Cost of Tuition

[LBGunnzDPT22]

I know this topic has been discussed several times, but I was hoping to get a fresh take on the ridiculous high cost is for tuition for PT programs these days. I just got an "estimate" for what its going to cost me for 2.5 years without cost of living and its already its already a little over 100,000. Is it really worth it to go into this much debt for a semi-lucrative career?

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[MIDPT2012]

Wow - are you looking at a private school? I just finished my first of 3.5 years, and I'm on track to have $70K in loans when I'm done.

I don't think anyone can tell you if it's worth it or not. You have to decide that for yourself. My father thought I was crazy when I left my job in IT to go back to school. If you figure my lack of income for 3.5 years and the cost of tuition it's a 500K investment for me. However, I wouldn't trade PT school for anything right now. Each time I'm in the clinic I reaffirm my decision.

 

[MotionDoc]

Wow - are you looking at a private school? I just finished my first of 3.5 years, and I'm on track to have $70K in loans when I'm done.

I don't think anyone can tell you if it's worth it or not. You have to decide that for yourself. My father thought I was crazy when I left my job in IT to go back to school. If you figure my lack of income for 3.5 years and the cost of tuition it's a 500K investment for me. However, I wouldn't trade PT school for anything right now. Each time I'm in the clinic I reaffirm my decision.

obviously for MIDPT2012, PT is not semi-lucrative. It all boils down to what you are looking for in a career.

 

[GuyWithAQuestio]

I brought this up in another post I started, but it didn't get too many responses so I let it go.

I too am looking at a school with a REALLY high tuition rate. REAAAAALLY high. But this is the career I want and in fact it's my number one choice for a school. I was devastated when I decided I couldn't afford it. However, I found something that appears that it would help me pay for grad school. The more I've looked into my "work around", the more convinced I've become that going to school is possible.

Look into IBR (Income Based Repayment). I'll post a few links below. It's basically a way to pay off loans when your loan debt far exceeds your income (as what will be my case). If there isn't a large difference, then it won't help you and in fact it would be better to avoid it.

You can read more about IBR here and run a few quick calculations to see if IBR is better for you in the long run.

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/scripts/ibr.cgi

It's not ideal to live with debt, but I'm also not satisfied in the career I have now, and feel I will be much happier as a PT. From everything I've calculated out, I'll be making a bit more than what I make now, even with the loan repayment I'll have each month.

What's more, in addition to IBR, there is PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness). Depending on who you work for when you're done, your debt could be eliminated after 10 years. 80% of the hospitals in the US are non-profit or military. I'd planned on working for a hospital when I got out anyway (inpatient, peds, or sports med are my main interests at the moment).

According to the IBR calculator above, I would be paying less on my loan payback than I could at the least expensive PT school I could find.

Of course, I'm going through and finding out as much information as I can about all of this before diving head first in. I've been looking into it for weeks now. I've contacted hospitals where I would potentially want to work at and asked their HR people if their PT departments are non-profit [501(c)(3)]. It's been a yes for all of them.

If you're interested in this and find anything else useful on your end, please let me know. I'll probably be digging into this until the first day of classes.

PSLF questions:

http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/PSLF_QAs_final_02 12 10.pdf

Who do I have to work for?
from Q21
"federal, state, or local government organization or agency and most charitable non-profit organizations"

What about the non-pofits?
from Q23
"Eligible non-profit employers include those that have received a 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS."
(schools, colleges, universities)
Can verify if they are considered 501(c)(3) through the link:
http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/


http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05743t.pdf

Pg 6 (labeled page 4) in the background section:
Document points out that 82% of the hospitals in the country are either government or non-profit hospitals (18% are for-profit)

 

[PTstudent11]

I brought this up in another post I started, but it didn't get too many responses so I let it go.

I too am looking at a school with a REALLY high tuition rate. REAAAAALLY high. But this is the career I want and in fact it's my number one choice for a school. I was devastated when I decided I couldn't afford it. However, I found something that appears that it would help me pay for grad school. The more I've looked into my "work around", the more convinced I've become that going to school is possible.

Look into IBR (Income Based Repayment). I'll post a few links below. It's basically a way to pay off loans when your loan debt far exceeds your income (as what will be my case). If there isn't a large difference, then it won't help you and in fact it would be better to avoid it.

