PT, OT, Nursing

<p>Hi! I am currently a sophomore in college. I am in the accelerated 3+3 DPT program, which is three years of undergrad and 3 years of grad. I am thrilled to be in such a competitive program, but I have recently been questioning if this is really what I want. I don't know if I'm second guessing because of the debt I'll be in after or what. Also, on another note, I've been dating my boyfriend for 3 years and we are thinking of getting married. Personally, I don't see how that would be possible any time soon. We don't have extra money right now to pay for a wedding because we're both in school and then after school we will both be in debt. Pertaining to that too, I have decided I want to have a family one day and raise my kids (at least until they're old enough to go to school). If I get my doctorate, work for a few years and then become a stay at home mom for how ever many years, my degree is somewhat wasted. Granted, I would want to go back to working after kids are in school. </p>

<p>Since the time and money of PT school is a major concern, I have also been considering nursing and OT. I am fortunate that my college has all three of these programs so that is not a problem. With Nursing I would obviously only have two more years and then with OT I would have 3 more. Nursing would be the least expensive, then OT, then PT.</p>

<p>I am conflicted. I don't want to make a decision because of time and money and regret it later. On the other hand, I don't want to spend a lot of time and money to become a stay at home mom for several years and then not be able to get a job when I want to go back. Or I could work part time while at home. It sounds crazy that I'm thinking about all of this right now, but I personally think investing in raising kids is very important.</p>

<p>I've shadowed many PT's and know a lot about the career and it's avenues. I shadowed an OT that was a hang specialist and hated it. Is that mainly what OT's do? I have never shadowed a nurse and don't really know what a day in the life of a nurse would look like (interested in pediatrics)</p>

<p>I am a physical therapist, graduated in 1986. I worked for a few years and then took 10 years off to be a stay at home mom. I am now working again and was able to find work without any difficulty. The only problem is keeping your license current. I did have to do a traineeship to get my license back. You would have to check with your state to see how to keep your license. We moved overseas and I was unable to work.
I think that PT is a great field for moms. I currently do home health which can be flexible in terms of scheduling. I work prn or as needed. I can see as many or as few patients as I want(however I don’t get paid if I do not see any patients as I do not have any benefits). I am home to meet the bus by 2:45. One therapist I work with only works on Saturday/Sunday and her husband watches the kids. I have also known therapists who have been able to have flexible hours while working at a hospital. After my first child I was able to reduce my hours to 8-12 Monday through Friday so I was home all afternoon and evening with my child.
There are many options. Luckily, PTs are still in high demand in many places. </p>

<p>Hi! I am assuming that you are a traditionally-aged sophomore, i.e., 19 years old. I sympathize with you. But the summary of this post is basically: do not sacrifice your overarching career goals because of your predictions about the way your relationship or family life will go. I’ve been in your shoes (no, really) and in my experience if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. In the mean time, you need to make sure that you are setting your future up well and that you have a stable career that you like.</p>

<p>When I was 19 and a sophomore I had also been dating my boyfriend for 4 years and we were considering getting married. We did get - but not till I was 27, for a variety of reasons. We both had career goals and personal goals we wanted to pursue first. We stayed together throughout all of that time, and our relationship stayed strong even though part of it was long-distance. I know you probably hate when people tell you this now, but it’s true - 19 is VERY young. You don’t need to plan it all out right this moment; you have plenty, plenty of time.</p>

<p>Most people want to have families and raise their children. You mean you want to be a “stay at home mom.” Working women raise their kids, too.</p>

<p>I’m not trying to say don’t be a stay-at-home mom at all; I’m saying consider the idea that you WON’T want to be a stay-at-home mom, even for a few years, when you are a bit older. I also thought I would want to stay at home with children for 4-5 years when I was 19. Now that I’m 27, I’ve realized I really don’t. I’ve learned a lot over the course of several years, and realized that you can raise healthy, intelligent, well-adjusted children while being a full-time working mother; millions of women do it and have well-adjusted children, and these days a two-parent income is often necessary for a middle-class lifestyle unless one spouse makes a lot more money. (Besides, my mom was a SAHM until I was 16, and she does not have good things to say about it. Read the book The Feminine Mistake by Leslie Bennetts. It’s good).</p>

