grants and scholarships?

[silentneko]

good morning gentlemen and ladies, I have just completed EMT-B school here in south florida, I was one of 15 graduates out of 43 students. I need some help on the next few steps, next week I go for my state and nationals. then hopefully in the middle of july I will start fire academy, I find out next monday if I qualified for the lottery, if not I will go in october.
the part I need help with are the finances for the rest. fire academy is going to cost $2500-3000, which I can just about swing. however that is going to leave me with almost nothing for housing and transportation. and after that paramedic school is going to cost about $5000. I will be working at my job while in school, even though they don't recomend you keep a job, but that will just be enough for food. I guess my questions are:

-how does everyone afford these fees?
-are there any grants or scholarships I can get?
-are there any student loans specifically for ems with a 6 month differment?
-any advise?

thank you to anyone who reads and/or replies to this post.

kevin

 

[TTLWHKR]

-how does everyone afford these fees?

Get a job.

-are there any grants or scholarships I can get?

Highly unlikely.

-are there any student loans specifically for ems with a 6 month differment?

Check with your local EMS region.

-any advise?

Don't eat greasy food while on duty.

 

[TTLWHKR]

Yes. That was a serious answer. That is all you can have. I took three vicodin, and the green man standing on my desk told me exactly what to say. (laugh). :blink:

 

[vtemti]

TTLWHKR is right. Not much out there, but keep investigating. Try getting a job in EMS for a while and save. This does mean though that you would have to put off the fire acadamy for a bit. Maybe the company that you work for will help after a while.

By the way, welcome to our little part of the world. We are all somewhat whacked in one way or another. Especially TTLWHKR and JON the "Baby Medic". Don't let them scare you away. They are actually harmless. :lol:

 

[Jon]

Also.. see if there is a volunteer fire Co / Ambulance Co you can join... Most vollie squads will put you through Firefighter I and / or EMT-B. Most fire Co's will also pay for more advanced training for their active members.


Jon

 

[usafmedic45]

Originally posted by silentneko@Jun 20 2005, 03:51 PM
good morning gentlemen and ladies, I have just completed EMT-B school here in south florida, I was one of 15 graduates out of 43 students.

15 out of 43? Holy crap. I knew a lot of people failed EMT classes, but damn.

 

[TTLWHKR]

Originally posted by usafmedic45+Jun 20 2005, 07:34 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (usafmedic45 @ Jun 20 2005, 07:34 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-silentneko@Jun 20 2005, 03:51 PM
good morning gentlemen and ladies, I have just completed EMT-B school here in south florida, I was one of 15 graduates out of 43 students.

15 out of 43? Holy crap. I knew a lot of people failed EMT classes, but damn. [/b][/quote]
I was thinking the same thing.

 

[traumagirl1029]

Talk to any local ems providers and just see whats out there..every state..hell even every city/town can be different with things like that..see what you can do..be creative i guess..and keep looking.....as for the 15 out of 43..my boyfriend just finished up his intermediate class and he was one of 11 out of maybe 35 or 40 to pass to take the state exam..and we're guessing that maybe out of those 3 or 4 are going to pass completly..hoping hes one of them...anyway..good luck

 

[TTLWHKR]

If you were becomming a firefighter, you could prolly get tons of grants. :angry:

 

[silentneko]

thanks for the replys guys, but I think I need to clear up some things here. first I think its obvious you guys aren't from south florida by your comments so let me point out some points of interest/problems here:

-in order to get a job in florida you have to be at minimum a firefighter and emt-b, and even then you would be hard pressed to find a job
-down here there are very few volenteer fire dept. and the ones that do exist are being eliminated quickly and going to full paid.
-in order to get into any good dept. you have to be a firefighter paramedic
-there are no emt-i's in florida its either emt-b or emt-p
-the ambulance companies (amr, medics, american.....) only pay 8-9 bucks an our to full timers, and I make 3 bucks an hour more then that now so thats not an option.

-about the failure rates....I'm in no way insulting anyone, or trying to start a fight.....but as most of the ems community knows floridas standards for ems and firefighters are higher then most other states. its due to our large population and concentration of elderly. once florida certified you can go to almost any other state and get a job, but you can't come to florida from another state easily, 2 people I know, one from new york one from georgia, tried recently. they were both told they need to go threw fire academy again. both of them moved back instead.

ok I've rambled enough, I am going to fire academy no matter what, either in july or october. and have the money for that, it took me almost 18 months to save it, I'm just looking for a grant, gov. grant, scholarship, or good loan to cover everything else, so if anyone has an idea let me know. thanks.

 

[usafmedic45]

Originally posted by traumagirl1029@Jun 20 2005, 09:05 PM
Talk to any local ems providers and just see whats out there..every state..hell even every city/town can be different with things like that..see what you can do..be creative i guess..and keep looking.....as for the 15 out of 43..my boyfriend just finished up his intermediate class and he was one of 11 out of maybe 35 or 40 to pass to take the state exam..and we're guessing that maybe out of those 3 or 4 are going to pass completly..hoping hes one of them...anyway..good luck

My EMT class we started with 15 and graduated 14 on the first attempt at the licensing exam. The one guy who didn't pass was an exchange student from Japan and his English wasn't the greatest, but he scored a 88% on the second attempt.

