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How much do you save for PA school? How long did this take you? What was your original savings goal, and did you achieve it?

 

I know folks talk about saving money, but with the numbers of pre-PA out there who are CNAs, etc, I'm wondering how much people are starting PA school with.

 

I've managed to save 10k, but I am in the pre-reqs phase so I'm not sure how much of that will survive till graduation. Are people talking about going in with 20 or $30,000 in the bank, or a couple thousand? Thanks!

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Ha, 20-30k. I'll be happy if I can snuff together 2 grand before PA school starts. Undergrad loan payments/rent/utilities/food (though every day food seems less and less important :)) all on an OR tech salary. I'll be living through PA school on student loans. If you can save up 20 or 30k, that'll be awesome. You'll benefit a lot more later on not paying interest on loans. Good luck!

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  • 11 months later...

Yeah, I feel you lov2xlr8! I think 5-8k would be more in my ballpark with 2 young kids, a mortgage and daycare (practically equalling a 2nd mortgage). I was fortunate to have the GI Bill (MGIB Ch 30) for undergrad for 3 years and I thought that it was exhausted but I received some great news recently - the VA approved a 1 year extension under the new GI Bill (post 9/11 Ch 33) which covers all tuition and fees and provides a monthly living stipend. So that will definitely help during didactic year, which will pretty much cut our potential loans in half!

 

I recently signed up for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University - a 13 week financial course in common sense (ie... no debt except student loans and mortgage). We just paid off our 2nd car so we'll definitely be putting that money away each month too!

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I am a speech pathologist and hoping to have the pre-reqs done to apply in 2011 and begin in 2012. I am planning on having my tuition amount saved before I go. Like you, COTA, I am cash-flowing my pre-reqs and saving at the same time. I anticipate tuition for the entire program will be around $30k. I too am a Dave Ramsey follower...and I have to correct Devildoc in that Dave Ramsey is ok with mortgage debt but NOT school debt. I have pared my budget way down in order to meet my savings goal so that I will come out of PA school debt free. It's not easy at all...but will be worth it. If I have to wait to apply a year later due to finances, I'll do that.

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I am a speech pathologist and hoping to have the pre-reqs done to apply in 2011 and begin in 2012. I am planning on having my tuition amount saved before I go. Like you, COTA, I am cash-flowing my pre-reqs and saving at the same time. I anticipate tuition for the entire program will be around $30k. I too am a Dave Ramsey follower...and I have to correct Devildoc in that Dave Ramsey is ok with mortgage debt but NOT school debt. I have pared my budget way down in order to meet my savings goal so that I will come out of PA school debt free. It's not easy at all...but will be worth it. If I have to wait to apply a year later due to finances, I'll do that.

what program will cost 30k total for tuition?

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I went in with only like 2k in savings and came out with about 110k in loans, of which 10k is going to cancel. I am now about 1 year into practice and have about 65k in loans by being cheap, not having any children, and living with my boyfriend to split living expenses. It is definitely doable to go in with nothing and make nothing while in PA school (since most don't have time to work but about 10 hrs a week.) In fact, I was offered more in loans than what I needed and always ended up not accepting all of it. About 55k of what is left is thru my father as he took out a line of credit at 4.3% fixed so that I would have a lower interest rate vs the crazy 8.5% and 6.8% that I had. This will save me several thousand over the next few years in interest.

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:) I was just kidding...Sometimes it's really nice to live in a poor state! Cost of living is sooo cheap! Of course, I make a lot less as a hospital based acute care SLP here than I did in California, but it all comes out in the wash. I live better making significantly less here than I did making more in Cali!

:;;D:

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yeah, funny how ISU is more expensive than almost any school out there. its too bad they give residents pause when they crunch the numbers and find that out. many other schools out of state tuition is lower than ISU's in state rate.

EXACTLY! I couldn't believe what they charge out of state students (in excess of 50K a year tuition which is 10k more a year than the D.O. program at my School)

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I had 45k in the bank before PA school that I saved from working and living at home and not driving a nice car or going on Vaca... Seeing that I'm looking at 8 months left I can honestly say that it has been nice to be pretty secure. With that said... I honestly wish i had bought a nice car or done a few more things before school... While in school my car broke down multiple times including once the first day of a rotation. Had I financed something new this would have never happened and I would have overall saved more and ultimately had less of a headache. I have to say I've had alot of unplanned expenses that I didnt have added into my excel budget I built before starting (about 5k the first year). Ultimately you find yourself going out more then you plan to and needing more things then planned. To give everyone an Idea, Of the 45k I will ultimately be at about $5000 by graduation but I've only taken out for the tuition.

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My husband and I have 2 plans. First, a 401k loan from his work... the interest you pay goes back to your own 401k, so that's cool. Second, he's in a rather inexpensive grad school, and so his leftover grad school loan money can help me (since both the programs I applied to are certificate only until you've been there a semester, when you can get into St. Francis's masters program and be eligible for grad level loans).

