Hello everyone. I was wondering if you all had any advice on paying for grad school. Any tips would be appreciated! I am currently a junior athletic training student planning to pursue my DPT after I graduate. I currently attend a private college and, as such, could not get a full ride, but only the maximum allotment for scholarship my school will give. So I do have some smaller student loans at this point, but I have put considerable dents in those working in between school years. I have started to worry about paying for graduate school a bit. I am an honors student and have had hundreds of hours of clinical experience, shadowing hours with PTs and surgeons, and a lot of extra curricular activities such as holding a board position for our ATSO group. I understand that some graduate schools have scholarships, but I am beginning to stress about paying the rest. I plan to obtain my ATC and CSCS as soon as I graduate so I could work in between semesters I suppose, but I wanted to see what other folks were doing! Thanks in advance!
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Paying for graduate school?
- Thread starter EHCAT4
- Start date
It is rough, my buddy is in a similar position, where he attended a private university for undergrad and then a private university for DPT, I think he walked away with 225+K in loans after his DPT degree. Tough hole to dig out of but he loves it. Just have to make some sacrifices where you can and keep on grinding.
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- Nov 27, 2012
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I actually put some thought into this and replied to another thread similar to this. I'll copy and paste that response, but also give you one more thought since I'm guessing you haven't started applying yet. This is the part specific to you:
Before even looking at how you're going to pay for grad school, first look at what you can save. You say you're an honors student and essentially have an excellent resume. That puts you in an excellent position to save a ton of money, not because of scholarships, but because of school selection. It means you can apply to the low cost (and therefore very competitive) schools and be accepted. My #1 piece of advice is unless you want to be a researcher, DON'T apply to the famous but very expensive schools. It's totally unnecessary, and you'll spend the rest of your life paying a premium for a school name that doesn't give you much, if any, advantage. When it comes to practicing PT, the vast majority of employers don't care where you went to school because guess what? Everyone takes the same board exam. As long as you passed and are licensed, they truly don't care. Which school you went to is only important if you want to research.
That being said, what you DO want to look at in a school is the graduation rate, the percentage of graduates who passed the NPTE on the first try, and their employment rate post-graduation. I graduated last year. My alma mater is in the middle of nowhere. You've probably never heard of it. However, their graduation rate is 94% for my class, and the pass rate and employment rate for the past 3 years is 100%. Based on their current stats, the in-state total tuition and fees for the entire 8-semester program is $40,936. As you look at which schools to apply to, make sure you do the math and pay careful attention to that total tuition number, as well as cost of living for the area. Probably the single most important factor in determining your total debt at graduation won't be which loans you choose. It will be which SCHOOL you choose. If your credentials are really as good as you say, there's no reason you can't get into an inexpensive but quality education school. USE THAT.
Now, this part is copy + pasted from another thread. It's things you can do to save money once you already know where you're going: Most of these are pretty competitive, but worst case scenario you apply for them and get told no. You're no worse off than you were before. By the way, I'm assuming filling out your FAFSA for Direct Unsubsidized loans is a given.
1. Try to get a graduate assistantship. Mine required me to work 10 hours a week for the department but gave me $2,000 a semester in the form of a $500 pay check every month.
2. Look up "oddball" scholarships. Sometimes your university's department will have a list of them. These are from private organizations, so you have to fill out apps for them outside of the FAFSA. I got one that was $500 a semester.
3. Look and see if your state offers any grants or anything. Since FAFSA is federal, it doesn't include these state-specific grants. Some schools will consider you for these automatically if you fill out the FAFSA. Some will not. I got one that was $300 per semester.
4. This is pretty rare, but my school had "tuition wavers." As the name implies, the student's tuition was waived. They had out-of-state tuition waivers, which meant out-of-state students could pay in-state tuition instead, and then they had in-state tuition waivers, which meant the recipient paid nothing. Again, not all universities do this. If they do, the waiver is only good for one year or even one semester, but if they do have them, you have to apply for them outside of the FAFSA. These are also often based on financial need. To give you an idea, my class of 32 people had 3 out-of-state waivers and then I think only 1 in-state waiver. The in-state waiver went to a guy who was married with 4 kids. I got an out-of-state one for only one semester, but it makes a difference!
