Physician's Assistant school debt free?

[ThelmaLou]

Ds 16 wants to major in something under the Kinesiology/applied physical science umbrella, then go on to do PA school. He already knows that he'll be doing community college for the first couple of years unless he gets a full scholarship to a 4 year school.

 

We don't have the funds to send our 5 boys to college, and we've stressed all along that they can work for it on the front end (scholarships) or as they go along (work/study program, job, living at home, community college, etc...)

 

I know many kids pay their way through an undergraduate degree, but what about graduate degrees? Does a program like PA require consecutive semesters with no break? Would he be able to take semesters off to work if he ran out of money?

 

Have any of your kids paid their way through grad. school?

[Jane in NC]

I paid my way through grad school but I was in a field which offered stipends. STEM subjects often offer grad students either teaching assistantships or fellowships.

 

The problem with professional programs, which it what I believe you are describing, is the progression. Students are often required to be full time with little time for a part time job.

 

If grad/professional school is a goal, I would encourage your student to accumulate as little debt as possible in undergrad knowing that he will probably have debt from their post baccalaureate program.

Edited April 12, 2012 by Jane in NC

[lavender]

Is your son willing to travel and live in rural areas? If so, I know that certain state universities such as the University of Nebraska Lincoln has a PA program which, if he is willing to give up 3-5 years after graduation practicing in rural corners of Nebraska, will mostly cover his tuition. Many rural areas in the midwest and indian reservations are in desperate need of medical services and some universities will trade tuition for years of service afterwards.

 

Something to look into.

[Barbara H]

My thought is that there is a lot of time for interests, major, and careers to evolve and most students do end up changing their minds. So, I would focus right now on maximizing his odds for a low cost undergrad without accumulating debt. Once he's in college his advisors should be able to help him understand his options. Most often in professional programs like medicine and law students either have parents paying or they are accumulating debt, or both. You are correct that typically in these sorts of programs do require a pretty full time commitment and a regular schedule. If he ends up thinking more about something like an MD/PHD program or a PhD in sciences, he may find options for full tuition and a stipend in exchange for being a lab or teaching assistant.

[Twigs]

I didn't go to grad school, but here is how I paid for my under graduate degree.

 

I earned an associate degree in Medical Laboratory Techngology at cc and worked for a few years saving money. I was able to pay for my undergrad without going into debt. I worked in the lab with many people who were getting a grad degree - including one going through med school and one going through law school. Some of the allied health fields have people working all shifts every day; others only have people on duty on day shift. To work and go to grad school, you would need to choose a field where you could work evenings and weekends.

 

Best wishes.

[Reesegirl]

My youngest dd is a jr in college majoring in pre-physical therapy. She has recently decided that maybe this isn't the right field that she wants to enter....she loves anatomy and the thrill of figuring out medical problems in the body. As a young woman she doesn't want to add on another 4 years for medical school and then internship before she is ready to work. So, one of her profs has turned her interest toward PA. Apparently PA schools are 2 year programs and when you come out you can make really good money and the debt for the program is under 100K. PA's can make 100K a year, so repayment could go fairly fast if a student is willing to really hit it hard Dave Ramsey style. My dd has learned that there are PA's in every field, from surgery to podiatry. One of her roommates is also a PA major and told me recently that in the long term, the career of a PA could actually make more in income than a physician because the repayment of debt would be so much lower. I don't know if it is true but an interesting thought.

 

Also, my dd has found out that many of the top universities require up to 2000 hours working in some form in a hospital...whether as a nurse, CNA etc....apparently the programs have a lot of adult students or maybe I should say non traditional students who perhaps didn't start out with the career goal but wanted to move up into something more challenging or demanding without the 7 years commitment of medical school. So, if he really is interested in PA school, perhaps encourage him to take a CNA course so that he can start on those hours. As a jr, my dd is scrambling to figure out how to get into the hospital setting but will also have to figure out if she wants to sit out a year after she graduates to pick up those hours or apply to a smaller program that doesn't require the hours.

 

I think one of the things that has changed the direction for my dd is that she faces 3 years of graduate school for physical therapy which is expensive but has a lower ceiling for possible payment as opposed to PA school that is 2 years and higher earning potential.

 

I agree with the other posters, that said to do everything that you can to keep the cost down in the undergraduate schooling.

 

One thing to look into, Many people have said that med school does not look too kindly to CC classes on the transcript so I would check out if the same applies to a PA school.

 

Just some thoughts from a mom who has a dd that is on that track.

[moki4]

PA school is very competitive. It's also very expensive. Each school has a minimum of volunteer hours needed before the application is submitted. Some working experience is also desired (paramedic or nurse). Most PA's I know have at lease 100K in debt (This applies to NP's also).

 

Yes, there are many partial loan forgiveness programs which are based in rural health, low income or Indian reservations.

 

I have inside knowledge on this subject! Loan forgiveness takes about 5 yrs in total.

 

Do VERY well in college (some CC is OK) and strive to obtain straight A's.

