Hello everyone,
Like many, I got injured early on while playing sports and went to see a Physical Therapist, I immediately fell in love with the profession at an early age. During this time, the profession was ranked as one of the “top 10 best careers out there”. This enforced my decision and dedication to pursue PT.
Now, 2 years after getting my bachelors and doing all of the grinding to get into PT school, I have been accepted into a PT program. I am ecstatic and I believe it fits my character perfectly. However, the program that I got accepted to is a bit over 100k in tuition which, after reading the forums, talking to PTs and further research, is a ridiculous amount of debt and I will struggle to pay that off. I am very afraid of not being able to start a family, buy a house and enjoy life. I am scared that I will be enthralled by student loan debt for a long time.
The program I got accepted into starts in January so I need to either commit to this program or deny. I am still waiting to hear back from 3 other schools that all start on Fall. I am afraid to not get into any other program and just not become a PT at all. I got waitlisted by my number one option, and I believe my #2 will waitlist me as well.
Now, I am thinking that if I decide to deny the 100k+ tuition program , that I still have a chance to get into the other PT programs which are much cheaper. If I do not get into any program, my plan B is to get a job to accumulate direct patient contact hours so that I can apply to PA school for the next cycle. My professor during my capstone class made many points why PA is a great route as opposed to PT. I know that this forum will be biased towards PT, however, even an experienced PT I shadowed at a hospital, opened up to me and pretty much told me that she would not do PT again and told me to go PA. My main worry of becoming a PA is the late career path change, I am feeling pressured to begin something ( I am 27 years old). I would need to work for about a year to accumulate the direct patient contact hours and take 4 additional classes.
Furthermore, I keep reading about how unhappy many PTs are with the current state of PT. In addition to all of this, while shadowing at different clinics, I noticed that some PTs were handling 4-5 patients at once and not really working with them, instead, they would just tell them to go do some exercises. I understand that the clinic needs to see a certain amount of patients in a day to make some money, but the patient care was a bit unethical at this type of places and made me think, why do we need a doctorate degree and go in so much debt to tell people to do some asic exercises that they could just do anywhere, without the PTs knowledge. Is the PT really making a difference here?
Despite all of the negativity that I’ve read, and experienced, I still think PT is the best fit for who I am as a person. But I just do not want to go through all of the hard schooling to become a PT and get into a ridiculous amount of debt to make $60k a year while having $175k in debt. I know that I am meant to become a PT, and it saddens me to see where the profession is at. High cost of education, rigorous course load, and average income. For a similar effort, I could go into another career that would also make me happy but not put me in such a financial burden.
My purpose of this post is not to bash PT at all, but to be realistic of the field’s current state. My purpose of this post is to seek advice from experienced clinicians, new clinicians, students who are going through a similar situation and explore my options. I do not want to make a $200k mistake.
Thank you all and I look forward to the responses.
Like many, I got injured early on while playing sports and went to see a Physical Therapist, I immediately fell in love with the profession at an early age. During this time, the profession was ranked as one of the “top 10 best careers out there”. This enforced my decision and dedication to pursue PT.
Now, 2 years after getting my bachelors and doing all of the grinding to get into PT school, I have been accepted into a PT program. I am ecstatic and I believe it fits my character perfectly. However, the program that I got accepted to is a bit over 100k in tuition which, after reading the forums, talking to PTs and further research, is a ridiculous amount of debt and I will struggle to pay that off. I am very afraid of not being able to start a family, buy a house and enjoy life. I am scared that I will be enthralled by student loan debt for a long time.
The program I got accepted into starts in January so I need to either commit to this program or deny. I am still waiting to hear back from 3 other schools that all start on Fall. I am afraid to not get into any other program and just not become a PT at all. I got waitlisted by my number one option, and I believe my #2 will waitlist me as well.
Now, I am thinking that if I decide to deny the 100k+ tuition program , that I still have a chance to get into the other PT programs which are much cheaper. If I do not get into any program, my plan B is to get a job to accumulate direct patient contact hours so that I can apply to PA school for the next cycle. My professor during my capstone class made many points why PA is a great route as opposed to PT. I know that this forum will be biased towards PT, however, even an experienced PT I shadowed at a hospital, opened up to me and pretty much told me that she would not do PT again and told me to go PA. My main worry of becoming a PA is the late career path change, I am feeling pressured to begin something ( I am 27 years old). I would need to work for about a year to accumulate the direct patient contact hours and take 4 additional classes.
Furthermore, I keep reading about how unhappy many PTs are with the current state of PT. In addition to all of this, while shadowing at different clinics, I noticed that some PTs were handling 4-5 patients at once and not really working with them, instead, they would just tell them to go do some exercises. I understand that the clinic needs to see a certain amount of patients in a day to make some money, but the patient care was a bit unethical at this type of places and made me think, why do we need a doctorate degree and go in so much debt to tell people to do some asic exercises that they could just do anywhere, without the PTs knowledge. Is the PT really making a difference here?
Despite all of the negativity that I’ve read, and experienced, I still think PT is the best fit for who I am as a person. But I just do not want to go through all of the hard schooling to become a PT and get into a ridiculous amount of debt to make $60k a year while having $175k in debt. I know that I am meant to become a PT, and it saddens me to see where the profession is at. High cost of education, rigorous course load, and average income. For a similar effort, I could go into another career that would also make me happy but not put me in such a financial burden.
My purpose of this post is not to bash PT at all, but to be realistic of the field’s current state. My purpose of this post is to seek advice from experienced clinicians, new clinicians, students who are going through a similar situation and explore my options. I do not want to make a $200k mistake.
Thank you all and I look forward to the responses.
