PA school costs a fortune. Loans aren't the only option on the table anymore.

Tess Michaels is the CEO and founder of Stride Funding, and she came on to explain income share agreements. Instead of borrowing a lump sum and paying interest on it, you agree to pay back a set percentage of your income for a fixed window, usually around five years.

She walks through the mechanics, who qualifies, and how it compares to traditional student loans. Eligibility at the time of this recording meant being within about two years of graduating with no adverse credit history.

I want to be clear that I'm not telling you what to do with your money. This is Tess explaining how her company's product works so you know the option exists. Read everything, run your own numbers, and talk to someone who knows your situation before you sign anything.

What we cover:

• What an income share agreement is and how repayment works
• How it differs from a traditional student loan
• Eligibility requirements Tess outlined
• The typical repayment window and percentage structure
• Questions to ask before signing any funding agreement
• Why Tess started Stride Funding

Resources:

Free Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

Mentioned in this episode:

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Today's episode is number 144 and we're talking about ways to pay for PA school, specifically income shared agreements.

So this may be something you've never heard of.

Pay attention to today's episode.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Alright guys, today I'm going to be sitting down with the CEO and founder of Stride Funding, Tess Michaels, to talk about her vision that she turned into a reality for helping students figure out different ways to pay for school, particularly very expensive graduate health programs.

So I'm very, very excited to share that with you.

Before we jump into that, let's hear a little bit from our sponsors about P. PA School Prep and MYPA Resource.

Before we get started, I just wanted to quickly mention a sponsor of the podcast, MYPA Resource.

If you've Never heard of MyPA Resource, it's a website www.myparesource.com and while I offer services like mock interviews, I work with MYPA Resource as a personal statement editor.

So MYPA Resource has been around for a while now and I would say just based on everything that's out there, they are the most trusted and most thorough pre PA personal statement editing service.

So with my PA Resource, like I said, I'm an editor, so I help them edit proofread personal statements for PA school applicants.

We'll talk more about personal statements in the future, but I cannot stress the importance of having your essay proofread by PA and that's what makes my PA resource different, is that they only use PAs to do their editing.

And so you want a PA who's familiar with the interview process and the application process before you submit to caspa.

So all the editors, we've been trained, we do a lot of essays and we know what to look for and we know what the admissions committees are looking for.

And so I know when I edit it's very thorough.

I mean, you're gonna get a lot of read back, but that's not necessarily bad thing.

So you can use actually a discount code that they have provided to the Prepa Club podcast listeners exclusively.

And you can get $15 off any service when you use the code PRE PAC, all in lowercase.

So I'll put that in the description as well.

And if you have any questions about that, please feel free to reach out to me.

They you can send them an email too.

But yeah, a great resource that I want you guys to know about.

And then PA School Prep is an online course to help prepare you for the first few semesters of PA school, where you're reviewing anatomy, physiology and med terms.

So definitely make sure that you check that out and use that code future PA for a discount on that as well.

So if you're getting ready to start PA School, that is a great option for you.

All right, let's get into today's episode, which I'm so excited about.

Before we do that, I have a couple of upcoming events to tell you about.

First of all, happy almost fourth of July.

I hope everyone has a safe weekend.

This is probably going to look a lot different for people who, I mean, Covid is still happening, so stay safe.

Wear a mask.

It is definitely still out there.

I'm in Georgia and our numbers are going up by the day.

Not fun.

All right, later in July, there are a few dates that I wanted you to be aware of of things coming up.

So the first one is that actually Stride Funding, who you're going to hear from today.

They have an upcoming webinar.

So if you listen to today's episode and want more information or want an opportunity to ask questions without actually going to some of the resources you're going to hear about, this would be a great option for you.

So mark your calendars July 21st at 12 noon Eastern Time.

So Stride will be talking about how to fund your PA school.

So again, if you want more information, that's a great place to go.

The link will be in the description and we'll be posting it throughout the month as well.

Make sure you're on our newsletter list.

