Private or Public

[MJHUSKERS]

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I'm curious to see who here likes private or public school settings and why?

I have only been at a large public school for my undergrad in the University of Wisc. system. I have been accepted to both public and private DPT programs and the private school seems kind of attractive, even though it cost a little more. The private schools seem to take around 24 and the public schools take atleast 50 upward to 80. Is it worth have a smaller class size or does it not matter for PT school? Do the professors care about what their DPT students learn or do they care more about research? I know here at UW-L as an undergrad, they never have time for you because their busy with research etc.

 

[PTstudent11]

If i were in your shoes, I'd definitely pick the cheaper option.

I had the same choice between public vs private and I chose public. I'll save roughly 50k on tuition in the long run. All the PT's i've talked to said DO NOT throw money into a school that isn't going to make you more money in the end. If a licence coming out of a private school will get u roughly the same salary as a public school, there's no financial benefit to chosing the private. One PT i talked to is a new grad (3 years out) and came out with over 100k from a top private school. She told me that while she loved her education, she makes the exact same amount of money as some of her coworkers whose public school loan payments are signficantly smaller. ie 300 bucks a month vs like 800.

Think of all the things you can do with the financial difference once you graduate. You could put a down payment on a house, get a new car, use it for investing, etc.

I think that class sizes is an important issue, but as long as the larger classes have been succeeding in prior years, i am certain you will be able to succeed as well. have you asked any current students how they feel about their class size? i think that may give u the best perspective on that.

Also, ask the students how their professors deal with research. I think all schools are different. I visited one school where I felt the priority of the teachers was definitely their research projects, not their students. I got a sense of that from their presentation on why to chose the school:" because our research in X,Y,Z is so good! " I honestly felt like, "well great... but why is your DPT so good?"

While research is important, I feel PT's should be research consumers not researchers. I wouldnt be getting my DPT if I was strictly interested in research, I want to be a clinician. So ask around, read their website, talk to students.

But all things aside, i'd probably suck it up with a class of 150 if it meant saving a whole lotta money in the end. As long as the teachers cared enough about teaching and creating a good clinician, I'd be fine. Education is important but so is cash flow. its not all about money, but I don't want to start my career eating ramen and baked beans. 🙂 Get the most bang for your buck, whatever you chose.

just my 2 cents.

 

[MJHUSKERS]

What do you think of a tuition at about 23,000 a year for a private school?

 

[Architect2PT]

That sounds like a reasonable tuition to me.
Some of the public schools have instate tuition that is more than that.

 

[PTstudent11]

i agree that's pretty nice tuition for a private school. mind me asking what school that is?

I'd say just break the cost down. Are you taking out loans to cover tuition? if so, even an extra 20k could be about 200 dollars a month on your loan repayment. just something to consider.

But it honestly sounds like a pretty good deal. All the private schools I was accepted into had tuition of roughly 33k a year, not including room and board! so i went with a school that will cost me about 16k a year.

 

[MuscleHead]

If i were in your shoes, I'd definitely pick the cheaper option.

I had the same choice between public vs private and I chose public. I'll save roughly 50k on tuition in the long run. All the PT's i've talked to said DO NOT throw money into a school that isn't going to make you more money in the end. If a licence coming out of a private school will get u roughly the same salary as a public school, there's no financial benefit to chosing the private. One PT i talked to is a new grad (3 years out) and came out with over 100k from a top private school. She told me that while she loved her education, she makes the exact same amount of money as some of her coworkers whose public school loan payments are signficantly smaller. ie 300 bucks a month vs like 800.

Think of all the things you can do with the financial difference once you graduate. You could put a down payment on a house, get a new car, use it for investing, etc.

I think that class sizes is an important issue, but as long as the larger classes have been succeeding in prior years, i am certain you will be able to succeed as well. have you asked any current students how they feel about their class size? i think that may give u the best perspective on that.

Also, ask the students how their professors deal with research. I think all schools are different. I visited one school where I felt the priority of the teachers was definitely their research projects, not their students. I got a sense of that from their presentation on why to chose the school:" because our research in X,Y,Z is so good! " I honestly felt like, "well great... but why is your DPT so good?"

While research is important, I feel PT's should be research consumers not researchers. I wouldnt be getting my DPT if I was strictly interested in research, I want to be a clinician. So ask around, read their website, talk to students.

