We just have to say it: accepting the highest salary right out the gate is generally a bad idea, albeit obviously attractive to everyone. Higher physical therapy salaries often include their own costs in terms of work responsibility, benefits, or other areas of your life.
Although chasing monetary compensation can have long term consequences, often leading to burnout, health problems, and other challenges, it may be necessary to commit to a few tough years to get your student loans in check. Often the more challenging the circumstances or desperate the clinic to get employees, the higher the compensation. Finding the right balance or reason for higher compensation and determining if it is something that can work for you is essential to ensuring longevity in your career. Physical therapy clinics are businesses, even if they are non-profits; and they exist within the framework of insurance payments. This creates a tension between pay and benefits so that quality of life is often the first sacrifice for higher pay.
In addition to your pay check, some physical therapy clinics may offer assistance in loan repayment. These are typically clinics attached to hospitals, nursing homes or existing as non-profits and it's something you can ask about. There are also regions of the country or travel work that offers sign on bonuses and student loan repayment plans. Ask about these things, google them, find out what your options are.
Our advice is to make sure that you can make ends meet. After that, focus on personal growth and quality of life within a particular clinic environment.
If you are interested in applying to work at Rose, you can view our Careers page.