5. This is a big one many people don't think about. Most universities require that you have health insurance and automatically enroll you in their own university plan. Very often, you can get that waived by buying your own cheaper health plan, staying on your parents' plan if you're under 26, or even enrolling in Medicaid if you're eligible. For instance, my alma mater's fee for coverage is now $1,111 per semester for health insurance. I don't remember exactly, but I found a private plan that worked out to around $480 a semester instead, saving me $630 a semester.
6. I don't know if you're married, but I was married with one child when I entered PT school. My wife worked part time retail in the evenings when I was home studying and watching our daughter. We kept track of her income as a reminder of why it was worth the struggle of hardly seeing each other. Though we still had to use loans for many living expenses, her income saved us $30K over the 33 months I was in school.
Like I said, most of these take work to get and are only "nickels and dimes" when compared to the total cost of PT school. However, add them all up (except spouse income)...
$10,000 total for 5 semesters graduate assistantship (3 semesters I didn't have it)
$4,000 total private scholarship (8 semesters x $500)
$2,400 total state grant (8 semesters x $300)
$5,000 out-of-state tuition waver
$5,040 from getting cheaper insurance (8 semesters x $630)
$26,440 total savings. For working ten hours a week, filling out some forms, and writing a couple of essays, it was worth it.
The only other advice I have for paying for PT school is do everything you possibly can to minimize your loans. #1 regret of new grads is wishing they'd not borrowed as much as they did. Remember you don't have to take the full amount they offer you. Remember as well that if you find you have more than you'll need, you can turn around and repay it (or pay another loan with higher interest) instead of sitting on it while it accrues interest.
Before even looking at how you're going to pay for grad school, first look at what you can save. You say you're an honors student and essentially have an excellent resume. That puts you in an excellent position to save a ton of money, not because of scholarships, but because of school selection. It means you can apply to the low cost (and therefore very competitive) schools and be accepted. My #1 piece of advice is unless you want to be a researcher, DON'T apply to the famous but very expensive schools. It's totally unnecessary, and you'll spend the rest of your life paying a premium for a school name that doesn't give you much, if any, advantage. When it comes to practicing PT, the vast majority of employers don't care where you went to school because guess what? Everyone takes the same board exam. As long as you passed and are licensed, they truly don't care. Which school you went to is only important if you want to research.
That being said, what you DO want to look at in a school is the graduation rate, the percentage of graduates who passed the NPTE on the first try, and their employment rate post-graduation. I graduated last year. My alma mater is in the middle of nowhere. You've probably never heard of it. However, their graduation rate is 94% for my class, and the pass rate and employment rate for the past 3 years is 100%. Based on their current stats, the in-state total tuition and fees for the entire 8-semester program is $40,936. As you look at which schools to apply to, make sure you do the math and pay careful attention to that total tuition number, as well as cost of living for the area. Probably the single most important factor in determining your total debt at graduation won't be which loans you choose. It will be which SCHOOL you choose. If your credentials are really as good as you say, there's no reason you can't get into an inexpensive but quality education school. USE THAT.
Now, this part is copy + pasted from another thread. It's things you can do to save money once you already know where you're going: Most of these are pretty competitive, but worst case scenario you apply for them and get told no. You're no worse off than you were before. By the way, I'm assuming filling out your FAFSA for Direct Unsubsidized loans is a given.
1. Try to get a graduate assistantship. Mine required me to work 10 hours a week for the department but gave me $2,000 a semester in the form of a $500 pay check every month.
2. Look up "oddball" scholarships. Sometimes your university's department will have a list of them. These are from private organizations, so you have to fill out apps for them outside of the FAFSA. I got one that was $500 a semester.
3. Look and see if your state offers any grants or anything. Since FAFSA is federal, it doesn't include these state-specific grants. Some schools will consider you for these automatically if you fill out the FAFSA. Some will not. I got one that was $300 per semester.