But all things aside, i'd probably suck it up with a class of 150 if it meant saving a whole lotta money in the end. As long as the teachers cared enough about teaching and creating a good clinician, I'd be fine. Education is important but so is cash flow. its not all about money, but I don't want to start my career eating ramen and baked beans. 🙂 Get the most bang for your buck, whatever you chose.

just my 2 cents.

agreed completely with this. good post. i had a debate the other day with a girl i went to college with who is all set on going to USC and is completely set on the fact she'll be that much more prepared than everyone else and will have a leg up when starting her first job. its complete nonsense. the people that choose those programs typically come from money and have poor financial sense. education is an investment that should yield returns. if it takes your entire life to pay off an education it probably isnt worth it.

 

[MJHUSKERS]

Concordia University is 23K flat rate and Des Moines University is 20K, but DMU takes more students, around 50. Both are private though. Concordia interviewed 95 for 24 spots on their visitation day.

Advantages I found at Concordia:
Full cadaver labs..disect cadavers in groups of 3-4 (not leftovers from med students)
Only 24 students total
Pro-bono clinic - get clincal experence from day 1
Get to choose focus on clinicals, so I could do all ortho/manual setting
Offers advanced electives in all areas the 3rd year (ortho/manual elective for me)
Offer a few different paid 1 year internships in place of clinicals (ortho setting for me)

I like the idea of a small class and being very personalble with the professors. I also like the tuitions more at the state schools though....

 

[MuscleHead]

Concordia University is 23K flat rate and Des Moines University is 20K, but DMU takes more students, around 50. Both are private though. Concordia interviewed 95 for 24 spots on their visitation day.

Advantages I found at Concordia:
Full cadaver labs..disect cadavers in groups of 3-4 (not leftovers from med students)
Only 24 students total
Pro-bono clinic - get clincal expeice from day 1
Get to choose focus on clinicals, so I could do all ortho/manual setting
Offers advanced electives in all areas (ortho/manual elective for me)
Offer a few different paid 1 year internships in place of clinicals (ortho setting for me)

I like the idea of a small class and being very personalble with the professors. I also like the tuitions more at the state schools though....

if youre talking about 3k difference per year, i wouldnt let costs distract you too much. go with your gut

 

[MJHUSKERS]

No more like 8k a year, the state schools cost 15k

 

[Architect2PT]

I would strongly consider paying 8k more per yer, especially if you really like the program. Paying 35k more per year to attend a school like USC, that's hard to swallow....

 

[PTstudent11]

Concordia University is 23K flat rate and Des Moines University is 20K, but DMU takes more students, around 50. Both are private though. Concordia interviewed 95 for 24 spots on their visitation day.

Advantages I found at Concordia:
Full cadaver labs..disect cadavers in groups of 3-4 (not leftovers from med students)
Only 24 students total
Pro-bono clinic - get clincal experence from day 1
Get to choose focus on clinicals, so I could do all ortho/manual setting
Offers advanced electives in all areas the 3rd year (ortho/manual elective for me)
Offer a few different paid 1 year internships in place of clinicals (ortho setting for me)

I like the idea of a small class and being very personalble with the professors. I also like the tuitions more at the state schools though....

Financially.. lets think about it.
8K more a year? well that's a total difference of 24k in the long run. Again, 24k is a pretty nice chunk of change NOT to pay if you don't have to. But if you really think you are getting a better opportunity and a better education, you may decide that this difference is worth it.

Lets seriously run the numbers. Lets say you take the private school (Concordia). Assume you DON'T get one of the 'few' paid clinicals (Only because you need to know if you can pay for the school without this option). Say you pay 23k x 3 years for a total of $ 69,000. I'll assume you take out loans to pay the full tuition. Government loans will prob only get you around 20,000 a year, so you may need some private loans to cover the other 3,000. But lets do a loan calculation assuming all gov loans.

I used this online calculator: http://dinkytown.com/java/PaymentOptions.html

If you take 69,000 with interest rates on gov. loans at 6.5% and want to pay over 20 years (240 months), you will owe $514.45 a month for 20 years. This is Concordia's tuition repayment.

If you take 60,000 with interest rates on gov. loans at 6.5% and want to pay over 20 years (240 months) you will owe $447.34 a month for 20 years.

Imagine you saved 24k and chose your public school.
Now we are calculating 45,000 at 6.5% over 240 months. you will owe $335.51 a month for 20 years.

you save $179 for the rest of those 20 years choosing public over Concordia and $112 choosing public over Des Moines.

So.. now you have all the info. What do you think? This doesn't include the cost of living of course which you have to factor in separately.

 

[MJHUSKERS]

Hmmm, well I'm not sure how accurate those numbers are because not every loan I take will have interest rates etc. etc. So those numbers to me would be the worst case scenario. Thanks for your post though, very informative.