If you don’t hold any ems certifications you can become an emt in 3-6 months depending where you go for about 1k or free as others have stated.. you will be hired easily at transports like (seniorcare etc.) for ~15$ an hour. you may get lucky and hired into 911 starting at 18-20$ an hour... it will take about 1 year to get hired into fdny EMS and then another 1-3 years before you pass and make it in for the medic program. (It goes on seniority, test scores, and your calendar and evaluations)

In the fdny medic program they will pay you your salary to go to class 5 days a week for 9 months until you graduate. You will “owe” the department 3 years of ALS service or else they will expect you to pay them back if you leave.

What no one will tell you is consider your age and obligations.. if you need some kind of life NOW and have a family to support just suck it up and do medic on the outside. You will pay 10-15k and be in school for about 1 year and almost immediately be hired at a 911 or transport right out of school starting at 20$-30$ an hour.
As a medic fdny will still hire you as ALS or BLS.. if they hire you as a bls then you will operate on the BLS LEVEL and bls salary until an upgrade program comes along which could be 6months to 1 year.

If you’re young and live at home. With no real bills you can easily go the bls route and wait until you make it in the medic class. As a first year emt in the academy you will get about 950 biweekly after taxes.. and with an extra 12+ hours a week of overtime you will see about $1500 after taxes.

Also most EMTs in the fdny still live with their parents or family.