Optometrist VS Echocardiographer Please help

[cityhunter]

I am a prospective optometry school student, but i am in great dilemma here whether i should change my career to echocardiographer(heart ultrasound technician)

Throughout my research, i have found out that optometrist only make about 70K if you work for someone. if you get lucky, if you lease a busy retail optical(Walmart, costco), then you might earn like 100k. but how likely to get that opportunity? also, new grads are having hard time finding full time job ( i am in northwest, washington) so, they have multiple part time jobs, which they get 300-400 a day.
what really scares me is that , 1 out 10 optometrist makes 23dollar/hour. Please look at the table from Department of labor.

Percentile 10% 25% 50%
(Median) 75% 90% Hourly Wage $23.07$32.98$45.09$58.61(5)Annual Wage (2) $47,980$68,590$93,800$121,910(5)

and optometrist in houston and tucson make less than 60K on average. (see this website http://www.bizjournals.com/specials/pages/59.html)

i don't wanna sacrifice my 4 years and spend $200K in school and have hard time finding full time jobs and make only about 60K-70K doing part time job. i am not gonna invest another 300K to buy existing practice or start out cold.

whereas, to become echocardiographer, spend two years and $40K in schooling. and they make $26-32, i am guessing i will probably make like $28 dollars. (about $60K/year)

of course , optometrist is more glamorous and more respected. however, i don't wanna make $70K when i have $200K debt !!!

am i not realistic? will i make more money? Please give me some insights and advice. of course i would want to be optometrist than echo tech.
but, with 3 more optometry schools opening, i think i should choose echo tech.

Please inform me on job availability and income, and your true opinion about this matter.

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[Jay12]

I am a prospective optometry school student, but i am in great dilemma here whether i should change my career to echocardiographer(heart ultrasound technician)

Throughout my research, i have found out that optometrist only make about 70K if you work for someone. if you get lucky, if you lease a busy retail optical(Walmart, costco), then you might earn like 100k. but how likely to get that opportunity? also, new grads are having hard time finding full time job ( i am in northwest, washington) so, they have multiple part time jobs, which they get 300-400 a day.
what really scares me is that , 1 out 10 optometrist makes 23dollar/hour. Please look at the table from Department of labor.

Percentile 10% 25% 50%
(Median) 75% 90% Hourly Wage $23.07$32.98$45.09$58.61(5)Annual Wage (2) $47,980$68,590$93,800$121,910(5)

and optometrist in houston and tucson make less than 60K on average. (see this website http://www.bizjournals.com/specials/pages/59.html)

i don't wanna sacrifice my 4 years and spend $200K in school and have hard time finding full time jobs and make only about 60K-70K doing part time job. i am not gonna invest another 300K to buy existing practice or start out cold.

whereas, to become echocardiographer, spend two years and $40K in schooling. and they make $26-32, i am guessing i will probably make like $28 dollars. (about $60K/year)

of course , optometrist is more glamorous and more respected. however, i don't wanna make $70K when i have $200K debt !!!

am i not realistic? will i make more money? Please give me some insights and advice. of course i would want to be optometrist than echo tech.
but, with 3 more optometry schools opening, i think i should choose echo tech.

Please inform me on job availability and income, and your true opinion about this matter.

"of course i would want to be optometrist than echo tech." 😕
Didn't you just answer your own question right there? 🙄

 

[sportvision]

haha will you be making more money? first...you should be asking are you smart enough?...are you willing to work hard enough? cause i think Dr. KHE makes enough money to be happy 👍. In other words, it's up to you.

but if you are worrying about debt and not being financially successful as an optometrist than sure the tech is a good choice...i am afraid of huge debt too😱

 

[LucidEyes]

I think these posts about salary are so common on this forum. I know it is a reasonable worry to have but I think everyone has a different opinion when it comes to making enough money to be "happy". Also, don't you think that the salaries will vary greatly based on location of where ever you practice simply based on the need? I think being an Optometrist is still a great profession. I know it may have some trade-offs compared to other professions but there are many incentives that you have that make it worth it. Every career is rough at first with debt and getting established in your field. If your the type looking to get rich quick, then it is not a good field to go into. One the other hand some may just want enough to live comfortably and in my opinion I think this is a career which you can definitely accomplish that. I currently have my bachelor's and work at one of the busiest hospitals in the city. I see some hotshot doctors get in their lamborghinis, infinitis, audis, bmws, etc... but I notice that most of them practically live at the hospital and they seem very stressed a majority of the time.