Sponsored Post by Stride Funding
Performing lab tests, assisting in surgeries, and most of all helping patients—this is what every aspiring PA dreams of. And with six-figure salaries and a predicted 30% growth rate, becoming a PA is one of today’s most rewarding career choices. In fact, it’s rated #7 in Forbes Highest Paid Jobs in America!
Still, though the demand and pay for this pivotal profession are growing, so are the tuition and associated student debt in the 260 PA schools across the nation. Over half of all PA students are expected to graduate with $50,000 to $130,000 of student debt. Nationally, this issue is part of a $1.6 trillion student loan bubble, one that’s requiring millions of millennials to pay off their educational debt for 20+ years after graduation.
People choose to become a PA to help save lives, not to get saddled by life-long debt! Luckily, it doesn’t need to be this way—one game-changing education funding model called an Income Share Agreement (ISA) offers a way to limit payments to what graduates can afford at each point in their lives. And out of a handful of ISA providers, Stride Funding is a standout that focuses on healthcare professionals—read on to make smarter financial choices.
1 - Increased affordability and flexibility
Many of us are familiar with the main benefits of an ISA—flexible payments, shorter durations (<5 years), and no repayments when you’re making below the minimum income threshold. Indeed, these increasingly popular education funding models are agreements in which a student receives an upfront payment for tuition in return for paying a fixed percentage of their future income for a set number of years. ISAs include no accruing interest, and to further protect against risk, they also feature caps on the maximum amount that need to be repaid. Simply put, with ISAs, students are never in debt; ISAs don’t come with penalties for periods of additional schooling or unemployment in today’s uncertain job market. And unlike a traditional student loan, ISAs will never require payments when graduates make under $40,000 in any of those five years.
2 - Wider eligibility
Unlike traditional student lenders, Stride looks at where you’re going, not where you’ve been. Stride provides rates based on the degree programs you’re pursuing, not your current earnings or ability to find a co-signer. While traditional federal loans break down into Stafford and Grad PLUS options, Stafford loans are capped at $138,500 for both graduate and undergraduate schooling, and Grad PLUS loans require credit checks that could force young people with bad credit history or low income to find a co-signer—something Stride ISAs never require. They don’t use FICO scores, and they only look at your credit history to make sure your other obligations are manageable, because at the end of the day, it’s when you hit your stride that Stride gets repaid!
3 - Shorter duration than traditional student loans
Traditional loans typically require fixed payments for 10-25 years, with accruing interest only adding to the final amount students must pay with longer options. Enter Stride Funding—they offer ISAs capped at an unheard-of 60 months (5 years) of payments instead of decades! And unlike a traditional student loan, ISAs will never require payments when graduates make under $40,000 in those five years.
4 - Career support and guidance
At Stride Funding, not only does the percentage of income and term never change, but ISAs are also uniquely designed to support your career choices, such as a starting job and location. For example, which speciality should a PA plan to choose on graduation—surgical, primary care or emergency medicine? Should you opt for a hospital, an outpatient clinic, urgent care center or a university? In which city or suburb? Unlike traditional student loan lenders, Stride provides individualized attention to each ISA applicant, ensuring you receive both an affordable higher education and the soft skills necessary to navigate their future. From the moment you sign on, you’ll join a community of other PA students staying in the loop about webinars, resume workshops, and other exclusive career openings. To learn more about how a Stride ISA can fund your PA education, visit Stride Funding—you can apply in under a minute!
