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Feb 9, 2010, 6:35am

Chirotalk: The Skeptical Chiropractic Discussion Forum :: Questions. Advice and Reports About Chiropractic :: Students Considering or Attending DC Programs :: Unbelievable! What it COSTS to Become a Chiropract

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Topic: Unbelievable! What it COSTS to Become a Chiropract (Read 3,088 times)

IPFreely
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Unbelievable! What it COSTS to Become a Chiropract
« Thread Started on Jul 13, 2007, 8:46pm »

Intent Of This Thread: For people contemplating chiropractic as career to understand what it costs to become a chiropractor.

Please read this thread slowly...

I uncovered this ‘explanation of costs’ packet while cleaning my garage last week. It received from a local chiropractor two years ago, via my alma mater Life University. I’m not sure how my name came up for recruitment since I’ve been out of chiropractic school 7 years but I can only speculate that she would have earned a nice commission on my decision to attend (re-attend) Life.

Quote:

Financial Planning for your D.C. Degree

How much will it cost?

- Effective summer quarter 2005 D.C. tuition is $225 per credit hour.
- Books cost approximately $300-500 per quarter.
- Mandatory fees are $105 per quarter.
- Lab courses have fees of $30 per course.
- Students in clinic must have malpractice insurance of $20 per quarter.

How many hours will I take?

The program requires 350 credit hours. Effective fall quarter 2003, all D.C. students will be enrolled full-time. Full-time is defined as 12 credit hours or more. If you plan to finish the program in 14 quarters, you should average 25 hours per quarter. You must average a minimum of 18 hours per quarter to maintain satisfactory academic progress.

What is the average full-time cost per quarter?

Not counting books or lab fees, for 25 hours per quarter, students will pay approximately $5,625 per quarter.

How will I pay for living expenses?

You may borrow enough money for your tuition, fees, books and supplies and living expenses. For the 2005-2006 year, D.C. students taking 25 hours may receive a total of $11,748 per quarter (minus loan fees). This will leave you with approximately $5,900 for living expenses for the quarter. Each quarter is 11 weeks long, so this is $536 per week. If you are married and your spouse will be working, you may use this living expense money to supplement that income, or you might no need to borrow the full amount. If you are single and have no financial support from anyone, you might need to plan on working while in school or saving prior to enrolling at Life to supplement your living expense money.

Will I be able to borrow enough to make it all the way through the program?

If you complete 25 hours each quarter, you should finish after 14 quarters. If you borrow the maximum amount for each of those quarters, your total borrowing will be $164,472. The absolute maximum in federal Stafford loans any full-time chiropractic student may borrow is $189,125 (this includes any outstanding loans borrowed prior to attending Life).

I recall seeing a list of all chiropractic colleges and their corresponding tuition charges in Chiropractic Economics. Life University was middle of the road.

The school you attend is irrelevant. The cost will be slightly higher or lower.

COST PER CREDIT HOUR

Life University (average of other chiropractic colleges) = $225 per credit hour

Here are some numbers for comparison by reputable, nationally recognized schools:

Oklahoma State University……...… $108.75 per credit hour
http://bursar.okstate.edu/tuition.html

Washington State………....…………. $294 per credit hour
http://www.summer.wsu.edu/Finances/undergraduat_fee.asp

University of Florida……………...….$111 per credit hour
http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/annualcosts.html

University of Michigan ……....……… $59 (13 hours and over) per credit hour
http://www.umd.umich.edu/rr_tuition-fees/

Texas Tech ………………...…....……….$135 per credit hour
http://www.texastech.edu/stories/new-tuition-plan.php

Auburn University………...……...….. $217 per credit hour
http://www.auburn.edu/administration/business_office/pdf/tuition.pdf

University of Vermont……....……..…. $434 per credit hour
http://www.uvm.edu/~stdfinsv/rates/?Page=ucoa0708.html

University of Nevada, Las Vegas…….$105.25 per credit hour http://www.unlv.edu/pubs/catalogs/undergraduate/pdf/main/fees.pdf

Or

Princeton University..........$33,000 per year for a prestigious school
http://216.239.51.104/u/PrincetonNew?=ca....&gl=us&ie=UTF-8

Harvard University............$28,752 per year for the most prestigious school in the world
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/home/news_and_events/releases/tuition_03232005.html

Contrast that with $24,205 per year for a chiropractic degree that’s comprised of non-transferable college credits.

Let’s begin…

TUITION

350 credit hours multiplied by $225 per credit hour equals.......... $78,750
$300 per quarter for books multiplied by 14 quarters equals.......... $4,200
$105 mandatory fee multiplied by 14 quarters equals................... $1,470
$30 lab fees multiplied by 6 quarters equals................................. $180
$20 malpractice fee per quarter multiplied by 7 quarters equals....... $120

= $84,720 is the total tuition for a chiropractic diploma whether you pay with cash or credit.
Alternately it’s $24,205 per year ($84,720 divided by 3.5 years). There are 4 quarters in 1 year.

NOTE: This exercise does NOT take into consideration a 7% per year increase in tuition since 2005.

2005: $225
2006: $225 + 7% = $16 equals $241
2007: $241 + 7% = $17 equals $258 per credit hour

This exercise uses the outdated information they provided, but just in case you’re wondering, the 2007 credit-hour tuition cost (at $258) would be: $90,300.

Making the 2007 total tuition cost: $96,270 - Much higher than their projected $87,720.

LIVING EXPENSES

For some strange reason they only allotted enough money for 44 weeks of living expenses ?? (11 weeks per quarter multiplied by 4 quarters = 44 weeks).

Using their figure of $536 per week for living expenses this would equal $23,584 per year or $82,544 for the entire 3.5 year program.

Logically: $536 per week multiplied by 52 weeks would equal $27,872 per year or $97,552 for the entire 3.5 year program.