So if you go to the PA platform.com newsletter, we always send out updates about webinars, so I'm sure we'll send one out with information on all of these upcoming events.

All right, so next, on July 24, we are going to do a second edition of the PA School Mock Interviews live.

So that was a lot of fun.

It was, I think, helpful and I still am very grateful to the people who volunteered to have a mock interview in front of 200 people who are watching at the time and who knows how many are watching the replay.

So that's not easy.

But again, very grateful.

So we are going to do that again on the 24th at 8pm Eastern.

That's a Friday night.

So if you need something super fun to do on a Friday, you can join myself and Brian.

If you go to prepaconference.com you'll be able to register for that it is again, a five dollar donation.

And y', all, I just to say how excited I am that you guys have been able to help us to raise so much money and donate so much money.

So with this past mock interview, live with people who registered, and especially the people, like people bought multiple registrations just because they wanted to donate more, which is so cool, we were able to donate $2,000 to a very cool new scholarship that's going to be announced in the next couple weeks through the PA Foundation.

So that's just awesome.

So it's small, but you're doing something, so that's really cool.

And like 100% of those proceeds go to whatever we're supporting.

And we haven't exactly decided for this month.

If you have ideas on something that would be awesome for us to support, let me know because we just want to help as much as possible.

And if we can give a little bit of time and help people along the way, that's the goal.

Okay, so then on the 25th, July 25th, that is a Saturday.

That's going to be the Northeastern Virtual Pre PA Conference.

It was supposed to be in person in New Jersey.

I did this conference last year with the College of St Elizabeth and it was awesome.

But it has moved to being virtual, which now just means it's more accessible.

So the cost of that is $40.

If you have a financial hardship and you really want to go this conference but cannot attend based on the cost, please let me know.

They have some scholarship opportunities, so we can kind of work with you there.

But yeah, feel free to reach out, but it's going to be great.

The list of speakers is awesome.

I am doing a talk on interviews.

Brian's talking about personal statements.

Non one of our coaches is going to be doing a talk, Jay the pa, she's currently a PA student.

She's going to be doing a talk, but it'll be good.

So I think that would definitely be worth your time and something that would be helpful.

So again, link in description.

And now let's get into our interview.

So I'm excited.

I learned a lot about how Stride Funding works, practically because I've read about it, of course, and talked to Stride Funding through working with them these past few months, but hearing just the vision of how this is kind of an alternative solution to a traditional loan, which is what we all know about, is really, really cool.

So they have a lot of great resources that I encourage you to take advantage of, even just having a discussion, explore all of your options, see what's available, see what's going to make the most sense for you from a financial standpoint.

And you don't always have to just go the traditional route, so we'll jump into that, and I hope you enjoy.

All right, so this is very exciting because I have Tess Michaels here.

And you are.

What's your.

What's your official title?

I'm founder and CEO of Scribe Funding.

Okay.

So both founder and.

That sounds like.

I wasn't sure if either one.

Okay.

So I'm really excited to just learn more from your perspective and definitely about the background of how Stride Funding got started and how it can specifically benefit PAs and PA students.

So.

All right, well, give us a little introduction and background on kind of you, and then we'll go from there.

Absolutely, yes.

So, again, thanks so much for having me, Savannah.

I'm Tess Michaels, founder of Stride, which we'll go into this, but Stride is a student centric platform that offers a much more flexible and affordable alternative to traditional loans.

I actually founded Stride as a graduate student years ago, thinking about my own financing options and realizing once you add books and housing and tuition, you realize just how quickly it becomes really expensive.

And so, you know, my background has really been between startups and finance, but I was actually a biology major back in college, but to the disappointment of my parents, you know, didn't stick with the amazing path that I think so many of your viewers are in, you know, focusing on PA school.

So.

Nice.

Well, you know, our pain then, at least a little bit.

So.

That much more respect for people who get through all of it.

Yeah, yeah, I would.