4. This is pretty rare, but my school had "tuition wavers." As the name implies, the student's tuition was waived. They had out-of-state tuition waivers, which meant out-of-state students could pay in-state tuition instead, and then they had in-state tuition waivers, which meant the recipient paid nothing. Again, not all universities do this. If they do, the waiver is only good for one year or even one semester, but if they do have them, you have to apply for them outside of the FAFSA. These are also often based on financial need. To give you an idea, my class of 32 people had 3 out-of-state waivers and then I think only 1 in-state waiver. The in-state waiver went to a guy who was married with 4 kids. I got an out-of-state one for only one semester, but it makes a difference!
5. This is a big one many people don't think about. Most universities require that you have health insurance and automatically enroll you in their own university plan. Very often, you can get that waived by buying your own cheaper health plan, staying on your parents' plan if you're under 26, or even enrolling in Medicaid if you're eligible. For instance, my alma mater's fee for coverage is now $1,111 per semester for health insurance. I don't remember exactly, but I found a private plan that worked out to around $480 a semester instead, saving me $630 a semester.
6. I don't know if you're married, but I was married with one child when I entered PT school. My wife worked part time retail in the evenings when I was home studying and watching our daughter. We kept track of her income as a reminder of why it was worth the struggle of hardly seeing each other. Though we still had to use loans for many living expenses, her income saved us $30K over the 33 months I was in school.
Like I said, most of these take work to get and are only "nickels and dimes" when compared to the total cost of PT school. However, add them all up (except spouse income)...
$10,000 total for 5 semesters graduate assistantship (3 semesters I didn't have it)
$4,000 total private scholarship (8 semesters x $500)
$2,400 total state grant (8 semesters x $300)
$5,000 out-of-state tuition waver
$5,040 from getting cheaper insurance (8 semesters x $630)
$26,440 total savings. For working ten hours a week, filling out some forms, and writing a couple of essays, it was worth it.
The only other advice I have for paying for PT school is do everything you possibly can to minimize your loans. #1 regret of new grads is wishing they'd not borrowed as much as they did. Remember you don't have to take the full amount they offer you. Remember as well that if you find you have more than you'll need, you can turn around and repay it (or pay another loan with higher interest) instead of sitting on it while it accrues interest.
I actually put some thought into this and replied to another thread similar to this. I'll copy and paste that response, but also give you one more thought since I'm guessing you haven't started applying yet. This is the part specific to you:
Before even looking at how you're going to pay for grad school, first look at what you can save. You say you're an honors student and essentially have an excellent resume. That puts you in an excellent position to save a ton of money, not because of scholarships, but because of school selection. It means you can apply to the low cost (and therefore very competitive) schools and be accepted. My #1 piece of advice is unless you want to be a researcher, DON'T apply to the famous but very expensive schools. It's totally unnecessary, and you'll spend the rest of your life paying a premium for a school name that doesn't give you much, if any, advantage. When it comes to practicing PT, the vast majority of employers don't care where you went to school because guess what? Everyone takes the same board exam. As long as you passed and are licensed, they truly don't care. Which school you went to is only important if you want to research.
That being said, what you DO want to look at in a school is the graduation rate, the percentage of graduates who passed the NPTE on the first try, and their employment rate post-graduation. I graduated last year. My alma mater is in the middle of nowhere. You've probably never heard of it. However, their graduation rate is 94% for my class, and the pass rate and employment rate for the past 3 years is 100%. Based on their current stats, the in-state total tuition and fees for the entire 8-semester program is $40,936. As you look at which schools to apply to, make sure you do the math and pay careful attention to that total tuition number, as well as cost of living for the area. Probably the single most important factor in determining your total debt at graduation won't be which loans you choose. It will be which SCHOOL you choose. If your credentials are really as good as you say, there's no reason you can't get into an inexpensive but quality education school. USE THAT.
Now, this part is copy + pasted from another thread. It's things you can do to save money once you already know where you're going: Most of these are pretty competitive, but worst case scenario you apply for them and get told no. You're no worse off than you were before. By the way, I'm assuming filling out your FAFSA for Direct Unsubsidized loans is a given.