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Guest guthriesm
I am a speech pathologist and hoping to have the pre-reqs done to apply in 2011 and begin in 2012. I am planning on having my tuition amount saved before I go. Like you, COTA, I am cash-flowing my pre-reqs and saving at the same time. I anticipate tuition for the entire program will be around $30k. I too am a Dave Ramsey follower...and I have to correct Devildoc in that Dave Ramsey is ok with mortgage debt but NOT school debt. I have pared my budget way down in order to meet my savings goal so that I will come out of PA school debt free. It's not easy at all...but will be worth it. If I have to wait to apply a year later due to finances, I'll do that.

 

I recently signed up for Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University - a 13 week financial course in common sense (ie... no debt except student loans and mortgage). We just paid off our 2nd car so we'll definitely be putting that money away each month too!

 

I did this program with my partner- he and I learned a ton about how to organize our money. Amusing story- I called Dave Ramsey's show about going to PA school and paying for it. I told him how much we would have saved by the start of term (a rather good bit but not nearly enough for school). His rambling response was - find a cheaper school. That actually made me feel a little bit better about the loans since even the guru couldn't figure out how to do it cheaper without me having to wait about 3 more years and then re-take my aged out prerequisites. I am cash flowing all of my living expenses and will only need tuition (and will hopefully cover about 1/3 of that as well).

 

Still, I really enjoyed the FPU program and would recommend it to any couple as a good ground for learning how to communicate about money and getting on the same page. It has allowed us to pay off all of my earlier student loans, we own our vehicle out right and I am confident we can cover our living expenses while I am not working. We also have spent December doing a "last hurrah" traveling rather than putting a few more dollars in the bank, to tide us over until I can travel again after school.

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to original poster:

I paid 10k cash and took the rest out in loans. Although I was living at home. If you are concerned about $$ during PA school, couple of things to keep in mind. NHSC scholarship which grants $$ during school in exchange for working in underserved community or NHSC loan repayment once you are out and are looking at starting to pay back your loans. They just bumped it up to $60,000 for two years.

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For the past two years I've been working two FT jobs (EMS) and will be for the next 2 1/2 - 3 years in order to pay off my mortgage before PA school. My wife's income will hopefully cover our sons' tuitions and monthly bills. I'm hoping to be able to work very PT (10 - 20 hrs/wk) once I get into school to pay for gas, food, etc. Will a PT job typically be enough to pay for incidentals during school or should I plan on adding more than tuition to my school loans?

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For the past two years I've been working two FT jobs (EMS) and will be for the next 2 1/2 - 3 years in order to pay off my mortgage before PA school. My wife's income will hopefully cover our sons' tuitions and monthly bills. I'm hoping to be able to work very PT (10 - 20 hrs/wk) once I get into school to pay for gas, food, etc. Will a PT job typically be enough to pay for incidentals during school or should I plan on adding more than tuition to my school loans?

 

what will be enough completely depends on your living expenses. Honestly, not many people are able to work and get through PA school at the same time...

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I'm auto deducting from my checking account to my dedicated PA cost of living savings account what I hope will be the equivalent of my monthly rent while in PA school. I have no intentions of saving for tuition, but if I can save as much as possible for cost of living expenses like rent, food, ect, then that will be less loans I have to take out. I doubt I'll have 2 years saved for COL, but hopefully something close. Plan B is seeking out a sugar momma to pay my way through PA school-- no luck so far :)

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I'm auto deducting from my checking account to my dedicated PA cost of living savings account what I hope will be the equivalent of my monthly rent while in PA school. I have no intentions of saving for tuition, but if I can save as much as possible for cost of living expenses like rent, food, ect, then that will be less loans I have to take out. I doubt I'll have 2 years saved for COL, but hopefully something close. Plan B is seeking out a sugar momma to pay my way through PA school-- no luck so far :)

 

This has been my approach as well. I'm only 24 and I work as a CNA, so I do not have the years of income that other students in my class have... but I am fortunate to have one last bond I can cash in, and I've crunched the numbers over and over for the past few years to save up every last penny for COL. My school is expensive no matter how you look at it, so I'm bracing to just take out the maximum amount of loans for tuition. But at least my rent and groceries are already paid for. :)

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If your still in the Pre-req phase then there is plenty of time to plan. When I decided to do this 2yrs ago we drew out a plan of where we wanted to be financially when I started. My girlfriend and I are both nurses and we took a notebook and for one whole month wrote everything down that we spent. Pack of gum, soda from machine at work even parking meter money went in the book. We accounted for every penny that was coming out of our account. THAT was a real eye opener, I was amazed at how much money we spent on little things. We went through our spending habits and "cut the fat", got rid of all the everyday items we didn't need and turned them into rewards. Starbucks was no longer daily or even weekly, it was a gift for meeting a certain goal. Our savings started out small, few hundred each check and as we eliminated more from our expenses we put that money in the savings. Vacations turned into maybe a drive over to the coast or a weekend in Santa Barbara or Monterey, no more weeks in Hawaii or the virgin islands. Our goal was 50K in savings by start date but we fell short by 10k due to some unforeseen medical expenses right before school started. Develop a plan now and don't wait til you get your acceptance letter. PA school is difficult enough without worrying about the financial burdens that go along with it.

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