contact the physical therapy association of the state in which you wish to practice to see if your curriculum has any "holes" that would need to be addressed by additional coursework.

My advice - contact McGill (if the are indeed cheaper than South Carolina) and see how many of their recent graduates are practicing in the states and whether or not they had to take extra courses.