Graduation Vlog!!! || Graduating, Studying for Boards, and Student Loan Update

[@jamiemathew7869]

CONGRATS SANDRA OTRL!! :) im so happy for you

[@amirblake2196]

I have been watching your journey for the past two months and I want to be an occupational therapist as well. I just graduated with my undergrad and got accepted to Sage College for their program. Honestly keep doing what you’re doing. It’s amazing that you are blogging your life and it really inspires me so please don’t stop. Thank you so much for the inspiration. you bring to KZbin

[@sandracreatives]

this is possibly the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me- glad I can be of help. Congrats on your next adventure- I'm excited to be colleagues one day!

[@mackenzieeangel]

YAYYYYY🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳 wish you the bestttt

[@sandracreatives]

Thanks for your support 🤍

[@maya_1724]

Congratulations on this accomplishment!! 🎉🎉 I'm currently getting my Master's in OT, and watching your videos have been inspiring! Also, good luck on boards! When you're done, can you please provide us with a breakdown on how you studied and which platforms you found to be most helpful?

[@sandracreatives]

Yay! Good luck wrapping up. You bet your bottom dollar there will be a video on all things boards!

[@halliealbright3275]

Yay congrats! I commented a while back that I got into Georgia state doctoral program for OT and I just started yesterday. I was in the cadaver lab today for the first time and didn’t realize how sensitive I was to all of it and I’m extremely nervous for going to lab for the rest of the semester. Do you have any tips for squeamish/sensitive people in lab?

[@sandracreatives]

That was me 🙋🏽‍♀️We were fortunate enough to be still wearing masks during our cadaver semester which helped A LOT. I would put a little vaporub under my nose which helped with the smell. I also let more eager members of my group handle the cutting (I found that after the skin was open I was able to get a little more involved). I also made an effort to only focus on the area we were working on- if I thought of it as a body I was done for, but if it was just the extensors of the hand I could learn more. And lastly- it was helpful for me to remember that the people that donated their bodies wanted us to learn from them!

[@halliealbright3275]

@@sandracreatives thank you! That is so helpful

[@bodiesandbrains]

Congrats on graduating! Have you considered doing public service loan forgiveness? Not sure if you have talked about it in a different video but something else to consider

[@sandracreatives]

Thank you! I don’t think I’ve talked about it fully- and I think PSLF is an awesome option for most people, but it doesn’t align with my career or financial goals so I’m going to be choosing to aggressively pay my loans so that I pay them off in 5 years or less. This is a very privileged option because I am in a position where I can afford to make huge payments towards my loans, but being debt free and having flexibility in work are my priorities. I’ll explain as best as I can in a video where I break down my plan- but that will be my route (and it’s been the plan since before I took my first loan)!

[@Shirl33n]

Was the loan amount what you expected before starting your OTD? Like is it similar to the school’s projected cost of attendance ?

[@sandracreatives]

For me it was less! (still makes me want to throw up) But going into grad school I had decided to only take loans for tuition, and work to live- so my costs were easier to anticipate because my cost of tuition was mostly predictable (I have a piece or two to say about how schools charge tuition but that's a story for another time). I ended up paying more out of pocket for tuition because I have lived frugally, and got a small amount of additional scholarships- I was anticipating over 130,000 in principle, and came in at 122,000 give or take. I do plan to explain how I budgeted for school, decided what to take loans for, and share my whole process as the start of my journey of paying off my loans too- so there will be a full video about all of that!

[@Shirl33n]

@@sandracreatives Thank you for the info and congratulations! I’m looking forward to those videos, I’m starting my OTD in two weeks :)

[@sandracreatives]

@Shytheshoreline1005 yay good luck!

[@rachelxelainexo]

WOOO HOO CONGRATS DOCTORRRRRRR!!!! 2 things: a) ie true learn /other practice tests - i pretty much sat right at 60-65% on everything and passed the nbcot no problem AND i personally felt like the true learn questions were ever so slightly harder than the real deal which was a nice feeling lol b) i feel you on the student loan dread, mine stop deferment next month best of luck on studying for your boards!! 🤎

[@sandracreatives]

a.) thank you this is the confidence boost i needed (I still feel like I'm gonna fail but WHATEVER) b.) ugh. loans. ugh. thanks for being here