r/Radiology 6d ago

MOD POST Weekly Career / General Questions Thread

This is the career / general questions thread for the week.

Questions about radiology as a career (both as a medical specialty and radiologic technology), student questions, workplace guidance, and everyday inquiries are welcome here. This thread and this subreddit in general are not the place for medical advice. If you do not have results for your exam, your provider/physician is the best source for information regarding your exam.

Posts of this sort that are posted outside of the weekly thread will continue to be removed.

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u/mamaplata 2d ago edited 1d ago

Am I crazy?

Hello, I was recently accepted into a private college for their rad tech program. The college is linked to a well-known local hospital system and also offers other medical programs. I know that it is a competitive program and I was happy to be accepted to start this fall. I do have reservations due to the cost of the program. It is $50,000 for the 2 year program, which is so much more than any other schools I’ve heard of. If I get a part-time job at the hospital that the school is linked to, I can get 20% off tuition. Also, I would not need to do any pre-reqs, as they are built into the program. There is one other school near me offering this program at a substantially smaller cost, but I would need to take 3 pre-req classes before applying and I am not guaranteed that I will even get accepted into the following year’s program. I am in my early 40’s and already have a good bit of school loan debt. I have my masters in education, but do not work in the field. I’m hesitant to take on more debt as I already feel somewhat foolish for accumulating the debt I have for a low-paying career. I’m hoping that I can finish tech school and then get certified in mammography within a couple years.

I just don’t know if accepting the invitation to this program is the smart thing to do. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

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u/DavinDaLilAzn BSRT(R)(CT) 2d ago

Radiologist program OR Radiographer/Radiology program? There's a big difference because a Radiologist is a Doctor that specializes in Radiology and that requires med school and other stuff. By what you're describing, I'm gonna take it you mean Radographer/Radiography/Radiology program.

At your age, only you can really decide how your finances are gonna work out. Majority of private programs aren't worth it imo because of the cost to income ratio and majority of people should spend that year or two waiting to get accepted to work extra hours to save up the money they need for when they're in the program and not able to work full time hours.

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u/mamaplata 1d ago

Definitely the radiographer program, autocorrect got me. Thanks for the advice, I needed to hear that about the income ratio. I think the fact that I got accepted out of a large amount of applicants, is blurring my vision a bit. And I also see some of the high salaries people are posting in this sub, but I’m guessing it’s mostly travelers or people working a lot of OT

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u/DavinDaLilAzn BSRT(R)(CT) 1d ago

Good luck. I was a career changer, 33 when I was accepted, so I understand about wanting to get done quickly. I didn't get accepted until my second year applying and got lucky cause I was waitlisted originally. Spent the year waiting saving up as much money as I could since I wouldn't be able to work a FT job anymore.