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http://www.apta.org/PTinMotion/News..._medium=email&utm_campaign=Informz+email+link
Las Vegas though...........
Las Vegas though...........
Also, If you make more than like 80k, you can't claim it.Some of you may be counting on the interest on your student loans to lighten your tax burden, once you graduate. Please note that currently (5/2015) the IRS only allows a maximum deduction of $2.5K/yr for student loan interest. IMO, that is a relatively small deduction, although every little bit helps.
If you plan to buy a home, the yearly limit on mortgage interest deduction is much, much higher: $1M/yr.
Also, If you make more than like 80k, you can't claim it.
Excuse me for being ignorant, but how would that affect say a travel PT? There's a video on SDN somewhere of a Travel PT giving an explanation of everything and it coming out to like $80-95K total income and only ~$54K Taxable. How would that go into affect with the $80K Limit.Thanks for pointing this out. I just wanted to point out that the $80k limit on eligibility for this deduction is your AGI, so your gross income could be higher than $80k and you'd still be eligible. And for those who are married filing jointly the AGI can be up to $160k before you are no longer eligible for the deduction. So most new PT grads should be eligible for some portion of the deduction, unless they are single and working a lot of hours/particularly high earning. Note that between $65k and $80k for single and between $130k and $160k for married filing jointly, the maximum deduction you can take is phased down from $2500 slowly to $0 once you reach the cap. So most married PTs with spouses that don't generate huge incomes should be eligible for most if not all of the $2500 deduction (which as jblil has stated is a relatively small deduction relative to a $100k+ two-spouse income, but every little bit helps). Single PTs may be hit or miss as to how much they are eligible to deduct.
Thanks @jblil and @NewDPT31 for prompting me to get informed on this subject.
Not to mention $2500/year for "depreciation"!Some of you may be counting on the interest on your student loans to lighten your tax burden, once you graduate. Please note that currently (5/2015) the IRS only allows a maximum deduction of $2.5K/yr for student loan interest. IMO, that is a relatively small deduction, although every little bit helps.
If you plan to buy a home, the yearly limit on mortgage interest deduction is much, much higher: $1M/yr.
Interesting reading, from a recent Pharmacy grad:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1444775/?start=0
TL; DR: $480K student loan debt, $60K income.
I have a nagging feeling that's where the PT field is eventually headed. Be mindful of how much you borrow, and be willing to relocate for work.
In these situations, how can you separate yourself from the massive numbers of other graduates if everything is viewed as standardized and equal? How can you get ahead to give yourself better options down the road for employment?
Interesting reading, from a recent Pharmacy grad:
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance/1444775/?start=0
TL; DR: $480K student loan debt, $60K income.
I have a nagging feeling that's where the PT field is eventually headed. Be mindful of how much you borrow, and be willing to relocate for work.
I just noticed an interesting discussion on the DPT Facebook group about PTs' starting salaries:
www.facebook.com/groups/370244506354966/permalink/984572254922185/
I am astounded at the folks who want more money "because I have a doctorate..."
I just noticed an interesting discussion on the DPT Facebook group about PTs' starting salaries:
www.facebook.com/groups/370244506354966/permalink/984572254922185/
I am astounded at the folks who want more money "because I have a doctorate..."
The last link is referring to the PTA program. I have no affiliation with South. Just wanted to clarify.There was a discussion about South College's for-profit DPT program earlier in this thread. You can find one update here (scroll to post # 42, towards the end of the thread):
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...e-a-100k-tuition-school-was-worth-it.1142989/
A couple of other data points:
- Reviews of South College's PA & PTA programs; read all 5 pages and form your own opinion. I found it interesting that some students are talking of a class-action lawsuit.
http://www.topix.com/forum/knoxville/TFVUN1L162U04B23I
- The DPT program at SC takes folks with a 2.5 GPA??? Look under the section titled "Admission".
http://physical-therapy-schools.startclass.com/l/356/South-College
If true, this school is a joke.
I went through my salary survey and updated the comparison between job offers for 2015 grads vs. 2014 grads. It can be found here:
https://dptfinances.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/salary-survey-2015-grads-vs-2014-grads.pdf
I hope it'll be useful to new grads as well as to the folks contemplating getting into this field.
But I found it interesting that APTA is conceding that, under some scenarios, there could be a surplus.
Curious if the accrediting agencies have power to limit the seats offered for a program? I go to a school that has pt/ot and the incoming classes are way bigger than mine.
Curious if the accrediting agencies have power to limit the seats offered for a program? I go to a school that has pt/ot and the incoming classes are way bigger than mine.
My favorite are therapists who complain about therapy companies being too focused on the bottom line but then being the first ones out the door if they dont get the raise they want. They think they shouldnt have any productivity standard and should be able to do as much or little treatment as they want but get paid 90,000/year. When it comes to the companies bottom line they are all high and mighty and critical but when it comes to their personal bottom line they sing a different tune.
