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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have great flexibility and love my work but only get 60k. Good thing DH earns more. My DD is choosing not to pursue an MD for work life balance concerns, as well as the cost and length of med school. [/quote]

I think your daughter is smart.  
I am jealous sometimes of people on this board who made a ton of money before they had kids and were able to SAH a few years or have some flexibility that way.  
Yes.  I make pretty good money, but I didn’t get my first real job until I was 31, and even then, I still had almost $200k in student loan debt.  Staying at home when kids were little was not really an option.  [/quote]

I disagree with this mindset. I’m a older med student who is pregnant and I feel well supported. It is certainly doable and the eventual pay and flexibility as a physician is worth it. Most female doctors become mothers- why limit yourself so early?? She can finish all her training before having kids and work part time making good money[/quote]

I don’t know.  Let’s say you decide to be an NP instead, and you make $120k/yr instead of $180k/yr (avg salaries on Glassdoor). 
Nurse practitioner school is 2 years instead of four, so that puts you up $240k on the med student.  Then you have 3-6 years of residency plus fellowship making about $45k/yr.  Let’s say 3 years here.  3 x ($120k-$45k)= $225k.

Then the med student has paid an average of ~$200k vs ~$50k for NP school.  Let’s say that’s a difference of a little over $200k to pay back if you include interest.

Now we have $240k + $225k + $200k = $665k.

But now the physician is making more money...

If both are working 1/2 time, the physician outearns the NP by $30k/yr.  ($60k vs $90k).  
So, that’s 665 \ 30 = 22 years after the physician gets her first job before the NP and the physician break even.  Assuming they both started school at 25, they are 54 years old.  In the next 13 years before retirement, the physician out earns the NP by a total of  $390k.  Over a lifetime.

That’s not counting the additional hours in med school and residency OR the years of investing from ages 27-32 that are lost. If the NP saved 20% of her salary for those 5 years, that’s roughly $1.2 million at retirement age.

If you want to go to med school, then go.  But your motivation should be becoming a good physician, not getting a high paying part time job.  The math just doesn’t work out.

[/quote]

There are a few flaws in your argument.  Where is NP school $50K?  It's more like $150K at the DC/Baltimore area schools plus you need a BSN first.  
Also $120K for an NP salary is high.  You're looking at more like $90K in the greater DC area.  I've been job searching in this area and am familiar with actual 
salaries and not just glassdoor estimates.  [/quote]

Then move.  Look at the tuitions at multiple schools and apply to many places so that you have options.  There is no reason to pay $75k/yr for NP school.

And I don’t know what to tell you about your salary.  If the Glassdoor estimates are significantly higher than what you are being offered, you should bring that up with your prospective employers.  Either they aren’t offering you what you are worth, or there is some reason for the discrepancy.  I did a quick google search and didn’t find any exact salaries listed, which makes me think there is room for bargaining here.

[/quote]

Good grief.  
I'm giving you DC salaries and tuition costs because you're posting on a DC area message board.  
Sure, an NP could move to Montana and make more.  But a physician could move there and make substantially more as well.   (My husband is a physician and hospitals in rural America are always recruiting for big $$$).  But the point remains.  In the DC area, NP school is $150K+ and salaries are $90k (and jobs are scarce).  And get back to me when you apply to 10 jobs, get one offer (after you're chosen over 20 other candidates) and you tell the hiring manager that you want $120K instead of $90K because that is what glassdoor tells you should be paid.   :roll:  :roll: 
I know what I"m talking about (as an NP, working with NPs, friends who are all NPs, etc).  
[/quote]

Ok.  But it seems unfair to use national averages for physicians and DC specific for nurses.  If we are talking about DC/Baltimore schools only, then medical school is $300k for four years.  And the average physician salary is $120k.

The numbers still hold.  It’s not a good deal financially.  [/quote]

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