<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>