How to Afford Pathologists' Assistant School

With the economy being sour for the past three years, the cost of pathologists' assistant school can become a very real factor in deciding whether to apply and where to apply. The majority of pathologists' assistant programs are two year master's programs, during which you'll have no time to work on the side, so you can expect your wallet to cry.

As of 2011, these are the following tuitions that you can expect to pay over the course of two years.

Drexel University: $44,000
Duke University: $46,000 + fees
Indiana University: $11,328 + fees (in-state)    $34,096 + fees (out of state)  
Quinnipiac University: $70,575
Rosalind Franklin University: $47,186 + fees
University of Maryland: $16,380 + fees (in-state)    $29,295 + fees (out of state)    
University of Western Ontario: $14,900 + fees (Canadian resident) $32,000 + fees (international)
Wayne State University: $24,270 (in-state)     $52,119 (out of state)
West Virginia University: $40,000



The above information was taken from the AAPA Training Brochure.
http://www.pathologistsassistants.org/public_content/Training_programs/AAPA%20Training%20Brochure%20-%20Single%20Pages%281%29.pdf

We can see from the above that if you're living in Indiana and are accepted into Indiana University's PA Program you might only have to pay a little over $11,328 for a two year course, whereas if you are accepted into Quinnipiac's PA Program you'll be paying as much as $70,575. On average, you'll be paying close to $50,000 in tuition and fees over the course of two years. This figure doesn't include textbooks, rent, food, transportation, utilities, health insurance and the like.

If we assume that rent will cost close to $400 per month and food bills will cost close to $150 per month, then adding it all together with other miscellaneous costs you can expect to pay about $15,000 in living expenses for two years.

Assuming that two years of PA school will cost around $65,000 is not unreasonable and even perhaps on the low side.

------------------------

If you qualify, there are three types of government loans that may be able to help you out. As of 2011, they are:

Direct Stafford Loans: (up to) $20,500/year
-Direct Subsidized Loans: (up to) $8,500/year        interest: 6.8% (begins after graduation)
-Direct Unsubsidized Loans:(up to) $20,500/year   interest: 6.8% (begins immediately)

(Subsidized and unsubsidized loans together cannot exceed $20,500/year. In other words, if you qualify for maximal assistance, $8,500 will be subsidized and $12,000 will be unsubsidized.)
(There is a 1% loan fee associated with each Stafford Loan.)


Direct PLUS Loans for Graduate and Professional Students: You can withdraw up to your cost of attendance minus any other loans/year      interest: 7.9% (begins immediately)
(There is a 4% loan fee associated with the Direct PLUS Loans.)



You can find more information at studentloans.gov


Since interest and fees are associated with loans, you'll want to use these only after you've spent all of your own money and raided your family members. If you have money in any kind of investment, I would take it out and use it paying down these loans. There's no telling if you'll be able to beat 6.8% per year, and if you are beating that in these tough economic times, then please share that information with the rest of us!

------------------------

So you've just got your bachelor's degree, you're in an average of $23,000 in debt http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/article_e0d6d586-f8f8-11df-849d-00127992bc8b.html and now you're going to take on more? Going straight to graduate school means that your undergraduate school debt will likely increase even more because of interest. If you are prepared to work off close to $100,000 in debt over the course of a decade, then going straight to graduate school might not be a big problem.
However, it has been recommended by many people that you don't let your debts of any kind exceed more than your annual gross income. An ASCP certified pathologists' assistant can expect to make from $70,000 to $80,000 starting out, so it would be recommended that you don't go over that amount in debt.

Working straight after getting your bachelor's degree and saving up can be a viable, though not guaranteed, alternative. Now is an especially bad time for new graduates to enter the workforce as two million recent graduates are unemployed and 17% of people aged 20 through 24 do not have a job.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/CutCollegeCosts/no-one-needs-you-class-of-2010.aspx?page=1
Although you may have to join the ranks of the 318,000 waiters with college degrees or the 365,000 cashiers with college degrees http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/the-great-college-degree-scam/28067 you could end up staying out of debt in the end. Working will necessarily delay your graduate education, so it's best to work as many hours as you can and save up as much money as you can. If you spend too much time outside of your field of study after graduating, interviewers could frown on your gap and you may have forgotten many of the things that you learned. I would say spend no more than three years working after graduating with your bachelor's.

------------------------

There is a better way to save money and you can do it in style. Put to use a skill that you've had since you could talk as a baby. Teach English overseas.

That's right. This small window of opportunity after you graduate from undergrad but before you enter graduate school or start a family is the only time in your life where you will have the chance to live in another country and experience another culture for any significant amount of time. Many foreign English schools require that their applicants have at least a bachelor's degree and you probably won't be able to go after graduate school since you'll need to pay off student debt.

A variety of countries hire English speakers but the viable options that come to my mind first are Japan, South Korea and China. My own personal experiences are limited to Japan so I will elaborate on Japan the most.

In my opinion, the absolute best way to teach English in another country and still save money for graduate school is to teach at a public school in Japan via the JET Program. http://www.jetprogramme.org/. Having minored in Japanese during my undergraduate days I was very eager to go to Japan and luckily I was accepted. (Approximately 1 in 4 applicants are ultimately accepted. Half are eliminated during the written application process and another half during the interview at your local Japanese consulate.) Although you don't need to be able to speak the native language, I would highly recommend it so as to fully enjoy your experience. Teachers on the JET Program have a monthly remuneration of 300,000 Japanese yen and thanks to the weak US dollar and the strong Japanese yen, (currently ~80 yen - 1 USD) you'll have that much more purchasing power when you come back. (When I was there the currency conversion ratio was ~120 yen - 1 USD.)

Now it must be said that your primary purpose for teaching overseas cannot be solely for monetary gain. If you are not earnest with yourself and genuinely motivated to learn another language and culture and interact with people from another country, you'll be miserable. There are a significant number of people who return to their home countries within one year due to homesickness and culture shock. I had been personally interested in Japanese culture since my junior high school days so everyday in Japan was a wonderful adventure. I worked there for three years, made so many new friends, learned a whole different way of thinking from what I had previously known and really was able to integrate into their society. One of the compliments that I received during my time there was, "Forrest-sensei, are you sure you're from America?". Apparently, most of the previous foreign English teachers they had wouldn't take their job seriously, leave work early and act ambivalently towards the students. When my fellow teachers saw my work ethic and amiability with the students they commented that I was "more Japanese than the Japanese."

If you cannot get into the JET Program there are other private English schools in Japan which will definitely hire you, such as NOVA and AEON. The working conditions are not as great as being a teacher on the JET Program, but I have heard from people that they were glad to have gone to Japan via these companies.

In conclusion, by teaching English overseas not only was I able to save up a couple thousand dollars, but I was able to make friends and memories that will last a lifetime. Your interviewers for graduate school will also probably look more kindly on your application if they see that you've spent your time working in a foreign country rather than working at Starbucks. I highly recommend anyone who considers graduate school to live overseas for a couple of years first. You'll be glad that you did and your wallet will thank you as well.