Worth the debt?

[DTOWN]

Hello all,

I wanted to get some info from any of ya'll about whether the cost of DPT was worth the debt? At the moment I'm leaning towards declining an offer from an out of state school. The reason I bring this up is because I want to be in debt as little as possible. I want to be able to live a life where I don't constantly need to be frugal and live on a budget as if I was near poverty, just in order to pay back my loans. At the same time though, if I decline this school then I might have to wait an extra year to get back since the only in-state school I have has wait listed me but their classes start in June...

I've been reading up on a lot of the articles on websites like Forbes, US News, and CNBC, where they talk about the rule of thumb for the cost of your graduate education being worth it. They use a general rule of thumb:

Here's what I got from a Forbes article -

If your total undergraduate debt and grad school debt are higher than your first-year salary out of graduate school, then the cost of your total education is too high.

Another good rule of thumb: “You should borrow no more than you can repay in 10 years or than you can repay before you retire,” says Kantrowitz. If this particular degree and field doesn't pass those guidelines, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should skip grad school. Maybe you look into a different type of degree that will increase your earnings enough to justify the cost, or you find another way to fund your tuition so it’s not debt.

I've also read that you should assume that for every dollar you owe to student loan debt, you pay 2 back.

So the math for me goes like this:

20,000 in Undergrad debt + a projected amount of 80,000 graduate debt = 100,000 debt in total
This means that by the 2 by 1 rule, I would have paid back 200,000 dollars by the time my loan is completely paid off.

For a job that only pays a median salary of 80-85k and a starting salary of 57k-70k, I'd say I don't think it's worth it. Now, If I was to get into an In-State school, I would have no hesitations due to the amount of money I'd be saving.

Now, many of you are probably like "Yeah, you already know your decision." But I'd like to get any additional perspectives from anybody that has debt like this.

Thanks!

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[scrawnyguy]

How old are you? If I was in my early to mid 20s I still think I would have pursued PT with the debt to income ratio you described. If I was a non-traditional student exploring a career change in their mid 30s (which I was) I would have looked elsewhere. I was fortunate to get into Army-Baylor though so the financial piece pretty much took care of itself.

 

[DTOWN]

How old are you? If I was in my early to mid 20s I still think I would have pursued PT with the debt to income ratio you described. If I was a non-traditional student exploring a career change in their mid 30s (which I was) I would have looked elsewhere. I was fortunate to get into Army-Baylor though so the financial piece pretty much took care of itself.

I'm 23.

 

[noyceguy]

I'm 23.

Wait to get into a cheaper school .

 

[DrRedstone]

Here's what I got from a Forbes article -
If your total undergraduate debt and grad school debt are higher than your first-year salary out of graduate school, then the cost of your total education is too high.

Another good rule of thumb: “You should borrow no more than you can repay in 10 years or than you can repay before you retire,” says Kantrowitz. If this particular degree and field doesn't pass those guidelines, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should skip grad school. Maybe you look into a different type of degree that will increase your earnings enough to justify the cost, or you find another way to fund your tuition so it’s not debt.

If Forbes is right, any of us in medical school would have picked the wrong field. Ultimately, you need to consider whether or not your application will get you in again next year. I am not really up to date on the competitive nature of PT applications, but throwing away an acceptance now may mean you don't make it into the field. If you are going to stay PT long term, it may be worth biting the bullet of tuition so that you get to do what you love. Best of luck!