Obviously there are bad companies out there who do unethical things but I have seen therapists complain about reasonable expectations and good companies and think they should be able to be 50% productive but get paid top dollar.
I'm an OT (soon enough, currently in my last level II), and I can tell you that my current hospital has a 96% productivity rate, and the clinicians here have anxiety whenever a patient cancels an appt due to what effect it will have on their productivity rate.
.As an OT I feel like we have major deficits in our field; we need to start doing some lower body work, I see PTs doing almost everything in our field of practice. I'm a bit nervous about the direction in which our reimbursement, salary, tuition costs etc are moving. I am not sure I could, in good conscience, recommend that someone become an OT if the person also has an interest in other fields like medicine, NP/PA etc...In fact, I honestly think we should have a physiotherapy degree and move away from the PT/OT system we have in the US.
The fact that documentation happens during the lunch hour, and after work, all unpaid is really troubling to me. It looks like a class action lawsuit is brewing for hourly employees who are basically forced to do this. Maybe we need a rehab union?
My debt is huge, and my salary isn't going to be huge. I don't think 75k is "a lot" of money when you factor in the amount of debt I have. Physicians make 4 times as much as we do and more, and yes I understand they did more schooling, have more responsibilities, and have more debt load. Trust me, I'd take on more debt and love to make 400k like my MD uncle does.
Warning – long post.
I took and passed the NPTE in Jan 2016, and am planning to accept a position with a hospital system.
FWIW, and in the hope that it’ll be useful to others, here’s my experience in studying for the Board and looking for jobs.
Studying for the Board: I started about 1 month prior to the exam date. Daily studying was +/- 3 hours on average. On most weeknights, I’d talk to a classmate for a bit, to BS and compare notes. We used Teamviewer, which allowed us to not only see each other (like the video calls on Skype), but also each other’s computer desktop in case we wanted to look at something together. I used the practice exams from Scorebuilders, PhysEd and PEAT and went through every single question, the ones I missed as well as the ones I got right. I found the discussions with my classmate to be quite useful since we’d often approach a topic in slightly different ways.
Job search: The best situation of course is to get hired by one of our former clinical sites. They know us, we know them, red tape is short-circuited, it’s a win-win. However, none of mine was hiring. May be it’s an early sign of the dreaded supply/demand imbalance? I also decided to avoid private practices for a first job since several folks from the class above mine ended up in “patient mills” and hated them. So I looked up the hospital systems in my state, and applied to most of them.
All applications are done online now, and after you have filled out the info once, applying to other positions with the same employer takes but a couple of clicks. The first week, I applied to 40 positions with 18 different employers, and got calls from 4 for on-site interviews. In week 2, I applied to 7 more positions with 4 other employers. In week 3, I received 4 offers and accepted one, after minimal negotiations. Bottom line: 47 applications sent out, 5 face-to-face interviews (plus 2 declined invitations), 3 “sorry, we’ve chosen someone else”, and 5 job offers (every face-to-face interview I went to, resulted in job offers). I never heard back from the rest of the other applications.
I did not use recruiters, although I got plenty of calls and emails from them.
A few tips for those who are graduating soon:
After you pass the Board, do take time to circle back and thank the folks who wrote your LORs when you applied to PT programs. I stopped by to see all of them and let them know I am now a licensed PT, thanks to their help. Every single one of them seemed to appreciate the personal touch.
If your school holds a healthcare career fair, go to it. Get the names and contact info of the persons manning the booths. Later, as you fill out job applications, use their names in the “referred by” field, and send those folks an email to let them know you have applied. Don’t be shy, they may even get a little financial bonus if you are hired.
Create a text document with all of your personal info (such as schools, years of attendance, graduation dates), employment info (previous employers’ addresses, supervisors, dates worked, salaries), references, etc. You will have to enter this stuff repeatedly into online applications, and having everything in one spot will save you time since all you have to do is copy-and-paste.
By the same token, create a master resume that you can tweak slightly, depending on the setting you’re applying to. For ex., if you’re going for an inpatient acute position, you can give a bit more details about your inpatient rotation(s). Keep track of which version you sent where.
Create a dashboard to log which employers you are targeting, when you applied, the contact info of the HR person, the requisition number of the position, the status of your application, and other details you want to track. Update it daily, and you’ll always have a bird’s eye view of your job search. It will come in handy if you need to stall an offer, or nudge an employer to make a decision because you have a pending offer elsewhere. I used an Excel table for this.
Every interview I went to included multiple behavioral questions, such as “Tell me of a time when…”. If you do not have a lot of work/life experience that will allow you to answer such questions on the fly, you should prepare for them. Think about situations encountered during your clinicals, and be concise when you answer. If you tend to ramble, follow the PAR format (problem-action-result) to structure your reply. I always ended my answers with something like “what that situation taught me was…”, to show that it was a learning experience. Also, have an elevator-pitch ready in your figurative back pocket because some interviewers will start out with “Tell me about yourself.”
