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I hold a few degrees and my Masters to date puts in 60k in the rears. If I paid it off in 10 years my monthly bill would be a tad over $700 so I opted for the 30 yr plan and $325/month using an upward progressive scale....Yep I will probably never see the bill stamped "Paid in full". Ph.D. or MD will put me really in debt and as I look around my neighbor just achieved her Ph.D. in teaching and she will owe $700/month for 30 years...Her current salary was just hiked to a whopping $60,000 / year...
YIPES...
Also, just to point out regarding doctoral debt is that PhD's in clinical and counseling are almost always free.
Again, you need to figure out what is best for you. I knew I wanted to get a PhD, but if you only want the masters, you can definitely find a way to make it work well. Don't go into a PhD program unless you are fully dedicated.
Hi, I am getting my BA in psychology and I am in my junior year, getting ready to apply to grad schools in a few months. I want to get my Psy.D in cilinical psychology and then go on to be a counsoler... What did you mean by Ph.D's were almost always free? would you recommed me going for my Ph.D? I know its more into the research feild and I want to do more of the hands on working with patients so I decided on the Psy.D... do you have any other recomendations?
Salary can start very similar, but can increase much more if you have a doctorate and are in private practice. That being said, if you go the PsyD route you also have 4+ more years of loans. When you get your doctorate in counseling, you can pretty much do the same things as a clinical psychologist, and you will be competing for jobs with them. To get a doctorate, you would generally just apply for the PhD or PsyD straight out of undergrad...no masters needed (you get it along the way). Otherwise, you can get your masters and then apply for the doctorate, but you usually loose 1 out of 2 of the years for your masters (e.g., 1 year will count towards doctorate, 1 won't), so I wouldn't recommend that if you know for sure that you want the doctorate and can get into a doctoral program
All of this being said, don't go into the field thinking its a money maker. When you get your doctorate (so after 5-7 years), you have to do at least a 1 year long postdoc to get licensed. These generally pay (on average) 30K. If you are lucky and don't do a clinical postdoc (so do research or teach), you may make 50K when you are out. Not bad, but considering I make the same as my much younger cousins with just BA's (who just got out of undergrad), you don't do it for the money. For the next several years after that, the salary is about 50K-70K on the absolute high end (more about 50K). And, if you go to a PsyD program, you'll likely end up with 100-150K in loans, which is more than $600/month that you'll have to repay.
I'm not discouraging you at all, as this is my field and I LOVE it, but I am certainly not doing it for the money and I just want you to be informed. Let me know if you have other questions.
----You can consolidate your loans now.. So you might want to look into that. It will bring your expensive loan payments down to something far more manageable. Check it out. Seriously.
Can I take the LCPC without ever needing to take the LPC if i already have my clinical supervision hours? Ive heard from others that I'm required to have my lpc in order to be eligible for the LCPC. Is that true? I currently live in Illinois.
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