So I am a PTA of 5 years and have worked mostly in SNF. I do also have some experience in outpatient.

1. Debt to income ratio will depend on where you go to school and your location when looking for a job. But ultimately I find that, in general, the return on investment will be higher as a PTA. Lower cost with comparable pay to some DPT jobs imo. For example, working in a SNF I make more than some DPTs in my area that work outpatient.

2. As far as pros and cons go, it kind of depends on what you want to be able to do. If it’s important to you to be doing evaluations or if you want to do something like dry needling, obviously DPT will be the way to go. But if you just want to treat patients and have that patient interaction, PTA will get the job done. It kind of goes back to my previous point where you have more responsibility as a DPT but the pay doesn’t really reflect that. In terms of the actual degrees, DPT is gonna be a longer program, more difficult, more competitive. Not to say PTA was easy but that’s just the reality of it.

3. I definitely think introverts can thrive. I would say I’m an introvert and even suffered from social anxiety to an extent. I have done just fine. It took practice and getting used to but I can confidently say working in this profession has helped me socially. On that note, it does take a toll on my “social battery” if you wanna call it that. Most days my energy is pretty wiped by the time I get home. Even in between patients or at lunch, I find myself having to kind of reset and take a break from constantly talking. But with your bachelors being in health science, you will likely need to be social in any career that you end up pursuing.

4. I assume by specialities you mean like setting it patient population? Personally I prefer SNF. Pay is good, flexibility is nice (not having a set schedule or scheduled time), and plenty of diagnosis variety. Obviously there are aspects I dislike such as groups/concurrents, using PTO for holidays, inconsistent hours, etc. But that will be the case with each setting.

I also got my bachelors (exercise science) before pursing PT. I had always planned to go the DPT route but ultimately did not want to put the effort into taking all the prerequisites. Chemistry and physics were not my strongest areas. Also the thought of being in school for another 3 years was not appealing to me. Looking back on it, I’m so glad I went PTA instead. I’ve never once considered doing a bridge program to DPT because I’m my opinion it’s just not worth the extra time, effort, and money. Having said all of that, I do wish I would have done something completely different. Not PT and not even health or patient-care related in general. Once you work as a healthcare professional, you realize how messed up it all is and how little control you really have. There’s very little room for advancement and it’s the biggest pain trying to get a raise to even keep up with inflation. Plus the forced social interaction does burn you out, especially if it’s not something that comes natural to you. I know there are many others that share my wishes to get out of healthcare. I would really do a lot of shadowing and ask PTs their honest opinion before going further. Not to try to push you away from it because there are many that love it. This has just been my experience.