Setting a Realistic Tuition for Physical Therapist Education Programs Based on Expected Income: A Survey of Physical Therapy Directors

Journal of Physical Therapy Education, Fall 2004 by Redman-Bentley, Donna

Josefson reports that applications to US medical schools have fallen between the 1996-1997 and 2000-2001 academic years.7 The question has often been raised as to whether tuition has an impact on the number and characteristics of the applicant pool and enrollment. Petersdorf states that it is unknown if the increase in tuition of medical education in the US in the 1970s and early 1980s resulted in a decrease in the applicant pool.2 Ayers et al conducted a longitudinal study at Georgetown University School of Medicine between 1974 and 1980.8 Although there was a four-fold increase in tuition over the 7 years, there were no changes in the academic and nonacademic characteristics and enrollees compared to national trends. However, Ayers et al did find that the ratio of acceptances offered to the number of students enrolled decreased over that period of time.8 The applicant pool to physical therapist education programs has also declined over the past 8 years. Unpublished data from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) Department of Education and Accreditation reveals that the qualified applicant pool has decreased from a mean of 246.5 in 1995 to 73.7 In 2001.9

Cost of education continues to rise in physical therapy programs as well. Similar data on education costs and deht level for PT students and graduates are not availahle in published studies. The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) compiles data on education costs via the Biennial Accreditation Report (BAR). This data is unpublished, but available to members online. Average annual tuition, fees, other program expenses, and total costs are provided for public instate, public out-of-state, and private institutions. Average annual tuition and fees for private institutions in 2001-2002 academic year were $18,939.64 and $610.20 respectively.9 The average total cost of the professional program was $54,083.25. This is an increase from the total average cost of $50,555.99 reported in the 1999-2000 academic year.9 For some institutions the cost may outweigh the students' potential earnings at graduation, therefore, not affording them a comfortable level to repay student debts.

With an increase in the job market for PTs, applicant pools should begin to increase. However, prospective PT students may lose interest in entering the profession or attending a particular institution if tuition is increased to the point where a student's loan payments are too great for their expected income. Petersdorf recommends that a reasonable level of loan repayment should not exceed 8% of the gross income.2 When considering tuition increases, institutions may need to consider the total expenses incurred by the PT student while obtaining their education and the expected earned income upon graduation.

Physical Therapist Salaries

Prospective PT students want to know what salary level they can expect to receive when they graduate. Three sites on the World Wide Web that are available to prospective PT students discussed possible salaries for PTs.10-12 One site describes a career in physical therapy and indicates a starting salary of $30,000 with the highest salary of $51,950 after 10-15 years of work experience.10 Delta College offers a pre-physical therapy transfer curriculum and lists the salary range for physical therapists from $38,510 to $83,370 annually.11 A third Web site, PayScale, is based on a survey and reveals a variety of ranges and mean salaries by country, state, city, industry, number of years of experience, and employer type.12 Based on data for the United States, the salary range for physical therapists is $55,412 to $60,317 with a median salary of $57,910.12 Many of these Web sites do not indicate how the salary ranges, means, and medians were determined. If prospective students only rely on the Internet for data regarding salaries, they may be misled and make decisions on faulty information.