1. Try to get a graduate assistantship. Mine required me to work 10 hours a week for the department but gave me $2,000 a semester in the form of a $500 pay check every month.
2. Look up "oddball" scholarships. Sometimes your university's department will have a list of them. These are from private organizations, so you have to fill out apps for them outside of the FAFSA. I got one that was $500 a semester.
3. Look and see if your state offers any grants or anything. Since FAFSA is federal, it doesn't include these state-specific grants. Some schools will consider you for these automatically if you fill out the FAFSA. Some will not. I got one that was $300 per semester.
4. This is pretty rare, but my school had "tuition wavers." As the name implies, the student's tuition was waived. They had out-of-state tuition waivers, which meant out-of-state students could pay in-state tuition instead, and then they had in-state tuition waivers, which meant the recipient paid nothing. Again, not all universities do this. If they do, the waiver is only good for one year or even one semester, but if they do have them, you have to apply for them outside of the FAFSA. These are also often based on financial need. To give you an idea, my class of 32 people had 3 out-of-state waivers and then I think only 1 in-state waiver. The in-state waiver went to a guy who was married with 4 kids. I got an out-of-state one for only one semester, but it makes a difference!
5. This is a big one many people don't think about. Most universities require that you have health insurance and automatically enroll you in their own university plan. Very often, you can get that waived by buying your own cheaper health plan, staying on your parents' plan if you're under 26, or even enrolling in Medicaid if you're eligible. For instance, my alma mater's fee for coverage is now $1,111 per semester for health insurance. I don't remember exactly, but I found a private plan that worked out to around $480 a semester instead, saving me $630 a semester.
6. I don't know if you're married, but I was married with one child when I entered PT school. My wife worked part time retail in the evenings when I was home studying and watching our daughter. We kept track of her income as a reminder of why it was worth the struggle of hardly seeing each other. Though we still had to use loans for many living expenses, her income saved us $30K over the 33 months I was in school.
Like I said, most of these take work to get and are only "nickels and dimes" when compared to the total cost of PT school. However, add them all up (except spouse income)...
$10,000 total for 5 semesters graduate assistantship (3 semesters I didn't have it)
$4,000 total private scholarship (8 semesters x $500)
$2,400 total state grant (8 semesters x $300)
$5,000 out-of-state tuition waver
$5,040 from getting cheaper insurance (8 semesters x $630)
$26,440 total savings. For working ten hours a week, filling out some forms, and writing a couple of essays, it was worth it.
The only other advice I have for paying for PT school is do everything you possibly can to minimize your loans. #1 regret of new grads is wishing they'd not borrowed as much as they did. Remember you don't have to take the full amount they offer you. Remember as well that if you find you have more than you'll need, you can turn around and repay it (or pay another loan with higher interest) instead of sitting on it while it accrues interest.
I do not really know how to reply to you besides God Bless You. Ton of info in a concise fashion is just what I needed. I have a list of schools that I've started narrowing down, but have no issue looking outside the box for other programs. The only issue I may run into is that I am very interested in working in research at some point. I am already a research junkie so I figure it is a given at some point in my potential career. Nevertheless, Thank you so so much!
I actually put some thought into this and replied to another thread similar to this. I'll copy and paste that response, but also give you one more thought since I'm guessing you haven't started applying yet. This is the part specific to you:
Before even looking at how you're going to pay for grad school, first look at what you can save. You say you're an honors student and essentially have an excellent resume. That puts you in an excellent position to save a ton of money, not because of scholarships, but because of school selection. It means you can apply to the low cost (and therefore very competitive) schools and be accepted. My #1 piece of advice is unless you want to be a researcher, DON'T apply to the famous but very expensive schools. It's totally unnecessary, and you'll spend the rest of your life paying a premium for a school name that doesn't give you much, if any, advantage. When it comes to practicing PT, the vast majority of employers don't care where you went to school because guess what? Everyone takes the same board exam. As long as you passed and are licensed, they truly don't care. Which school you went to is only important if you want to research.
