Considering PT school, really need advice

[GradGirl90]

Hello all!

I am really glad I found this site. I'm hoping you can all be of assistance. So I have an undergrad in psychology\minored in criminal justice (3.32 GPA) and afterwards I did the stupid young mistake of jumping to a graduate program just because i really wanted to study it. I thought i would find tons of job offers but i couldn't be more wrong. I pursued an MS in criminal justice thinking i could become a crime analyst, forensics tech, researcher, etc. I graduated this past August (3.78 GPA) and it's SO HARD finding a decent entry level job without a crap ton of experience necessary. I don't want to be a cop, so that's completely off the table. I feel so stupid and stuck. :,(

I actually wanted to be a PT before i got my MS! I have around 105 volunteer hours from an outpatient clinic in Florida. I was convinced it would be a very rewarding career path, however, i did not want to put in the extra community college prereq's to get into the program. I had just received my BA in psych and i thought it would be a better decsion to just get a different graduate degree altogether so i fell back on my second interest, criminal justice. It may seem odd to be interested in PT and CJ but that's just me. I've always been good at "hard" sciences but tended to be more interested in the social sciences. Now i've learned the hard way i should've sucked it up and gone to community college for the PT prereq courses I should've pursued my first thought.

I currently have $75k worth of loans and nearly $7k worth of interest. I'm really considering going back to school to earn my DPT if i don't find a job in the next 6 mo because i love the field and from what i've researched, the job market is far, far better (like a 1.3% unemployment rate?) There is a program only 30 min from me that i feel very confident i could get into after i took the prereq courses. I totaled the cost of the program....it's about $74k!!!! This isn't even taking the community college prereq's into account yet. Is it an insanely stupid decision to do this?? I just want to be able to have a decent house, start a family in the next few years (i'm 26), etc. Thanks to my husband, we are fortunate enough to be able to use a VA loan for our first home, so that will help tremendously. But i don't want to bury myself in debt. Is $150K (possibly over that) going to even be worth it? I'm planning on utilizing scholarships as much as possible. Any advice is really appreciated.

Thanks

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[jblil]

Let's say you do go through with PT school and end up with loans totaling $150K. Make a budget for after you graduate: assume an income of $65K, combine that with your spouse's income and offset that against loan payments, housing & living expenses, insurance, etc. Do not forget to include federal and state income taxes, they can take a big bite off your paycheck. If you think the budget is do-able, then go ahead with school.

Also shadow a few more PTs so you can see the full spectrum. You have volunteered in an outpatient ortho clinic, but there are other settings such as inpatient, SNF, pediatrics, home-health... And make sure you talk to plenty of PTs before you take the plunge since this will likely be a 4-yr effort: 1 for the pre-reqs and 3 for the degree itself. Good luck, and keep us posted.

(Read this thread about starting salaries for PTs, with multiple links to other discussions and resources: https://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/starting-salary-for-dpt-new-grads.931151/)

 

[DPThopeful1859]

My plan is to use some of the left over money for monthly expenses from loans in school to pay off the debts I have currently. That way, I will have nothing but my loans to pay off when I graduate

 

[NewTestament]

I would advise against your decision to go to PT school. I'm a PT myself, but if I had to go into $150k of debt to become a PT, I would not have done it. It's a great profession because you work wherever you want, in any setting, part-time, full-time, or PRN. It's a very flexible and rewarding profession. But the cost of entry is extremely high. You already have $82k in debt, and now you want to add another $80k, not to mention the opportunity cost of three years? If you want to make money, look for online opportunities (affiliate marketing, digital products, etc.) I'm saying this for your financial future.

Having said that, there are PT's out there with $150-200k of debt and they're getting married, working, and living comfortably, but I'm sure they would feel much better without all the debt.

 

[UpDownPT]

Hello all!