If I. I was a bio major and if I went back, I get this question a lot and did it again, I wouldn't be.

And that's what's interesting.

I would have probably done something like PR or management and just.

I would have still taken the classes for PA school, but the whole major was just not necessary.

So, yeah, I kind of wish I did something different.

Okay, so give us like your educational resume breakdown.

Yeah, totally.

So, on a personal note, I began my career actually working on another impact startup.

It was basically a company that helped, you know, manage analytics for corporate philanthropy and corporate volunteerism program.

So really, again, how do we a make the world a better place and use analytics for that?

Then I worked in finance, helping invest in fintech companies.

So financial technology companies really enjoyed that.

But I just missed working on something I was just crazy about and really passionate about.

And so I then transitioned to founding Stride.

As I mentioned, starting out as a graduate student, seeing the pain point of education funding firsthand.

And I decided to really focus on helping healthcare professionals, given my own personal experience.

So my family is almost entirely healthcare professionals.

Mom's a doctor, both my grandparents, my sister.

Just about everyone I know has pursued careers in healthcare.

And so I just have so much appreciation and really wanted to spend my time helping those exact people.

Okay, cool.

So what year was this kind of instated?

Yeah.

Okay.

So it's pretty new.

So it's pretty new.

It's early days.

That's the fun of a startup.

And it's been a total whirlwind since.

So.

Yeah, that's exciting.

Okay, so let's get into kind of like the nitty gritty of what is Stride funding?

What does it offer?

Kind of break that down for us.

Yeah, absolutely.

So Stride is essentially a student financing company.

So we really help students think through finding much more flexible and affordable ways to pay for school.

And the way we do this is an innovative spin on a traditional loan.

So with a traditional loan, you know, students have to, you know, look at paying principal and interest and while they're in school.

And it'll accrue costs with an income share agreement, which is what Stride offers.

It's meant to be really simple.

It's just a fixed percentage of income, usually single digits.

So think 5, 6% of income over a set number of years.

Let's say five years.

So it's way shorter than a traditional loan as well.

So that's really the core thesis was how to make sure students had a product that really aligned the cost of their education with the value of their education.

Everything is outcomes based.

Okay, cool.

So we can get into, like, a little bit more specifics on that too.

But who exactly would you say can benefit the most from Stride funding?

I think when I've done some posts, some of the questions I've gotten are like, can this fund undergraduate education?

Is it just for grad school?

Like, who?

Who is this the best for?

Absolutely.

So we fund both undergraduate and graduate students, but it's all students within two years of graduation.

Most of our students, I'd say about 80 to 85% of our students are healthcare students.

So mostly nurses, physicians, assistants.

The nurses range from BSNs, MSNs, DNPs, and nurse practitioners, and then a ton of PAs.

That's really where we started.

That was, you know, our first cohort of students.

And so I would say the.

The best, you know, user of a Stride income share agreement are folks who think they're going to go into very stable careers.

And I think the benefit of being in healthcare is taking advantage of a lot of the career resources that we've built in that are really tailored to those professions.

Okay, so how does someone get started with this?

Like, what does that process look like?

And at what point?

I guess, like, if I'm thinking back to when I was, you know, trying to figure all this out, like, at what point do you decide this or make that commitment?

Because it's like you get into PA school and then they kind of go, oh, this is how much your tuition's gonna be.

Just go apply for loans.

And there's not a ton of direction.

Like, you fill out fafsa.

You just talk to your classmates, like, try to figure out how to navigate.

That on the whole process.

And I think that's fundamentally one of the things that's broken with the system that we're really trying to help is creating a much more personalized process for students and also ensuring that they can apply at any point in their journey.

We have students who are applying even before getting accepted into a school that are already brought into our community and are on our radar.

And we'll help them think through based on what geography and what types of schools, what are the best options for them.

We have students who are coming in who are not within two years of graduation that can do our pre qual program, which means we can, you know, guarantee funding for them for the following year.

