Counting the Costs: My $500K PA School Journey. Worth it?!?

hey it's Michelle with the medicine couch and you've seen the thumbnail for this video and the title so you're probably watching this video to try to figure out how in the world it cost me almost a half a million dollars to go to PA school well stay tuned I'm going to tell you I'm going to break it all down for you and I'm also going to tell you whether I think it was worth it about if I think that you should go to PA school or not if you're looking or what to do if you've already spent all of the time and money to go to p school and you're just not happy being a PA first of all how did I arrive to that cost of almost $500,000 well student loans in of themselves were $149,000 now that does include my undergrad as well as my PA school loans so some people may say that's not fair but you can't go to PA School unless you go to undergrad and that's what it cost me uh for all of my school so it really got me looking at all this and really made that figure bump up so high is that I got an email from the Social Security Administration where they give you that estimated amount of how much that you can expect to bring in every month once you retire and start drawing Social Security assuming Social Security still exists by that time so I was looking at that figure but then down below later in the email it also kind of lists like the last you know 10 or 15 years of your your income and I was just kind of looking over that thinking about some things and I saw those two years going to PA school with zero income and then I saw the four years before that where I went to undergrad where I made a little bit of money but really not that much and then I was looking at the income that I made before I went to school now being a non-traditional student I did have a career I worked at Texas Motor Speedway in the sales and marketing department pretty interesting and unique job got to do a lot of cool things and made a pretty good salary especially at the time and that was about 2010 and earlier and I didn't have a degree so I didn't have student loans and was like I said making pretty good money so I started thinking well what if I hadn't gone to PA school like how much money would I have had if I didn't go and I started figuring that up and then started adding that with my student loans and I was like holy crap can't believe that everything opportunity cost plus the actual student loan cost was almost half a million dollars and that didn't include getting any raises or Investments I might have made at the time so a lot of money obviously these figures would not be the same for younger people who go to undergrad out of high school maybe work for a year or so before they go at a pa school they really haven't had a chance to be in the workforce and and building up a pretty good income they wouldn't have all of the opportunity costs that an older person has but I'm just giving you my experience because there are a lot of people who are older and would be non-traditional students looking at going back to school and wondering if this is something that they should do so do I regret having spent so many years and so much money real and possible money to become a PA well it's no secret if you've watched this channel I don't enjoy working in medicine at all I shouldn't say at all I enjoy the medicine aspect I and enjoy kind of the detective work of it and some of the patients are really great and that part has been enjoyable but the atmosphere that we have to work in the pressure that we're put under to constantly see more and more patients and to be faster that's just not for me and I don't want to work in it and I hate to say that because I interview lots of Pas in this channel who absolutely love their job and who have landed in a specialty that they think is great and an office that that really supports them and lets them have a reasonable workload so those opportunities are out there I just haven't experienced it and also I only worked regular full-time medic medicine for the first two years and since then I've been working looms so I haven't made as much each year as I could if I was working full-time I've taken lots of breaks just because I have the ability to do that and so I haven't gotten to reap the financial benefits I still have some student loans to pay off so was it worth it was it worth it to give up all those years of making decent money and then paying those loans and spending all of that time and money and effort to go to PA school I don't know I can't say if it was worth it or not I don't believe in regret because there's no way to know if you made the right choice or not there's no way to know what would happen if I had continued on the path that I was something terrible might have happened who knows so I can't regret it and I don't think that life is all about money I really love experiences and knowledge and learning things and so having this medical knowledge is just invaluable to me and it will continue to help me through the rest of my life with my own health and the health of my family and also I can't discount the fact that if I want to work I can easily find work not everyone can say that not everyone has a skill where they can move anywhere in the country and be able to find a job and and a good job at that with benefits and making a good salary and you know going to PA School brought me all kinds of new and interesting opportunities like doing this channel meeting new people and making some great friends while I was in PA school now how about that other question about whether somebody thinking about PA school should go well I talked to lots of people who are thinking about going into medicine PA NP MD lots of different areas and I always give them the same advice definitely shadow and check it out and what I mean check it out I don't mean just go sit there and Shadow like I did and be excited about the medicine and being interested in what is happening you know in the room with the patient you you do need to pay attention to that but you also need to pay attention to the other stuff you need to look at how fast that provider is