That being said, what you DO want to look at in a school is the graduation rate, the percentage of graduates who passed the NPTE on the first try, and their employment rate post-graduation. I graduated last year. My alma mater is in the middle of nowhere. You've probably never heard of it. However, their graduation rate is 94% for my class, and the pass rate and employment rate for the past 3 years is 100%. Based on their current stats, the in-state total tuition and fees for the entire 8-semester program is $40,936. As you look at which schools to apply to, make sure you do the math and pay careful attention to that total tuition number, as well as cost of living for the area. Probably the single most important factor in determining your total debt at graduation won't be which loans you choose. It will be which SCHOOL you choose. If your credentials are really as good as you say, there's no reason you can't get into an inexpensive but quality education school. USE THAT.
Now, this part is copy + pasted from another thread. It's things you can do to save money once you already know where you're going: Most of these are pretty competitive, but worst case scenario you apply for them and get told no. You're no worse off than you were before. By the way, I'm assuming filling out your FAFSA for Direct Unsubsidized loans is a given.
1. Try to get a graduate assistantship. Mine required me to work 10 hours a week for the department but gave me $2,000 a semester in the form of a $500 pay check every month.
2. Look up "oddball" scholarships. Sometimes your university's department will have a list of them. These are from private organizations, so you have to fill out apps for them outside of the FAFSA. I got one that was $500 a semester.
3. Look and see if your state offers any grants or anything. Since FAFSA is federal, it doesn't include these state-specific grants. Some schools will consider you for these automatically if you fill out the FAFSA. Some will not. I got one that was $300 per semester.
4. This is pretty rare, but my school had "tuition wavers." As the name implies, the student's tuition was waived. They had out-of-state tuition waivers, which meant out-of-state students could pay in-state tuition instead, and then they had in-state tuition waivers, which meant the recipient paid nothing. Again, not all universities do this. If they do, the waiver is only good for one year or even one semester, but if they do have them, you have to apply for them outside of the FAFSA. These are also often based on financial need. To give you an idea, my class of 32 people had 3 out-of-state waivers and then I think only 1 in-state waiver. The in-state waiver went to a guy who was married with 4 kids. I got an out-of-state one for only one semester, but it makes a difference!
5. This is a big one many people don't think about. Most universities require that you have health insurance and automatically enroll you in their own university plan. Very often, you can get that waived by buying your own cheaper health plan, staying on your parents' plan if you're under 26, or even enrolling in Medicaid if you're eligible. For instance, my alma mater's fee for coverage is now $1,111 per semester for health insurance. I don't remember exactly, but I found a private plan that worked out to around $480 a semester instead, saving me $630 a semester.
6. I don't know if you're married, but I was married with one child when I entered PT school. My wife worked part time retail in the evenings when I was home studying and watching our daughter. We kept track of her income as a reminder of why it was worth the struggle of hardly seeing each other. Though we still had to use loans for many living expenses, her income saved us $30K over the 33 months I was in school.
Like I said, most of these take work to get and are only "nickels and dimes" when compared to the total cost of PT school. However, add them all up (except spouse income)...
$10,000 total for 5 semesters graduate assistantship (3 semesters I didn't have it)
$4,000 total private scholarship (8 semesters x $500)
$2,400 total state grant (8 semesters x $300)
$5,000 out-of-state tuition waver
$5,040 from getting cheaper insurance (8 semesters x $630)
$26,440 total savings. For working ten hours a week, filling out some forms, and writing a couple of essays, it was worth it.
The only other advice I have for paying for PT school is do everything you possibly can to minimize your loans. #1 regret of new grads is wishing they'd not borrowed as much as they did. Remember you don't have to take the full amount they offer you. Remember as well that if you find you have more than you'll need, you can turn around and repay it (or pay another loan with higher interest) instead of sitting on it while it accrues interest.
A truer statement has never been uttered. Skip the ridiculously expensive Emory, Duke, Northeastern, etc. APPLY IN-STATE and go to which ever one you get into. The first time I applied, I was waitlisted at Elon (60k+ per year) and thankfully declined the spot. This year I was accepted into a , a cheap, in-state school with 100% pass rate over the last 3 years. I believe this will stand to be the smartest financial decision I'll ever make