And then, of course, the vast majority of students have, you know, been accepted to school or are already currently enrolled in school, and they'll apply.

On our website, it takes less than a minute to do the initial application.

It's very quick.

The whole process between applying and getting your pricing and getting the contract can be done in just a couple days.

So it's very quick for the students as long as the student moves fast through the process with us.

And we have a whole customer support team that's just ready to get on a phone call and talk live with students about all of their options.

It doesn't even just have to be the Stride income share agreement, but we can walk through their federal options, their private loan options, making sure that they're taking scholarships and grants first, and really just basically trying to be as involved as the student wants us to be with them.

That's awesome.

So really, I mean, it sounds like the first step is kind of connecting and asking questions and looking at everybody's situation differently because everyone's situation is so different.

I went to a public school.

So my loans were not nearly what some people's are, thankfully.

Yeah, but not everyone, I mean, not even every state offers that.

And then there's less spots, so.

Yeah, but.

Okay, so is there, is it possible to give an example of like what this would look like?

Of course, yeah.

So essentially the way an income share agreement is structured is, as I mentioned, it's meant to be much more simple than a loan structure that has various components versus just really two components.

What's the percentage of income and over how long.

So the traditional stride isa is as I mentioned, a single digit percentage of income.

So let's illustratively say it's 5% of your income over five years.

And in order to build in student protections, we also have a few features to really help students make sure that they don't have to pay during the tougher times of their life.

I mean, when we look at this current market environment, there's so much uncertainty in the job market and what the future looks like.

And so we really want to be supportive in the way we structure the product.

So there's also a minimum income threshold.

What that really means is when you earn less than a certain amount of money, let's say it's, you know, $40,000, you don't pay a cent.

That's really just a protection to make sure that if you're furloughed or if you get sick or you have a tough time, you're just safe, you're covered and there's no additional expenses during that time either.

Also, there's a cap.

There's kind of the maximum you will ever pay again.

A student protection to make sure students know that this product is always affordable and that, you know, they'll never pay more than a certain amount.

So that's really the key structure of an income share agreement.

Does that make sense or happy to.

Go and no, I think that makes sense.

I have some questions, I guess along the lines of people being qualified and people love to throw these financial questions at me and I am very quick to tell them I am like not an expert in any of this and point them in the right direction.

But as far as someone being qualified to receive this type of funding, like what are the, what are the checklists that they have to fulfill?

I guess.

Yeah, totally.

Great, great question.

So the key criteria are a, you know, we look for students who are US citizens or green card holders.

Second is students within two years of graduation.

Again, it doesn't matter if it's a, you know, second bachelor's a first bachelor's, a graduate degree, which most PAs obviously are master's degrees.

So that's the second thing is within two years of graduation.

Third is just making sure that you don't have any adverse credit history.

We don't have FICO cutoff scores, but we definitely will look at credit reports and just make sure that you don't have derogatories or any issues there.

And then beyond that, it's fairly standard.

We work with just about every school in the US we don't currently work with community colleges.

We're looking at expanding there.

But just about any traditional school that you can think of in the US will work with and any of these STEM or health care programs.

Okay, well, you answered two of my questions about international students and bad credit.

So that was, that was coming next.

So.

And then, so is there a.

This is when I post on Instagram a question I got, Is there a limit on the amount that can be borrowed?

So currently we fund up to $25,000 per year per student.

So depending on your program length, let's say it's a two year program, you can borrow up to $50,000 via Scribe.

And we'll also help you work through if you have a higher need than that.

We have different partners.

So we can also help you figure out the rest of your funding on top of that.

Okay, so that was.

Yeah, my question because I thought there was some limit in there.

And I mean, PA school is ridiculously expensive.

We know.

Yeah.

So could somebody do like, if they did stride funding, would they do like a private loan or could they still do federal loans or could they not?

No, no, of course.

Okay.

Many students will take out part of their total funding amount with a federal loan and part of it with stride.

And the benefit is with that they'll get a lot of the benefits you get through federal options and some of the lower cost features there.