<p>But, let’s say that you do still want to be a SAHM. You’re a sophomore, so you have 4 years left in your program - you’ll be 23 when you graduate. Let’s say that you get married soon after, have two children when you’re 27 and 30, so you return to work at 35. You get 4 years of work experience; you’re out of the workforce for 8 years. But you’re only 35 now - you have at least 30 more years of a career ahead of you to work! Do you really want to eschew the career you really want because of perhaps 10 years out of an at least 30-year working career? While it is harder for people who have been out of the workforce for years to return, it’s not impossible. My mom was out of the workforce for 25 years, and she had NO experience in the field she entered. You’d have 4 years - of admittedly old experience, but still there.</p>

<p>The key is in those 8 years you need to keep abreast of developments in your field and stay connected. You may even choose to work part-time - people in the allied health fields can often choose to work two 12-hour shifts per week, which means maybe you work them on the weekends when your spouse is home. Even if you don’t, you can attend conferences in your field, keep in contact with professional networks, and perhaps volunteer a few hours or pick up some PRN work. Keep your skills current so when necessary, you can return.</p>

<p>Consider also the idea that perhaps that your future husband (regardless of what he is) doesn’t want the stress of supporting a household all on his own, or works in a low-paying industry, or gets laid off, or dies, or gets sick or becomes inable to work. You need to be able to make money of your own. Plan for contingencies.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>I’m not familiar with OT’s hiring vagaries, but my mother and a lot of my extended family are nurses. Nursing is a very good career for familial flexibility - there are all kinds of working schedules; you can do it anywhere in the country (or world); the pay is very good; you can do most of the graduate degrees part-time. But even if you got a nursing degree, you’d still have to contend with an 8-year work gap. I’m not sure how this is much different from the PT world.</p>

<p>Thank you very much for the advice! I guess a major concern that wasn’t addressed was the amount of debt. I did the math out, and as of now, it’s over $130,000 in debt. I just don’t see how even thinking about paying for a wedding is feasible. </p>

<p>You should shadow a nurse to see if it is a career that really interests you. OTs can do so much more than hand therapy. See if you can shadow an OT in a hospital or skilled nursing facility. They also can work in a school setting which is nice as you have the same breaks as your children.
Research salaries. Where I live (Virginia), PTs make more money than nurses. But don’t choose a career just based on money. You have to enjoy what you do! But it could be a factor if you have loans to pay off. </p>

<p>As for the wedding, will you be paying all expenses yourself or will your parents help you? How important is a big fancy wedding to you? Weddings can range from very expensive to getting married by a justice of the peace. They do not have to break the bank. You will be married either way.</p>

<p>^This. It’s off-topic, but my husband and I are also both in school (I’m a PhD student) and we got married very inexpensively in our hometown. Recenter your expectations and throw away the wedding magazines, lol - they’re a fantasy designed to get you to spend tons of money on things you don’t need and that won’t increase your happiness. Seriously, the wedding industry lulls you into believing that the only way to get married and be happy is to spend tens of thousands on a party, when it’s totally not true. You can also renew your vows or have a fancy anniversary party later into your marriage, when you are more stable in your finances and careers and more prepared to spend lots on a big party.</p>

<p>PTs also make more than nurses where I’m from (Georgia). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, physical therapists make on average about $15,000 more per year than nurses.</p>

<p>HOWEVER, $130K in debt is a lot of debt for pretty much any career besides some of the very highest paying ones (physician, consultant, i-banker, etc.) I think that would be untenable to repay regardless of whether you were a nurse or a PT. Is that just your debt or are you also counting your boyfriend’s? If it’s just yours, what would your debt load be like if you switched to nursing? Would you have to apply for admission to the nursing program? Many of those programs are competitive because of a shortage of nursing faculty and limited resources.</p>

