Western U DPT Graduates (or any school where yearly tuition is around 60-70K)

[AFS_Ca]

Hi,
I was recently accepted to Western U Health Sciences DPT program. I am very passionate about PT and I do believe this is the field for me, however, I am not sure graduating with over 170K in loans with a DPT degree will be a good financial decision. I am looking for opinions from previous students who are now graduates with over 150K debt. I am not necessarily looking for reasons to accept the offer, instead, just honest opinions of how life is post-graduate.

Feel free to DM or reply to thread. Thank you.

(Just to provide more information: I do not have any money saved so I would be taking the maximum amount of loans)

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[Future_Ms_DPT]

Hi,
I was recently accepted to Western U Health Sciences DPT program. I am very passionate about PT and I do believe this is the field for me, however, I am not sure graduating with over 170K in loans with a DPT degree will be a good financial decision. I am looking for opinions from previous students who are now graduates with over 150K debt. I am not necessarily looking for reasons to accept the offer, instead, just honest opinions of how life is post-graduate.

Feel free to DM or reply to thread. Thank you.

(Just to provide more information: I do not have any money saved so I would be taking the maximum amount of loans)

I’m in the same boat as you but with USC. Hopefully some graduates are able to provide insight!

 

[AP191]

I do not have 150k in debt, but I did graduate with approx. 120k in debt, which included undergrad and grad loans, back in 2018. I live at home, and I borrowed 30k from my parents to help pay off my loans faster. I had a goal of paying off my students loans in about 5 years after graduating. Currently, I have 47 months until I am debt free (barring any catastrophic changes). With that said, it is tough. I pay roughly $1700 in student loans while contributing to a few bills at home as well. When I can, I pay a little more a few months out of the year. I refinanced my loans multiple times to obtain a decent interest rate, which lowered my monthly payment down.

Also, I complemented my salary with PRN work during the weekends. After about a year, I was fortunate to land a good paying job which allowed me to have my weekends to myself.

But like previous people have posted, this field is not worth it for more than 80k in student loans. I went to a school that cost roughly 75k for 3 years not counting living expense. I have many things going for me, and I still find it difficult to save anything. I can't imagine living on my own and still trying to pay off this enormous debt.

 

[AFS_Ca]

I do not have 150k in debt, but I did graduate with approx. 120k in debt, which includes undergrad and grad loans, back in 2018. I live at home, and my parents have provided some assistance with about 30k, which I will pay back. I had a goal of paying off my students loans in about 5 years after graduating. Currently, I have 47 months until I am debt free (barring any catastrophic changes). With that said, it is tough. I pay roughly $1700 in student loans while contributing to a few bills at home as well. When I can, I pay a little more a few months out of the year. I refinanced my loans multiple times to obtain a decent interest rate, which lowered my monthly payment down.

Also, I complemented my salary with PRN work during the weekends. After about a year, I was fortunate to land a good paying job which allowed me to have my weekends to myself.

But like previous people have posted, this field is not worth it for more than 80k in student loans. I went to a school that cost roughly 75k for 3 years not counting living expense. I have many things going for me, and I still find it difficult to save anything. I can't imagine living on my own and still trying to pay off this enormous debt.

Thank you! One thing I rarely thought of during my undergrad was how expensive PT school can get. I'm in a position where I feel like I have to choose between my dream job and financial stability. I am currently paying off undergrad loans and still have about 20K left, with the current state of PT and healthcare, I don't know how smart it will be to graduate in 3 years with 190K in debt.

 

[topher031888]

I was fortunate to not have six figure debt but I can say that your dream job will feel a heck of a lot less like a dream and more like you are trapped if you take on that debt. I really like what I do but even my 60k significantly impacts how I am saving for retirement and providing for my family and on a rough day makes me question my decision to pursue my dream. I don't think I would redo anything but I have realized my dream is not what I do for work, its what I build outside of my work ours. I do however love having a job I am passionate about and I generally like being at work while still being able to provide for my family.

That being said, I do have a former classmate that managed to pay off 220k in about 4 years. It was quite impressive but not an option for everyone. Essentially got married right out of school then they both proceeded to move to the Las Vegas area. There she was able to get a decent paying job in a affordable area. Wither her good job and her husbands decent incomes and no kids, they have been living on next to nothing and putting all of their excess income into her student loans. She's going to be alright but I watched her go through the "my debt is not a big deal, it's is going to get forgiven eventually anyway" to "I have made a serious mistake". Unfortunately I know a lot of PTs with six figure debt that still haven't actually researched their repayment plan and are potentially going to run into serious issues.

 

[AP191]

I don't know how smart it will be to graduate in 3 years with 190K in debt.

I would definitely reconsider taking on that much debt. Even for pharmacists that is an insane amount of money to take on, and they make roughly 1.5x as much as we do. I had a colleague who had about 150k of student loans from Northwestern, and he brushed it aside, mentioning how he is making minimum payments and in 20 years it will be forgiven. APTA really has to do something about these outrageous prices to obtain a DPT.