PRINCPLE BALANCE FOR A D.C. DEGREE

For 2005:

$84,720 for tuition + $97,552 for living expenses
--------------
= $182,272 total principle balance – This is the ‘out-the-door’ price; paid with cash, credit cards or school loans.

(For 2007: $96,270 for tuition + $97,552 for living expenses = $193,822 total principle balance.)

BORROWING the “Maximum amount for each of those quarters” of $164,472:
For 44 weeks of living expenses not 52 weeks using their example ??

$164,472 at 7% interest for 20 years:

$1,275.15 payment per month for 240 months

Equaling $141,564 in interest alone.

TOTAL LOAN COST after 20 years:

$164,472 principle + $141,564 in interest = $306,036

REALISTICALLY…BORROWING the “Maximum amount for each of those quarters" of $182,272:
For 52 weeks of living expenses *Recall that $189,125 is the federal maximum.

$182,272 at 7% for 20 years:

$1413.15 payment per month for 240 months

Equaling $156,885 in interest alone.

TOTAL LOAN COST after 20 years:

$182,272 principle + $156,885 in interest = $339,157

(For 2007: $193,822 principle + $156,885 in interest = $360,841)

(VERY IMPORTANT: No undergraduate tuition is included, remember that.)

Let’s go one step further…..

Let’s presume prior to attending chiropractic college you were out in the real world earning a modest $30,000 per year doing whatever. You’ll probably be unemployed while attending chiropractic college…That’s $105,000 of income you would have made in the 3.5 years it takes to become a chiropractor. ($30,000 per year multiplied by 3.5 years = $105,000)

Think about this:

$182,272 in principle (cash or credit) for a DC diploma + $105,000 in missed income for 3.5 years = $287,272

And most certainly this:

If you pay the $182,272 over 20 years (which everyone does):

$339,157 in principle and interest + $105,000 in missed income = $444,157
This is the ‘life-time’ cost of becoming a chiropractor.

(For 2007: $360,841 in principle and interest + $105,000 in missed income = $465,841)

If you compute your undergraduate tuition with the ‘life-time’ cost, it’s plausible to say the grand total would be close to half-a-million dollars easy, that’s…$500,000 or five-hundred-thousand dollars. (Read that again…s l o w l y)

Looking at my other post 'Believe It! What chiropractors REALLY earn', I’ve calculated that making $14.50 per hour (net) would require this much effort to pay off the school loan ONLY:

$339,157 divided by $14.50 per hour = 23,390 hours of work

23,390 hours of work divided by a (40 hour) work week = 585 weeks

585 weeks divided by 52 weeks in a year = 11.25 years

That means you must work over 11 years of your life just to pay off the student loan.

(For 2007: 11.9 or 12 years)

Theoretically, the amount of effort that’s required to pay off the student loan plus the 3.5 years of missed income equals:

= 14.75 or 15 years (11.25 years + 3.5 years = 14.75 years)

That means you must work 15 years of your life to pay for: the loan and missed income; to break even.
I hope you have the energy to work a second full time job…because you’ll have to.

Heck, if you live to the average age of 72, it would equal:

= 20.8% or 21% of your life.

That’s 21% of your life on this earth solely dedicated to…becoming a chiropractor.

Once you factor in the costs and bills that are required to exist in an industrial society…you will spend most of your life paying for the right to…become a chiropractor.

TAKE NOTICE Pre and Current Chiropractic Students:

Be absolutely certain with zero hesitation that you will unquestionably succeed in this business; because the price of ‘not making it’ is high….

IPFreely

« Last Edit: May 23, 2008, 1:02pm by IPFreely »

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Nemo
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Re: Unbelievable! What it COSTS to Become a Chirop
« Reply #1 on Jul 14, 2007, 12:59am »

Well done, IPF!...sickening...but very informative. I think it might also be prudent to account for interest accrual due to delays in licensure....It's very common to have to wait a year or more to start practicing.

A buddy I went to Cleveland with said that CCCLA is consistently graduating only 20 people per class...if this keeps up, the school will close.

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IPFreely
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Re: Unbelievable! What it COSTS to Become a Chirop
« Reply #2 on Jul 16, 2007, 1:10pm »

I just found two additions for this post in the July 13, 2007 issue of Chiropractic Economics.

Watch your Cost to Boost your Profits
by Mark E. Battersby

Quote:

A key step in managing expenses of any chiropractic practice is understanding what things actually cost.

Sub-sections in the article discussed ‘Reducing Costs’, ‘Opportunity Costs’ and ‘Managing your Costs’ but the main crux of the article is ‘What does it cost?”

Perspective students remember that statement: What does it cost?
You also have to ask yourself: What will I earn?

Once you do the math of….What does it cost to become a chiropractor? – What will I earn as a chiropractor? = Anguish and massive loan debt….chiropractic should be far down on your list of career choices…if even a choice.

Also…..I saw something strange.

There was a chart of all 17 chiropractic colleges and their current tuition costs.
It showed Life University’s current tuition cost was $17,500 per year (or $61,250 for the entire program) which was fine, it was one of the cheapest schools.

The most expensive school was $23,000 per year; only a $5,500 per year difference between them all.

Here’s the problem….

The information sent to me directly from Life stated: 350 hour program at $225 per credit hour (using 2005 tuition prices) equals $78,750 for the whole program.

Chiropractic Economics said tuition is currently $17,500 per year or $61,250 for the whole program.

See the discrepancy?

$17,500 or 22% off ($78,750 - $61,250 = $17,500)

Hmmm…..I wonder why/how it’s so far off?

Printing error? Doubt it.

Again…perspective students…just like the muddled costs given to you by CE so are your thoughts of a satisfying chiropractic career. Don’t do it.

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