My Intermediate EMT we started with 12 and graduated 11, and the only guy we lost was a cop who couldn't complete the class because his shifts got turned around. Of course, out of those 11, 9 continued on in the EMT-P course (the EMT-I class used to be the first part of the EMT-P course) and all but two of them graduated.


I don't understand the high washout rates everyone else has. Do they not screen applicants prior to the class like they do here? The only thing I've experienced with that high of a washout rate was the cardiopulmonary tech class (respiratory/echocardiographer/EKG technician) for the Air Force. We started with 12 people at the beginning of the class room portion (called Phase I) and finished with six. Of those six who finished Phase I, by the end of Phase II (clinicals) only three of us were left. But of course it's a whole lot more involved than an EMS program and much, much more condensed. RT alone is a 2 year program in the civilian world- and we had that and more crammed down our throats in 3 months worth of classroom time. I guess I just don't understand how so many people can flunk out of EMT, EMT-I and EMT-P courses.

 

[Strike3]

I'm going to go ahead and agree with that last post. Florida doesn't have these godly high standards, it's just on par with the other major states when it comes to EMS. CA has high standards as well, but the entrance exam to most EMT programs in CA is fairly tough as well.


I can see classes being a bit easier in some of the states where EMS isn't as developed, but I refuse to believe that FL is the end-all best.

Heck, Seattle, WA has the most advanced scope of practice for medics in the nation. I'd like to think that if anything, they'd be the toughest. They can do chest tubes in the field there.

 

[silentneko]

for the most part I was refering to the fire fighter portion of the training, but I have to say since starting training in january I have met dozens of emt's around the country, many from new york were my cousin is an emt and has been for more then 15 years. and many of these people leave me scratching my head, including my cousin, because they don't know information that we consider basic and vital. in general florida does follow the national standard with more focus on cardiac, respitory, and elderly care, but here we have 2 types of school. we have fluff emt schools, which will pass anyone and have a 90%+ passing rate, and we have real training colleges which hit you up hardcore and makes sure the people who make it are the ones who deserve to. there are no exams to get into the classes, just to get out of them.
anyway there is little point to all this, if possible can we please get back to the topic at hand, which is funding options for education, thanks.

 

[usafmedic45]

Pretty much your only options are to pay for it yourself, or to go through an accredited college or jr. college and take out a student loan.

 

[silentneko]

there have to be more options then that, if the police can get anyone of 1000 grants why not us. not to mention they also get paid training through the academy, and get paid slightly higher here even though they need no initial training except for high school. doesn't seem right. somewhere somebody knows about a grant for ems/fire students.

 

[PArescueEMT]

i know that there is a grant available from the IAFC... but other than that... you're on your own.

 

[vtemti]

Originally posted by silentneko@Jun 21 2005, 08:11 AM
there have to be more options then that, if the police can get anyone of 1000 grants why not us. not to mention they also get paid training through the academy, and get paid slightly higher here even though they need no initial training except for high school. doesn't seem right. somewhere somebody knows about a grant for ems/fire students.

I don't know much about the rest of the country, but in Vermont, yes, Police depts can hire people with no training and then put those trainees through the academy while paying them a training salary. EMS and Fire are much the same, although in Vermont there are more volunteer or part time paid volunteer entities than full time with fire and EMS being for the most part, seperate. These entities also hire trainees and pay for thier training. We do.

Again not much for grant funding here unless, as someone said prior, you attend a full time college setting. My daughter is in college for teaching and even much of her funding is dependant on full time status.

 

[Wingnut]

There are more options, I'm in Naples FL and going through all this on a state grant. The only catch to the state grant is you have to be degree seeking and it doesn't cover the fire academy. But I get a nice refund since whatever is left over after tuition and books is mine to keep.
Also the Florida Bureau of EMS has a grant section, here's the website

http://www.doh.state.fl.us/demo/ems/index.html

just click on grants and hopefully it can help you out if you are not degree seeking.

If you're willing to take a few extra classes and get your associates degree, This website has the application that will get you in for the Florida Pell grant and a few others, it also qualifies you for any FL state loans. Last year they paid me 6k to go to school.

http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/index.htm


I hope this helps, If you have any other questions let me know. I've been dealing with grants, etc.. for a couple years because we just can't afford for me to go to college. Adn don't let full time scare you, full time is 9-12 credits which amounts to 2-3 classes a week. It's really do-able. But the Fl state grants to cover part timers as well.
Good Luck!
Jennifer

 

[ffemt8978]

Originally posted by TTLWHKR+Jun 20 2005, 07:00 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (TTLWHKR @ Jun 20 2005, 07:00 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by usafmedic45@Jun 20 2005, 07:34 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-silentneko

@Jun 20 2005, 03:51 PM
good morning gentlemen and ladies, I have just completed EMT-B school here in south florida, I was one of 15 graduates out of 43 students.

15 out of 43? Holy crap. I knew a lot of people failed EMT classes, but damn.

I was thinking the same thing. [/b][/quote]
In my EMT-B class, we had 3/30 pass the class. Worst case of instructor failure I've ever seen.

 

[TTLWHKR]

You could always rob a bank.