The whole truth regarding salary and student loan debt!

First off, I want to say thanks for all the emails inquiring about salary, student loans, military medicine, etc.! I admire you guys level of questioning prior to engaging in such a big endeavor. I actually went into PT school blindly; I only completed 80 observation hours prior to matriculating. The main reason I applied was to dawdle in paying off my undergrad student loan debt! I went through a serious bout of depression during my last semester of undergrad because I knew an exercise science degree wouldn't pay off 85k. I was on the 5.5 year plan. I was a computer engineer major for 3.5 years until I realized that I actually enjoyed helping people instead of building machines. I also knew that a lot of my debt didn't stem from books, tutition, and fees; I was partying like a rock star! Fortunately, I was accepting in to PT school and still didn't know if this was the right choice. Especially when I was hearing 60-65k starting salary!

EVERYTHING WILL WORK OUT IF YOU WORK HARD! You could easily payoff 120-130k in student loans if you devote 3-4 years of hard work and living below your means. For example, let say if you work 15 extra hours a week at 55/hr. You will net aprox $2145 a month (.65%). Your first year salary is 70-75K and you will net $3791 monthly. Your monthly take home pay is $5936. If you can't live off of $2500 monthly (even with a family), you deserve to be in student loan debt forever!! MOVE TO ALABAMA for 3-4 years - with $2500 monthly you will be treated like royalty LOL. You can easily pay $3400 monthly on your student loans!! That's $122400 in 3 years!! It may take a little longer or even faster, my point is that it can be done!

Can you have a big house? Can you have a brand new car? The answer is NO (you can but you will stay in debt)!. If you've been broke for this long, what's another 3-4 years? As long as you have a belief in God, an emergency fund (6 months of living expenses), long term disability insurance, healthcare insurance, somewhere to rest your head, and a bottle of mascato (kidding!) you will be ok!

Many of my co-workers have fancy houses, nice cars, and haven't even put a dent in their student loans! Don't be stupid!!

Hopefully, I only have 1 year left in paying off mine (maybe a little longer or faster...it depends on ME!!!)... I started with 110k in student loan debt and aprox 135k total including credit cards and car balance! I'm down to 55 -60K (give or take a few) and I can honestly say It's my fault that I'm not done already! I started working as a PT in October 2009!

People say that they hate Sallie Mae but I actually love her!! She only requires me to give her $375 a month (interest only payment) and I can pay as much on the principal as I want without any early payoff fees! And besides, she didn't stick a gun to my head and tell me to take out my loans!

I encourage all of you to follow DAVE RAMSEY! It's not easy but It can be done! Hell, Dave even filled for bankruptcy TWICE prior to starting his money makeover plan!!

I'll be debt free by the time I'm 30 or 31 years old and making at least 130k - maybe even more but who really cares when you're debt free!!!! My goal is to live off half and save the rest and whatever my spouse make save hers too! I want to enjoy retirement!!

If your not willing to work hard, I don't think a PT degree justifies 100k + student loan debt!

Addendum: DO NOT PAY A DIME ON YOUR PERKINS LOANS! ONCE YOU GRADUATE AND BECOME A PHYSICAL THERAPIST THE GOVERNMENT WILL CANCEL A PERCENTAGE EVERY YEAR THAT YOUR WORKING AS A THERAPIST FULL TIME.

My student - loan - debt- payoff -buddy actually paid off her Perkins loans first. This was aprox 10k which could have went towards other loans. She has 140k in student loan debt. The government will not give her the money back!

Sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors...I don't get paid to spell and Sallie Mae doesn't care either as long as I pay her on time!! Haha, we always have excuses for things that we suck at!


God Bless you all and I hope this was helpful.

Thanks for the info! I'm a first year and I gotta admit the price tag is really terrifying me right now.

With that, what is the bet option in terms of loans? I don't know much about them (free ride for undergrad...luckily!!!) and I spoke with my school's financial aid dept and they were basically useless. They were pushing us to take out a GradPlus loan but I heard horror stories about them, not to mention they come with a 8% interest rate (charged at time of disbursement) plus a 4% origination fee (which is total crap but this is he govt we are talking about). The woman in the financial aid office said do this before any private loans but why would I when some privates are fixed at 4% interest with no fees???? Soooo confused!

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mccomasg09 said:

4% if you have great credit and someone with great credit willing to cosign $50k in loans as well... If you can get fixed for that low I would go for it. I feel fin aid office are hit and miss some are super rude and very unhelpful and others bend over backwards to help you out, mine is the first. So I've been forced to learn the hard way.

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My credit is actually really good, that's why I was considering the private. But of course financial aid turned me off to that and made me feel like an idiot for even considering it

Great Post DPTnotMD. Well said!

Dave Ramsey is awesome. Everyone should look up his stuff on "financial peace"