 

Good luck:)

[MyThreeSons]

Would he consider ROTC? I know several Doctors who went thru med school that way, and came out debt-free. I would imagine PA is an possibility, too.

[texasmel]

My daughter is a PA and has no undergrad debt. We thought long and hard about her incurring debt for graduate work. The students were told there was "no way" they could work and do PA school, which was true. In the end, we decided it was an investment with pretty much a 100% guaranteed return. She ended up with 60K in debt but could have had only about 50K had she lived more frugally. She makes well over 100K a year and gets regular bonuses on top of that. She and her husband are FPU grads and are attacking the loans gazelle style. If we had it to do over again, I would still advise her to take on the debt. As others have mentioned, there are also ways to fund PA school through rural programs or military service.

Edited April 18, 2012 by texasmel

[Katy]

IDK if this is still true, but 10 years ago at least Florida's Miami Dade community college offered a PA program through them, much less expensive than others. Not sure how licenses transfer, etc, but it might be one option to go debt free, especially if they worked and saved in Miami for an entire year without paying out of state tuition.

[vonfirmath]

I know many kids pay their way through an undergraduate degree, but what about graduate degrees? Does a program like PA require consecutive semesters with no break? Would he be able to take semesters off to work if he ran out of money?

 

Have any of your kids paid their way through grad. school?

 

My husband paid his way through graduate school at Texas State University. He got a position as a teaching assistant. He finished classes Dec 2011 and will be graduating this May.

[ThelmaLou]

My daughter is a PA and has no undergrad debt. We thought long and hard about her incurring debt for graduate work. The students were told there was "no way" they could work and do PA school, which was true. In the end, we decided it was an investment with pretty much a 100% guaranteed return. She ended up with 60K in debt but could have had only about 50K had she lived more frugally. She makes well over 100K a year and gets regular bonuses on top of that. She and her husband are FPU grads and are attacking the loans gazelle style. If we had it to do over again, I would still advise her to take on the debt. As others have mentioned, there are also ways to fund PA school through rural programs or military service.

 

Funny, we've just been doing our Dave Ramsey video course with my two oldest, so oldest ds is currently dead set against debt. DH and I have had the same attitude, but we were trying to show my son the other day how quickly debt from PA school could be repaid if he continued living like a college student after PA school (think Ramen noodles!) and put most of his early income toward paying off debt.

 

I just don't know what other profession would enable him to do what he wants (medical-ish without going to med school) plus afford him the kind of salary he'd like to support a family.

 

If he refuses to take on debt, chances are that he'll end up with a much lower paying job, which will be costlier in the long run that going ahead and incurring the debt and paying it off quickly.

 

We livei n TX, too, BTW. Did your daughter go to PA school in TX?

[Dawn in MI]

A friend of ours, who already had a Master's degree in Psychology, a wife, and 5 kids decided to go to school to be a Physician's Assistant. He graduated from Central Michigan University & moved to Arizona to work on or near the Navajo reservation to pay off his debt. So yes, there are ways to work off grad school debt if your son would be willing to do something like that.

--Dawn

[texasmel]

 

We livei n TX, too, BTW. Did your daughter go to PA school in TX?

 

Yes, she went to Texas Tech. Their PA program is actually located in Midland, with rotations in various west and central Texas locations.

[JumpyTheFrog]

Some schools have a PA program that is an undergraduate degree instead of a graduate degree. Rochester Institute of Technology is one of them.

[Katy]

One very similar career option that would be easy to do without debt is to be a nurse practitioner. Here's the career ladder:

 

1. Start with a CNA training program, (which you may be able to take for free through a sponsoring nursing home). Take the advanced class if your state offers it and get a job as a patient care tech at a hospital.
   
2. Sign up for nursing school. The cheapest option is usually a community college class, and you can do year by year, becoming an LPN/LVN, then an RN. With each license/degree/certificate you get a $10-15K a year raise. Wherever you work will pay for your school AND give valuable practical experience at the same time.
   
3. After the RN go to a state university for the BSN (bachelor of science in nursing). If you want a more traditional university experience, go for the BSN to begin with.
   
4. Go for your graduate degree in nursing. Many schools are actually now making this a doctorate, and if you already have a bachelor's degree in a non-nursing field sometimes with a short pre-program you can skip all the nursing school and get your RN that way. When I was considering this, I was surprised at some of the schools that offered this (Yale, for example).
   

You can easily do all of those debt, and even tuition free by having employers pay for the school, especially if you can get on staff at hospitals that have affiliated nursing programs.

 

Also, many Catholic hospitals with nursing schools have agreements that if you work for them for 2 years for each year of tuition, they'll waive the tuition. So you could look at that as debt OR you could look at it as a guaranteed job (if Obama's healthcare plan has the same effect nationwide as it did in Massachucetts, less hospital nurses will be needed because less people without insurance will go to ER's and then be admitted for continuing treatment--instead they will go to a PCP before ER's are necessary. This WILL cut costs, but will also have major ripple effects in the healthcare sector. Guaranteed jobs relieve some of that pressure).