Being able to speak other languages, esp. Spanish, is a big plus. So if you have time, study some Spanish, and that way you can claim familiarity with the language when you fill out the applications. I can speak a few other languages in addition to English, and have no doubt that it helped get my resume noticed.
IMO the interviews are more about “fit” and personality than skills. If you’ve graduated from an accredited school and passed the Board (well, may be South College is an exception…), you can handle an entry-level position. I think the interviewer is more concerned with “will this person integrate well into my current operation, will s/he get along with my present staff?” than with your skills. So be yourself during the interview and assess the environment critically since you may end up working in it. Interviews are a 2-way street.
Use Glassdoor.com and other review sites to check out potential employers. Just be aware that some of the posts may be written by HR, esp. if they sound too good to be true (e.g., excellent place to work, good pay, generous benefits, wonderful management, etc). If you believe such posts, I’d like to introduce you to a still-secret associate of Bernie Madoff who is just as good in investing as Bernie himself.
After the interview, it’s good form to send a thank-you email. While it won’t increase your odds of being hired, it does show professionalism. I send mine on the same day -sometimes when still in the parking lot-, and they are very short: “Thank you for your time. I enjoyed talking to you about [insert a topic you discussed during the interview]. Regards.”
Dressing for interviews: Always dress one notch more formally than the folks who are interviewing you. Since most rehab managers/directors are business casual, I go in wearing a sports coat. I assume a simple but elegant dress would work well if you’re female, but would love to hear from the ladies themselves on this one.
I hope the above info will be useful as you wrap up your degree and start looking for jobs. As for me, I am ready for this next adventure – I told an old friend yesterday that a goniometer is a lot easier to carry than the Vz58 I lugged around, in a previous life and in a galaxy far, far away.
96% productivity rate? That's insane. I feel bad for you, but you definitely need to ask this question before you accept the assignment. I don't take anything above 85%, and preferably 80%. But 96 is just ridiculous. I don't think the therapy cap is the problem, although it needs to be removed. The real solution is choice. Don't take jobs that require 96% productivity. I would quit ASAP
Not having productivity standards is impossible if for profit or non profits want to remain in business. 96 is very high, I agree with that. I work with people who bitch about productivity and then never do anything to try to improve it. They don't remove discharged patients to pad their schedules to make themselves look busy, they don't call patients after the cancel to try to get them to reschedule, they don't ask for initial evaluations when there are open spots.
Also once you are in the clinic you can get good at documenting while continuing to provide excellent care without staying all day and night. Yes you have to work through lunches but many professions that pay worse have longer hours.
Instead of complaining of things you can't change just do your best to try and show your superiors you are making an effort without making yourself crazy.
Fascinating thought. I've been pondering your comment all day. I thought through my PT class and realized that I can comfortably say most people in my class are already married/engaged to a spouse who has higher income potential. There are some students who will be the primary earners in their family, but definitely the minority.I agree with largely everything you wrote. This is the therapy world we have inherited. We can in fact change it if we had a good lobbying organization (hint: doctors do.)
I'm curious - when we move to a doctorate getting an OT degree is going to be a really tough sell. GPA requirements that are about the same as Med school if not higher, with a similar debt load, and we make about 1/5th-1/4th the amount a doctor does.
I find it sad that our field is going to end up very difficult for a person of limited means to attain. I don't want anyone to be offended by my view, I mean this earnestly, I'm concerned about the direction of our field with productivity standards, and now a doctorate. We're already a 95%+ white field. We're 95% female. Will we also soon be 90% rich? PTs have adjusted to it, I'm not sure why. I feel our career is going to slip from one which makes sense to one a rich white married woman does PRN for "fun, on the side".
I used to be in that scenario (wife primary earner) but then she switched jobs and makes less than myself now. You make it work- most important thing is to choose a field that will make you happy. Both of us had very high paying jobs in the past that made us miserable- neither of us have looked back. Those fat pay checks were nice but we live comfortably within our means. Living within your means is the most important thing.
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There are some students who will be the primary earners in their family, but definitely the minority.
This probably varies widely program to program. I doubt if >50% of people in my class will be making less than their spouse/significant others after graduation. Hard to say for sure I guess.
Both OT and PT are 90%+ female, 90% + white, and new classes are increasingly from upper-class backgrounds. Incoming students hail from LESS diverse racial and socio-economic backgrounds than nearly any other field in healthcare.
Have you seen stats showing this, or is this from your personal experience? I'm curious about diversity in the field and would love to see some hard numbers, if they exist.
Yes I did see stats, from the AOTA. As for PT programs - I haven't seen data it's anecdotal.