having to move the pressure that's being put on them by the administration how they are talked to and treated by people in the office and what they're schedule is like what time do they actually get there in the morning and how late are they staying and how much work are they having to take home all of those things need to be looked at realistically and you need to figure out whether those are things that you can handle and whether you want those things in your life I would also say that medicine was not a calling for me wanted to be a marine biologist so you know I was always drawn to biology and I just transferred it to humans but if you had have a real calling for medicine if you know that you want to work in medicine and nothing else really does it for you then by all means look at careers in medicine but if you're somebody who's just kind of interested in it and you think oh that might could be a good career but you're really looking at it mainly because it's stable because there's lots of opportunities and because you routinely make over $100,000 a year if that's all that you're doing it for or if you're doing it because you want some proc pres and think you're going to get respect being a medical provider I would definitely say no even if you're looking at being a physician the level of respect used to be up here for medical providers and it's kind of in the toilet now so definitely don't do it for Prestige or for money there are lots of jobs nowadays that make over a 100 Grand a year that are much easier to get into cost a lot less and you don't have to worry about being sued all the time finally if you're doing it for some family pressure like if you are expected to go into medicine and so you're just going to you're going to go PA because you think it might be easier don't do it don't go into medicine to please somebody else this is your one and only life if whoever is putting pressure on you really loves you and you know you're going to be miserable and you absolutely don't want to do it then tell them now for those of you who have already bit the bullet and already went to PA school and you are a practicing provider and you are miserable then what advice do I have for you well first of all I always say see what you can fix in the environment you're in if there's anything that you can make better in your practice than try to do that whether that's working on yourself or working on the processes and workflows in your office there are always things that can be improved but if is really bad environment and you just want out then I would say Obviously you can consider another position in the same specialty but you might want to consider shaking it up a little bit try a new specialty it's scary I know it is there's a lot that you have to learn a lot of new stuff you're going to go through that adjustment period of of being uncomfortable again and having to learn something new but I have talked to so many providers who have moved into a specialty that they never even considered before it was just kind of an option that fell on their lab and they absolutely love it they can't imagine doing anything else so there is hope that Landing in the right office or Landing in the right specialty or hopefully both will make all the difference and really help you love your career now if you are just tired of clinical medicine and you you just can't do it anymore with patients if you just are so burnt out that you're looking for something else then there are lots of non-clinical opportunities for Pas and NPS I've got playlists on my channel for the different Medical Specialties cool and unusual jobs including working overseas and also non-clinical roles so I'll have links to those down below now if you are somebody who is a little bit more open-minded and just really thinks maybe there's something to outside of medicine that is for me I just want to leave this all behind then I would highly recommend a book I just finished reading it's called The pathless Path and it is about somebody who was working in business but was following the traditional path and getting these impressive jobs and realizing that none of it was fulfilling to him none of it was what he wanted to do in life and he started discover ing A Whole New World a whole new way to live your life and so I'll just kind of leave it at that it it's an excellent book and it's something for people who are feeling totally dissatisfied but they don't know what to do it's a book that I would highly recommend and I'll have the link to that book down below as well so I'll just leave you with this don't fall into what is called the sunk cost fallacy and that is where people continue to do the same thing that they've been doing continue on the same path keep on to the same strategy just because they have sunk so much time and money to get where they're at that they feel like they can't abandon it this point so just realize that that fallacy may be something that is keeping you hooked to a job that you are totally unhappy with and keeping you hooked into a life that is not what you want to be doing you do have the power to change you have tons of options out there so please don't feel hopeless please know that this is a great degree that there are so many things you can do with it if you're looking to get into it or if you're already practicing don't forget to check out my different playlists I'll have them down below in the description box thank you so much for watching and as always take care stay sane and I'll see you next time on the medicine couch bye

Channel: The Medicine Couch

Views: 456

Keywords: student debt, pa school cost, how much does pa school cost, PA school worth, regret becoming a pa, should i become a pa, the cost to become a PA, pa school loans, should i go to pa school, is medicine hard, i hate being a physician assistant, what to do if you hate working in medicine, PA specialties, what can PAs do, best PA jobs, True cost to attend PA school, PA school student loans, physician assistant career, pa careerlink, PA career, physician assistant career path, PA

Id: B_3qFEd_ZCI

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2024