And then with stride, of course they'll get that flexibility and a lot of the career support that we've baked in.

So it's a good combination.

Actually, we see the same with private loans.

There are students who will do partly a stride ISA and partly a private loan, and some will just fund themselves with stride.

So we've seen it across the map and there's no one size fits all solution.

Right.

It's whatever's best for, for the student.

Okay.

Awesome.

Yeah.

And that makes sense.

So like with, you know, my situation, I was able, thankfully with my parents help to just use like the straight federal loans and not have to do anything else.

So a lot of my classmates did grad plus or had to look into private loans.

And so it never came.

Like, everyone just did the same thing because it just didn't cover everything.

Yes, totally.

And I think a lot of times when students look at just different loan options, one of the things you realize is oftentimes your undergrad loans are already accruing interest when you go back to school.

And sometimes students are just looking for solutions that aren't another fixed obligation.

Right.

An income share agreement inherently, you know, fluctuates with your earnings.

And so it's a bit more flexible.

But for a lot of students, the federal options are great.

And we, we are very transparent with our students where we walk through the total costs, you know, across federal options, private options, income share agreement options.

And sometimes we'll say, this is a good option for you.

And for some students, we'll say, actually, you know, another is better.

And that's totally fine.

We're in the business of helping students.

And that's really the goal here.

Yeah.

Need to look at options.

So.

And like, ideally, just to make sure I have this clear, like, the time someone would apply for this or kind of get started would be like before they start school or like even possibly in school, but not afterwards.

Yes, Right.

So, yeah, exactly.

Right.

The ideal time for a student to start it is we have a ton of students who are already enrolled in school.

And let's say they're looking for funding for their last year or their last semester.

They should absolutely apply.

A lot of students are incoming, they've already been accepted, and they're enrolling in a program, and then they're looking for funding for their first year.

That's also a great time.

If a student is any earlier in the process, it never hurts to apply.

But just realize if they haven't already selected a school or if they are, you know, over two years away from graduating, then they would be a better fit for our pre qual program, our pre qualification program program, which is basically a contract for a future isa.

But.

But for the most part, it's students who are already currently enrolled or incoming about to start.

Okay, cool.

So like, after the fact, once you know, you're back, once you're out of school, is there a grace period like with federal loans?

Yes, absolutely.

So we have a few months that are, that is a grace period for all students where the Income share agreement does not start.

And, you know, students really have that time to just find the right job for them.

Perfect.

Okay.

And then so what happens if somebody, like, changes jobs?

Yeah, so that's totally true.

Yes, it just adjusts.

Exactly.

So it's not, you know, the whole goal of an ISA is we change as your life changes.

And, you know, if you, you know, at any point change your career, that's totally fine.

It's still the same percentage of income over the same amount of time, and that's it.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And then, like, I have to ask this question, even though nobody likes to think about this, but let's say somebody like, signs up and then they maybe don't graduate.

It happens.

I know with like, federal loans, that can be really bad or like, it's really bad with like, the health scholarship thing, but I don't know what happens.

So with our product, the way it's structured is, again, we tried to aim for simplicity.

So the contract does not change, even though if you don't graduate, the likelihood is you probably will earn probably significantly less.

It's the same contract.

So if you, let's say, owed 5% of your income over 60 payment months, so five years, you'll still owe that same amount regardless of if, if you don't end up being a PA and you go somewhere else.

With that said, we really, of course, want to encourage and look for students that we think have a high propensity of graduation.

And we also invest a lot in career support tools to help students from the second that they join, strive.

So we have.

I'll walk you through.

Yeah, let's talk about some of, like, what y' all like, what that support looks like that people can utilize.

So I think one of the nice things about us focusing, you know, so much on specific professions, so really, you know, healthcare professions in this case is we can build really personalized, tailored tools to help students throughout their entire school and career journey.

So the second a student signs up with stri, they're brought into the stride community and we have weekly content that we give them.

You know, we will do.

