Written By Kevin Payne
If you’re interested in pursuing a career as a chiropractor, you’ll need to make a plan for your education. This includes where to get your Doctor of Chiropractic degree. One school that could be an option for you is Cleveland University-Kansas City (CUKC).
Founded in 1922, CUKC is recognized as one of the oldest nonprofit chiropractor colleges in the United States. Its 34-acre campus sits just outside Kansas City in Overland Park, Kansas. Almost 600 students attend Cleveland University-Kansas City.
While CUKC offers a solid education for Chiropractic students, it also can leave you with significant student loan debt. Let’s take a closer look at Cleveland College of Chiropractic costs, typical salaries for chiropractors and whether it makes sense to go to school at this Midwestern college.
Cleveland College of Chiropractic tuition and total cost
Attending CUKC to get your Doctor of Chiropractic degrees is not cheap. Here are some of the tuition costs associated with Cleveland Chiropractic school:
| Item | Annual cost |
|---|---|
| Application fee | $50 |
| Tuition deposit | $200 |
| Malpractice insurance | $25 per trimester |
| Tuition cost | $11,785 per trimester |
CUKC has three trimesters an academic year: Fall, Spring and Summer. Tuition at CUKC is all-inclusive, meaning most fees and equipment expenses are added into tuition costs. A first-year full-time student in 2019-2020 would end up paying $35,680 in tuition and fees for the year.
How much student loan debt should Cleveland chiropractic students expect after graduating?
Tuition and fees are just the first costs you’ll face. There are other costs for chiropractic students at CUKC. One of the highest costs will be housing.
CUKC doesn’t offer on-campus housing. Apartment rentals close to the school start at $690/month. Based on that, you could be looking at $8,280 in housing costs per year. You may be able to lessen the cost by having a roommate, but this gives you a snapshot of what your housing costs could look like at CUKC.
You’ll also need money for transportation, food and other living expenses while you attend school. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2018 Consumer Expenditures Report, the average American spends $7,923 on food and $9,761 on transportation a year.
| Item | Annual cost |
|---|---|
| Tuition and fees | $35,680 |
| Housing | $8,280 |
| Food | $7,923 |
| Transportation | $9,761 |
Based on the information above, students at CUKC will spend $61,644 a year on tuition and living expenses, or $20,548 per trimester.
The Doctor of Chiropractic program at CUKC is a 10-trimester program. Over 3+ years, CUKC students could end up paying roughly $205,480. Many times, students use student loans to cover the cost. Keep in mind this number doesn’t account for other living expenses, inflation and tuition increases over time.
For comparison, the average student loan debt for our chiropractic clients is $245,340. College Scorecard data shows the weighted median debt for chiropractic students in the US was over $182,000. But this number reflects students who graduated in 2016 and 2017. It has most likely increased since that time.
Is Cleveland College of Chiropractic worth it?
For anyone looking to attend CUKC, you need to weigh all of the costs of school against how much money you could potentially earn as a chiropractor.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary for chiropractors in May 2018 was $71,410. Chiropractors working in physicians’ offices had a higher median salary of $86,100. While those working in a chiropractic office had a median salary of $70,260.
The bad news is that chiropractors tend to have high debt-to-income (DTI) ratios. Depending on your starting salary and career trajectory, this could be true for CUKC graduates.
The good news is that despite $200k+ debt, there will continue to be a need for chiropractors. It can also be a fulfilling career path.
Repayment options if you already have debt from Cleveland Chiropractic
If you’ve already graduated from Cleveland University-Kansas City, there are a couple of ways to go about paying off student loan debt.
Student loan forgiveness
Most chiropractors won’t qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF). This is because PSLF requires employment in the public sector, and most chiropractor jobs are at private practices. That doesn’t mean you can’t get your loans forgiven, though.
Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans offer loan forgiveness too. These plans are a great option for graduates with a high DTI ratio.
Is refinancing an option for chiropractors?
Another repayment option is to refinance your chiropractor student loans. In most cases, this is not the best option for chiropractors.
We typically recommend refinancing if your DTI is less than 1.5, but chiropractors usually have a much higher DTI. If that’s the case, you would be better off exploring loan forgiveness. Using our Student Loan Refinance Calculator can help determine if refinancing is a viable option or not.
If you need assistance figuring out a repayment plan for your Cleveland University- Kansas City student loan debt, let us help. We’ve worked with over 150 chiropractors and can help find the best plan for you.
