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Sorry for the long post and might be a bit too personal but there are a lot of things that are important factors to be taken into consideration and they are all pieces of puzzles for a bigger picture. I apologize if it’s disorganized but I have tried my best.
**Some quick background info about me and my family:**
* I am a Canadian but my parents are not
* My parents and my home are not in Canada
* I have spent most of my adult life in Canada
I am 27 years old and I am from Canada. I am currently enrolled in an MPT program in Australia, I am in my first year and just finished my first semester last month. Unfortunately, I failed one of my courses and it got me thinking if it’s worth it to repeat and continue pursuing this degree, especially seeing a lot of posts mentioning mediocre pay and young physios getting out of the profession.
I will start with my background. I graduated with a kinesiology degree 3 years ago in Canada. When I was in uni, I already knew physio was my dream job. But my GPA wasn’t good enough so I buried my hope for a while. After graduating, I didn’t know what to do with my kin degree. So I planned to visit my family and stay for a few months then return to Canada to get a job. But Covid hit and I was stuck there, I didn’t want to be a slave for a company so I did what I was good at and what I had been doing in uni: freelance personal training. I did that for 1.5 years and unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of clients, I was earning barely higher than minimum wage. Looking back, that 1.5 years seemed like a waste of time.
At one point I started researching overseas options and discovered that MPT programs are easier to get into in Australia. I didn’t think much and applied to a few schools and received one offer. The tuition however was astronomical to us ($75k cad for the entire 2-year program). Regardless, my parents were very supportive and wanted me to do it although it would cost most of their savings. I thought this was too big of a decision and risk to take so I decided to defer my offer for one year, return to Canada to work and save up as much money as possible while taking time to make the decision.
Unfortunately, that didn’t end up well either. I was unemployed for 2 months after applying to countless jobs on Indeed even including McDonald’s and Walmart. I was desperate and had to work at a sweatshop for 2 months making minimum wage. Then I was lucky enough to land a half-decent job, I worked as an office coordinator at a small furniture design & manufacturing company for half a year until the deadline for accepting my school offer was near. I then trusted my gut and decided to do it.
***TLDR:*** *I am a complete fuck-up. I have already made a lot of mistakes and wasted most of my 20’s. I have practically achieved nothing in life career-wise and I have zero savings, getting closer to 30 I am starting to panic. I can’t afford to fuck around anymore and make any more wrong decisions. I have chosen to pursue PT but now I don’t know if it’s worth it for me to finish it although it’s my dream.*
Fast forward to now, I have already put down $18k cad toward my tuition and finished my first semester. Unfortunately, I failed one of my courses and I would need to re-take it next year. This means two things: 1. I would be graduating 1 year late and 2. It would cost an extra $10k to re-take the course. I did some math and it’s starting to look like it’s a bad investment (I will illustrate below). Because of this, I have to take a step back and reevaluate if I should continue with my degree. I will list the key points below to make it easier to understand and weigh out the pros & cons.
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**Cost to complete MPT:**
* $75k (tuition)
* $100k opportunity cost (working instead of studying, assuming I make around $4-4.5k a month for 2 years)
* ***Total = $175k cad***
(already disregarding the fact of having to graduate 1 year late)
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**My timeline:**
* 18-24: At uni for my kinesiology degree in Canada (graduated 2 years late since I switched my major)
* 24-26: Originally planned to visit parents for a few months then back to Canada to start working, but stuck due to Covid; worked as a freelance personal trainer
* 26-27: Went back to Canada; unemployed for 2 months; worked for a sweatshop for 2 months; worked an office job for half a year
* 27-now: PT school first semester done
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**About me and some of my thoughts:**
* I have never really enjoyed life and I have sacrificed the majority of my 20’s for school
* I want to reunite with my family
* I have hardly ever traveled and I have always wanted to travel in Europe and the US to see the world, I don’t want to have to wait until I am 30-40 to do this, it’s just not the same
* I have never owned a car and always wanted to own one, just simple things like going on hikes & road trips and having the freedom to go wherever I want to go can already make me very happy in life but this can’t happen until I finish school
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**What I like the most about being a physio:**
* It’s what I love
* Flexibility (might not need to work fixed hours?)
* Ability to work in different countries
* Versatility of taking online clients and building an online business with social media
* Laid-back job nature (compared to many other jobs)
* Possibility to open a clinic
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**If I continue with PT school:**
* (+) I would love what I do for a living since it’s my dream job
* (+) Plus all the perks I listed above on what I like about being a physio (e.g. being able to travel in different countries)
* (+) I would be guaranteed a decent-paying job and I would never have to worry about being unemployed or not making enough money (being a physio might not make you rich but it guarantees you would at least have a decent life)
* (-) It would cost me and my family \~$175k
* (-) My parents would need to continue to work in old age to support me until I graduate
* (-) I would be graduating at 30 with zero savings and tons of debt
* (-) I would pay off my debt from school at around 32-33 still with zero savings
* (-) It will take an extra 2.5 years until I can start sponsoring my parents to immigrate to Canada
* (-) My partner and I would continue to be broke and live like hell to save up money, we would be barely surviving and wouldn’t have a life
* (-) The amount of money and time invested vs the pay doesn’t seem like a good investment
**If I drop out of PT school:**
* (+) My family and I would save \~$175k
* (+) I can start sponsoring my parents to immigrate to Canada 2.5 years sooner; which would fulfill their dream and I could finally reunite with them
* (+) I will be able to finally afford a car
* (+) I can go on working holidays across Europe and the US which has been my dream
* (+) I can possibly have a career established before turning 30
* (+) I can actually have a life and do things I want to do without worrying too much about money (e.g. eat out, go on trips, go skiing, go to theme parks, carnivals, gun ranges, etc. things like these are usually luxuries and out of reach in our lives)
* (-) I would lose the $18k that I already put down toward my tuition for nothing (but not much of a loss compared to $175k?)
* (-) I would give up my dream job
* (-) Less job security; kinesiology is not a profession
* (-) Depending on my job nature, I might lose the perks I listed above of being a physio
* (-) The pay of my future job might be worse or better than being a physio but I won’t know for sure
I have seen quite some physios commenting that they are making merely $5k to 6.5k cad a month with 4-8 years of experience and it blows my mind. It makes me question if I should really just blindly follow my dream.
But then even if I choose to drop out and start a career, I am still not sure what I should do even at this point. Some of the things I have in mind are occupational health & safety, ergonomics, exercise physiology, research or program coordinator roles at clinics, community centers (but idk what exactly I can do), etc. But for a lot of these jobs I have no idea of how to get into them, they are not straightforward like professions e.g. physio and nursing, and many require experience. I have also considered government jobs such as the customs, police force, firefighting, etc. but they are harder than expected to get into. One thing I know for sure is I love helping and interacting with people, and I would love working in the healthcare field.
I feel lost and I genuinely don’t know what I should do, what would you do if you were me? Any advice would be greatly appreciated and thank you for the patience.
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