We will write blogs weekly that help students think through how to stay while they're in school, personalize ways to prep, you know, exam tips, etc.

We have reading materials, you know, words of wisdom, peer to peer networks, etc.

That's from the day that they joined.

In addition to that, as they're coming closer to graduation, we have different career tools.

So we have specific templates and cover letter and resume support that we provide for each student.

We had, you know, a number of our students just joined really great hospitals, and we really helped them through that process of recruiting.

We also are right now working on planning placement partnerships with larger hospital systems and different companies to really help place students into high quality jobs.

And we're also working on large discounts and sometimes fully subsidized materials to help students with exam prep.

So let's say your nurse, your NCLEX exam, as well as interview prep materials and tutoring and exam prep materials more broadly.

The nice thing about all of this is it's all free and it's all just part of the stride mission.

So this really just comes as part of the package of being part of our community.

That's really cool.

Okay.

So that, I mean, that I will tell you, that's not something you're gonna get with a federal loan where I feel like that process is just very confusing from start to finish.

So, yeah, lots of googling and mixed answers was basically what I got.

Yeah, we're gonna really keep it, you know, easy for the student because I, trust me, I know students going back to school already have enough on their plate, and the last thing they need to stress about is the financing fee.

Yeah, yeah.

Are there.

Weird question.

Are there stipulations on what the money that comes from stride can be used on?

So it's the same as any other loan.

So you can certify and disperse with the school.

So absolutely anything the school can certify for that can be booked, that can be housing that can be, you know, your tuition, etc.

Stride can be used to work.

Okay.

It's nearly identical to any other loan.

Okay.

Just from a different source.

Okay, awesome.

I feel like we've covered anything.

I mean, are there any other kind of like, pros, cons, just anything that people need to think through?

Yeah, I'd say, honestly, I think, you know, at the end of the day, our goal is to really just, you know, change the whole paradigm of how you think about education funding.

You know, our whole inspiration was realizing that it doesn't make sense to have, you know, loan providers that force students to pay the same amount regardless of what's happening in their life or in the world or regardless of the outcome of their, you know, educational pursuits.

And so a like, you know, really a call to action for all students watching this to, you know, tell your friends about this auction.

I think awareness is the biggest issue with an income share agreement.

The second a student knows what an ISA is, understands what an ISA is, you know, immediately students prefer this product over loan products, you know, nearly all of the the time.

But the biggest issue is students just not knowing that this is available because it's a newer product, just like we talked about.

The other thing is, you know, as we think about building our community and our career resources, we're always asking students, what else could we add to the mix?

And what else do you really wish you had support in so beyond just your funding needs?

If you have ideas, you know, I'm really open to hearing, you know, each and every one of them.

We want to make this a really special experience.

That's great.

Yeah.

That's funny that you say that, because that's how a lot of people describe the PA profession is.

People just don't know about it.

And, you know, once they find out, they think it's great.

Totally.

And so.

Yeah, and from that, I mean, look, it's, you know, as I said, it only takes a minute to do the first part of the application.

It's super quick.

And I think you'll share this, Savannah, but it's just, you know, Stride funding dot com.

Yeah, that was my next question and where we find y'.

All.

So I'll put a link in the description and then I think y' all are on Instagram too.

Okay.

Funding.

Yeah, Instagram, Facebook, whatever students have.

And yeah, yeah.

Again, thank you so much for just being such an amazing supporter.

And, you know, I'm really excited to hopefully help, you know, many of your students as they're own educational journey.

So, yeah, I like.

I like knowing all the options and sharing them.

So I've appreciated Yalls partnership too.

Of course.

This has been wonderful.

Well, thank you.

All right, y' all feel free to check out the link in the description and tune into that webinar with Stride funding on July 21st.

If you have any questions along the way, you know where to find me.

I'm on instagram @the PA platform.

I'm on TikTok physician assistant, and I'm here for you.

So happy to chat and I'll see you guys next week.

Bye.