<p>Can you transfer out of your college’s PT program into your home state’s public university’s DPT program? They tend to be much less expensive.</p>

<p>I’m from Massachusetts. I attended University of Massachusetts for a year and a half. My major there was Kinesiology (4 years undergrad) and then I would apply to DPT school (3 years). I applied to the DPT program as a transfer and got in, so now I’m in the 3+3 program which saves money because it cuts off a year of school. Also, I am commuting. From freshman and sophomore year, I am about $23,000 in debt. </p>

<p>Considering Junior year will be my last year of undergrad, I will probably add about $10,000 more dollars. The last 3 years of school are more expensive because they’re graduate level and I won’t be able to get the merit I did for undergraduate. It’s about $22,000 per semester (6 semesters), so about $130,000 (if I get little to no scholarships/merit). Also, during the grad phase there are summer courses that I don’t know how much will cost.</p>

<p>So that’s over $160,000 just for me. My boyfriend’s will be about $60,000. So, about $220,000 for both. If I did nursing, it’s just 4 years of undergrad at about $9,000 a semester. Totaling to only about $60,000. So, about $120,000 for both.</p>

<p>The DPT programs are a little more competitive accepting only about 30 students each year. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I don’t think I would have a problem transferring into the program, especially because I’m within the college.</p>

<p>As far as the wedding goes, I don’t want anything extravagant. I want a small, relaxed wedding outside. Even if our wedding is $10,000-$15,000, I just don’t see how that possible until we pay off more than half of our debt.</p>

<p>As far as my parents helping, no they can’t. They’re in debt because of a Parent-Plus-Loan. As of now, I can’t get a loan by myself or with my parents as co-signers. Therefore, I have an out of pocket cost per month that my parents and I kind of split in half. By graduate school I will be able to take out my own loans and deal with paying later. My sister just got married last year and my parents weren’t able to contribute due to my father being laid off and other circumstances.</p>

<p>Seriously, don’t worry about the wedding just yet. Your first priority at this moment in time should be figuring out your educational costs and priorities.</p>

<p>The important question is this: do you want to be a nurse? Do you understand what that means? Shadow a nurse for a while or volunteer at a nurse’s station in a hospital (they can usually use the help). Talk to some nurses and find out about how they feel about their jobs. The nursing field is humongous; there are lots of nurses who don’t even do floor work anymore, although most do start their career that way. Some nurses work on infection control; some do hospital administration; some work as consultants in firms that are involved in healthcare some way.</p>

<p>Regardless of your plans for raising your children, I think these are absolutely issues you should be thinking about. The median salary for physical therapists is about $80,000 a year (BLS.gov) so being $160,000 in debt is not great for a PT anyway. Under standard repayment, your monthly payment would be around $1800. At $80,000, your after-tax take-home monthly pay is likely to be around $5,000/month. Your leftover pay is just $3,200 a month. In other words, you are spending 36% of your after-tax income on student loan debt, when the recommended level is about 10%. And that median includes experienced PTs; I don’t know what the starting salary is for a PT.</p>

<p>Are all of your loans federal loans? If they are, and you can keep it that way, you would be eligible for some adjusted loan repayment programs - income-based repayment or Pay As You Earn. IBR limits your loan payments to 15% of your discretionary income (for an income of $80,000 per year, that’s about $780/month). After 25 years, if you haven’t paid off the loan, government will forgive the balance. The figures are 10% and 20 years for the PAYE program. The catch, of course, is that you end up paying far more over the long term.</p>

<p>This calculator (<a href=“Federal Student Aid”>Federal Student Aid) estimates that with average income increase rates per year, under IBR you’ll end paying $170,000 in interest on top of the original $160,000 loan, and nothing will be forgiven after the 25 years. Under PAYE, you’ll pay $216,000 in interest on top of the original $160,000 loan, AND you’ll STILL have $160,000 forgiven after 20 years. (This is significant because in the year that amount is forgiven, you will need to pay taxes on the amount as if it was income. So 20 years after you begin repaying, you’ll have to file your taxes as if you had an additional $160,000 of income.)</p>