I am a sophomore in the undergrad portion of an accelerated six year B.S./M.D. program, expecting to complete not just the med school matriculation prereqs, but also a minor in History by the end of spring semester. Evidently, medicine aside, history has all along been a passion of mine and I feel even with my history and nonscience gen ed courses taken, the science requirements for my program have not permitted enough breathing space to study other subjects as an undergrad.
After a recent, particularly strenuous week of science midterms, I began to seriously consider taking a third year (acceptable with, even encouraged by my advisor) to essentially just take history and arts courses, with the idea of completing twenty-one more history credits to attain a B.A. in history. Working towards the degree would be a matter of personal development, having one more year of fun, and, however strange it sounds, getting credentialed for my passion. Yet, the extra year would tack on $40k to any future debt and delay my career by a year, and I would not be seeing most, though certainly not all of my cohort peers for that year; the finances are what I really have reservations about, since my family is not rich but would also not qualify for need-based aid. Seeing that “you only do college once” and med school debt is a very real problem for graduates, what are some thoughts from those who have gone through the med school/residency/work route?
@Sejarah, so I’ve completed a six-year BA/MD program, and I think it depends on what the real underlying reason is to tack on that 1 year. I’m guessing you would be paying out-of-state tuition at the undergraduate rate hence the 40K.
Are you feeling burned out and that’s why you’re feeling like you need that extra year to pursue your intellectual passion of history? If so, my fear is you’d just burn out again later in med school, once that year is up, so not really helpful, but on the other hand it’s also not good to go into medical school burned out either when the studying ramps up. Or is it because you feel like your curriculum is very restricted, hence the wanting to take other classes? I personally think that $40K in student loans for 1 more year of undergrad classes, is too expensive, if your family is not affluent enough to be able to put down that level of cash.
@Roentgen You were on point about my paying OOS tuition at a public undergrad. My desire for a third year is probably a combination of what you mentioned, but more about a restricted curriculum and wanting to grow intellectually and socially before med school than burnout necessarily. I could try for a tutoring job the summer after second year, and possibly even on the side during third, but yes, the extra expenses incurred would just be added to any future debt. Not to sound like I’m downplaying anything, but how serious exactly would $40k more in debt be, assuming debt via the six-year route might be tuition and living expenses for the last two years of med school? And if I do go six-years, would it be feasible to ever pursue a Master’s in history later down the road?
@Sejarah, that’s definitely understandable. Most 6 year programs that are now left (there were 3 for a while in recent years, although after this year, I believe UMKC will probably be the only 6 year program), don’t really allow a very well-rounded undergraduate education, in terms of coursework, outside of the sciences, due to the accelerated timeframe.
Are you taking loans on room and board (living expenses) as well, or just tuition? Financial aid, normally will cover both if needed since it’s part of COA (cost of attendance). You can use this student loan calculator (there are others as well): http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml, to calculate what that 40K (or more if you add room & board) will look like with interest. Tutoring during the summer of 2nd year undergrad and on the side during your self-selected 3rd year undergrad, probably will not make a huge dent in terms of your extra debt burden for that year (realize student loans have interest - about 6.8% but this varies by lender).
If you finish the 6 years and graduate with your Bachelor and MD degrees, your pursuit of a Masters in History will probably be less likely, not more likely, for several reasons: 1) in the fall of your last year of medical school, you apply and interview for the residency match in which you find out in the spring where you got into for internship and/or residency, 2) residency program directors tend to like recruiting applicants who are fresh U.S. seniors (meaning students who are in their very last year of medical school, and haven’t graduated with their MD yet). You probably would not be able to do the Masters until after residency, if you decide to stop there, or after your fellowship, where you could then go back. Now, whether you’d actually want to go back at that point, is a whole another story.
So for your stated purposes of exploring an undergraduate curriculum outside the one already set for you by your Bachelor/MD program, now would be the best time to do that.