I am really glad I found this site. I'm hoping you can all be of assistance. So I have an undergrad in psychology\minored in criminal justice (3.32 GPA) and afterwards I did the stupid young mistake of jumping to a graduate program just because i really wanted to study it. I thought i would find tons of job offers but i couldn't be more wrong. I pursued an MS in criminal justice thinking i could become a crime analyst, forensics tech, researcher, etc. I graduated this past August (3.78 GPA) and it's SO HARD finding a decent entry level job without a crap ton of experience necessary. I don't want to be a cop, so that's completely off the table. I feel so stupid and stuck. :,(

I actually wanted to be a PT before i got my MS! I have around 105 volunteer hours from an outpatient clinic in Florida. I was convinced it would be a very rewarding career path, however, i did not want to put in the extra community college prereq's to get into the program. I had just received my BA in psych and i thought it would be a better decsion to just get a different graduate degree altogether so i fell back on my second interest, criminal justice. It may seem odd to be interested in PT and CJ but that's just me. I've always been good at "hard" sciences but tended to be more interested in the social sciences. Now i've learned the hard way i should've sucked it up and gone to community college for the PT prereq courses I should've pursued my first thought.

I currently have $75k worth of loans and nearly $7k worth of interest. I'm really considering going back to school to earn my DPT if i don't find a job in the next 6 mo because i love the field and from what i've researched, the job market is far, far better (like a 1.3% unemployment rate?) There is a program only 30 min from me that i feel very confident i could get into after i took the prereq courses. I totaled the cost of the program....it's about $74k!!!! This isn't even taking the community college prereq's into account yet. Is it an insanely stupid decision to do this?? I just want to be able to have a decent house, start a family in the next few years (i'm 26), etc. Thanks to my husband, we are fortunate enough to be able to use a VA loan for our first home, so that will help tremendously. But i don't want to bury myself in debt. Is $150K (possibly over that) going to even be worth it? I'm planning on utilizing scholarships as much as possible. Any advice is really appreciated.

Thanks

Why don't you pay off your debt before you consider school. If you two really hammer it, you might be done in 3 years. You should also take out minimum debt and pay cash for as much tuition as possible.

Take your MS off your resume, get an entry job in a big company, and start paying off the debt. DPT school will be a much easier decision in a few years.

Your also much more likely to get into PT school if you develop professional skills that other applicants do not have.

I'm a non trad and that is what I did. Schools really liked my work experience. It was also an easier decision to go to school without debt being an issue.

 

[starrsgirl]

Completely agree with above post. It's ok if you want to be a PT but it doesn't have to be right now. Get a job (any job), start paying down that debt....you can tackle your pre reqs at nights/weekends for no extra debt if you are working and use community colleges.

I'm a non traditional student too and there's no rush to go back to school. The PT pay is not good where I live (midwest) and I would never do this route if I had to go into a ton of debt. The highly experienced CIs (20+ years) I work under right now in rotation make 60K a year. Yes, they enjoy their jobs but yes, I made more than that with a bachelor's degree before changing careers to PT. It's definitely not worth 150K of debt.

Just for another example, my sister graduated recently from pharmacy school with just over 175K in loans....her payback amount per month is INSANE...it's much more than my house mortgage. So definitely run the numbers on that payback amount. My sister makes fabulous money as a pharmacist but she has to live with a roommate and drive an old beater car right now because she is really tight month to month with all her debt. She really regrets spending all those years in school to make a take home pay (after loan repayment is taken out) that is pretty equivalent to what she could take home with a bachelor's degree. So keep that big picture in mind.

Also....what scholarships? Scholarships for PT school are a very rare.

 

[GradGirl90]

Thank you all for your advice. I actually realized i totally screwed up my math last night (probably because i was pretty tired), and the cost will actually be $46.4K for the program. HUGE difference! Still a decent price tag to consider though. My husband is considering a similar path because he made the same mistake i did. He wanted to do physics\engineering but did CJ instead. Weren't we smart? LOL

But he has the military GI Bill covering the next 3 years of education, plus we would get BAH. We are staying with family at the moment, so this is helping a lot while we figure everything out. He's considering army reserves as well just for a little extra income and insurance. It's good to weigh out the options.

Regarding the bit about scholarhsips, i thought PT's were able to receive some type of scholarship? I guess that's more for nursing and med students.

 

[DPThopeful1859]

There are some scholarships for PT, but it's few that are offered. I know the school I'm attending, there are some scholarships available, but I can't apply for them because I'm not a resident of that state yet. After my first year there, I could certainly apply and get some extra money to help, but it's not huge ($1500-$2000). It's better than nothing, I guess.