You can read more about IBR here and run a few quick calculations to see if IBR is better for you in the long run.

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/scripts/ibr.cgi

It's not ideal to live with debt, but I'm also not satisfied in the career I have now, and feel I will be much happier as a PT. From everything I've calculated out, I'll be making a bit more than what I make now, even with the loan repayment I'll have each month.

What's more, in addition to IBR, there is PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness). Depending on who you work for when you're done, your debt could be eliminated after 10 years. 80% of the hospitals in the US are non-profit or military. I'd planned on working for a hospital when I got out anyway (inpatient, peds, or sports med are my main interests at the moment).

According to the IBR calculator above, I would be paying less on my loan payback than I could at the least expensive PT school I could find.

Of course, I'm going through and finding out as much information as I can about all of this before diving head first in. I've been looking into it for weeks now. I've contacted hospitals where I would potentially want to work at and asked their HR people if their PT departments are non-profit [501(c)(3)]. It's been a yes for all of them.

If you're interested in this and find anything else useful on your end, please let me know. I'll probably be digging into this until the first day of classes.

PSLF questions:

http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/PSLF_QAs_final_02 12 10.pdf

Who do I have to work for?
from Q21
"federal, state, or local government organization or agency and most charitable non-profit organizations"

What about the non-pofits?
from Q23
"Eligible non-profit employers include those that have received a 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS."
(schools, colleges, universities)
Can verify if they are considered 501(c)(3) through the link:
http://www.irs.gov/app/pub-78/


http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05743t.pdf

Pg 6 (labeled page 4) in the background section:
Document points out that 82% of the hospitals in the country are either government or non-profit hospitals (18% are for-profit)

Maybe I'm not quite getting this right.

I ran my numbers.
My school is going to cost me about 70k.
assuming i make say 65 out of school, i used the IBR calculator.
THe difference? $3000 in repayments. HOWEVER, 2000 of that is interest that isn't generated on thes tandard payment. So essentially, i saved a grand with IBR. not much to write home about.

The PSLF says you have to be at a charitable, non proift organization. Are hospitals really considered a charitable organization? If so, why do ANY doctors, surgeons, nurses, etc... carry any debt after 10 years?

Please correct me if i am wrong. This just seems WAY too good to be true.

 

[GuyWithAQuestio]

Your loans don't exceed your income by too much. Your pretty close the "don't take out loans that are greater than 115% of your first year salary" rule. So no, IBR would not help you and I would not recommend it.

So, the reason I looked into it was that the loans I was looking at for the school I want to go to are between $130 - $150k. Those numbers still freak me out.

As far as hospitals being non-profit, pretty much. That government document even says that. I was talking on the phone with a family friend last night explaining this to him. He's a retired hospital administrator and I asked him to give me some examples of hospitals up in NY that I could dig into and verify they were non-profit. He said no need. By law, ALL of the hospitals in NY are 501(c)(3). They are not allowed to have "for profit" hospitals.

But if you're considering this and have a place in mind, contact the place to find out ahead of time. I doubt things will change in the next 10 years in terms of a hospital changing their non-profit status, but of course there is no guarantee they won't. You need to check with the hiring department if it's a private hospital to see if they are non-profit. Some branches in hospitals are not considered non-profit. It matters under what department you are hired some of the time.

However, one of the hospitals I checked with was UNC in Chapel Hill. It's a state run hospital and the WHOLE hospital is 501(C)(3). Not that I would say to use this as your guide, but check out the entry on wikipedia for them. You'll see that its care system is listed as "non profit".

As for why doctors haven't been using this, the only reason I can think of is that this is fairly new. I believe it was established in 2009 and is retroactive to loans from 2007 and only those loans that are federal. The Grad PLUS loan is new as of 2007, so before that people were taking out private loans, which would not do too much good since IBR would not apply to them.

Check out this presentation that was made for medical residents specifically. The forbearance doesn't apply to PTs, obviously, but a lot of the other stuff does (IBR and PSLF).

 

[Muscles00GT]

Ya the cost of tuition is bull****. Just schools trying to take advantage of students who wish to pursue further education. Is it worth it? It's all up to you. Nobody is going to give you a yes or a no. To some, it's not worth it but to others it's worth it

 

[davesmith]

Hello,

Now a days tution cost more and it is very difficult for a student to study.

Thanks,
Dave Smith