The PTCAS Applicant Data Report stated fewer people applied in the 2017-2018 cycle compared to the past few years even with record number of schools available. I wonder if that trend will continue.

 

[topher031888]

I had a colleague who had about 150k of student loans from Northwestern, and he brushed it aside, mentioning how he is making minimum payments and in 20 years it will be forgiven.

Excellent point, that is a perfect example of how a significant amount of people on income based repayment plans don't understand that the forgiven amount is taxable income. If you are on one of those plans you will make your minimum payment but you also have to save for the taxes. When you look at it that way you still can have a $1500 "payment" even with an income based plan.

The lack of diligence done by borrowers scares me. Last year when the first round of people eligible applied for forgiveness and only a hand full of people were approved. Turns out almost no one had done it properly, even though the information on requirements, loan eligibility, etc. was available.

I wish the APTA had power over this but I fear they don't. Is there a professional organization in the medical field (or any field for that matter) that has successfully lobbied for tuition prices to be decreased or fixed?

 

[MartialArtDPT]

Excellent point, that is a perfect example of how a significant amount of people on income based repayment plans don't understand that the forgiven amount is taxable income. If you are on one of those plans you will make your minimum payment but you also have to save for the taxes. When you look at it that way you still can have a $1500 "payment" even with an income based plan.

The lack of diligence done by borrowers scares me. Last year when the first round of people eligible applied for forgiveness and only a hand full of people were approved. Turns out almost no one had done it properly, even though the information on requirements, loan eligibility, etc. was available.

I wish the APTA had power over this but I fear they don't. Is there a professional organization in the medical field (or any field for that matter) that has successfully lobbied for tuition prices to be decreased or fixed?

If you do PSLF it's not even taxable (and lots of jobs are available that qualify). And in the next few years several of those kinks will become more well-known and easier to navigate. Loan forgiveness and income-based repayment are great options as long as you really know what you're getting yourself into.

 

[topher031888]

If you do PSLF it's not even taxable (and lots of jobs are available that qualify). And in the next few years several of those kinks will become more well-known and easier to navigate. Loan forgiveness and income-based repayment are great options as long as you really know what you're getting yourself into.

True, but I still wouldn't go as far as to call it a great option. I would consider it the best option for a lot of people. There is still a lot of risk, for example have you actually read the language used to describe the program and terms? Its incredibly vague leaving the possibility that it could change. You have to be on a certain income based repayment strategy to qualify which means the loan will be much larger at the end of the 10 years so in the event that it goes away (there is no guarantee you will be grandfathered in if you start the process now or that it will still be there by the time you graduate) you could be in a worse situation. Then there is the fact you have to work for a non-profit, which often is fine but you lose a lot of flexibility in where you want to work and what you want to do with your career. I have a colleague who took a job with a non-profit hospital but there was an ownership change and they aren't non-profit anymore.

Also, I should mention that only certain types of loans apply so if this is the plan, I would make sure you don't take on any loans that don't apply and be willing to relocate to wherever you can get a job with a non-profit because you might not have the luxury of working in the state or city you want to.

For those with large amounts of student loans, it is definitely the best option. Heck, it is the only current forgiveness program that is actually good but it can feel like a form of indentured servitude. You may feel trapped in a job or career path and after 10 years switching may be difficult.

 

[MartialArtDPT]

True, but I still wouldn't go as far as to call it a great option. I would consider it the best option for a lot of people. There is still a lot of risk, for example have you actually read the language used to describe the program and terms? Its incredibly vague leaving the possibility that it could change. You have to be on a certain income based repayment strategy to qualify which means the loan will be much larger at the end of the 10 years so in the event that it goes away (there is no guarantee you will be grandfathered in if you start the process now or that it will still be there by the time you graduate) you could be in a worse situation. Then there is the fact you have to work for a non-profit, which often is fine but you lose a lot of flexibility in where you want to work and what you want to do with your career. I have a colleague who took a job with a non-profit hospital but there was an ownership change and they aren't non-profit anymore.

Also, I should mention that only certain types of loans apply so if this is the plan, I would make sure you don't take on any loans that don't apply and be willing to relocate to wherever you can get a job with a non-profit because you might not have the luxury of working in the state or city you want to.

For those with large amounts of student loans, it is definitely the best option. Heck, it is the only current forgiveness program that is actually good but it can feel like a form of indentured servitude. You may feel trapped in a job or career path and after 10 years switching may be difficult.

It's not terribly hard to find a job that qualifies- universities, many hospitals, and several other organizations can qualify. Also, you don't need to have the same job or make those payments in a row- it's just flat a number of certain types of payments. So if you don't like your job or area, you're not tied down.

In addition, even if your loans don't qualify at the outset, you can consolidate them into an eligible loan. The only catch is that you'll have to start over if you've already tried to start payments. It's also very, very unlikely that the program would not grandfather in people who already have their loans. Has that happened, to your knowledge? From what I know there was even special funding allocated for people who messed up the process early on because it was so complicated at first.

 

[ya1]

I borrowed about 90K. Chose 20-years pay off period. Minimal payments now are a little less than $600/month. I believe it will go up to minimal $900-950/month a few years later.