Majority of PA Students Rely on Student Loans to Pay for Education
According to the Student Report 2 from the PAEA, 83% of graduating PA students took out educational loans to help pay for their PA education; with a median amount of educational loans for PA education at $100,000 in 2017.
The Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) is the national organization representing PA programs, its Student Report 2 is a report based on the results of two student surveys. The Matriculating Student Survey (MSS) is the first survey and is information from entering PA students. The End of Program Survey (EOPS) is the second survey, and is information from graduating PA students. The data was collected in 2017 and the report was released July, 2018.
Prior to PA school, students reported a median amount of outstanding education loans of $25,000. This shows that before starting PA school most students have already accumulated some student debt from their other studies; and almost all expect to takes out more to finance their PA education.
As students went from matriculating students to graduates of PA program their anticipated total debt from attending PA school increased. 12% of matriculating students anticipated $125,000 – $149,999 in total debt; this number increased to 14.5% for graduating PA students. Only 7% of matriculating students anticipated total debt in the range of $150,000 – $174,000, but this also increased, with 11.2% of graduating PA students anticipating total debt in this range.
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Although the major source of income to finance PA education is from student loans there are a few other sources. After student loans, the next sources of financing come from personal income and family support.
If you’re not rich or don’t have a rich grandma and you want to avoid student loans you can look to grants, scholarships or stipends. Although, it appears that there is only a small amount of these types of funds available. Only 17.8% of matriculating students and 31.1% of graduating PA students received these types of awards. For those that did receive something it was a small amount, as the median for matriculating students was only $5,000 and for graduating students was $4,000. Even though there are scholarships available, don’t plan for them to pay for your total cost of PA school.
With PA salaries plateauing and PA school costs increasing more students are relying on student loans to finance their education. Loans are not the only way to pay for school and doing what you can to limit the amount you owe will help out financially once you are working. There are many reasons to want to work in the medical field, and if you’re thinking about going to PA school you should look at your finances and come up with a game plan before you start applying.
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