<p>Hi I have a pretty big question. I have been accepted at University of Oxford in England for a 4-Year Masters Program in Biochemistry. However as an international student I would have to foot the entire ~25000 pound(50kish) per year in debt. I will also be attending Medical School afterwards and so will have that to worry about too. My question is if I attend oxford, do well and get good mcat scores, and then assuming i get a full ride to a half decent med school will that about $200,000 debt be manageable when i get out of school? I have also been accepted to UofM Ann arbor where my costs would be about $25k per year. Would doing well at u of m and the same mcat scores get me as good offers from med schools, because from U fM ill only get a bachelors instead of the masters? Med schools are about 40-50k per year now, right?</p>
<p>I know UofM is a great school but really I have always dreamed of Oxford and now that i am accepted i am trying to find ways to fund it. Does anyone know of any funding/scholarships i could get for these studies that would at least partially cover this debt?
Thanks and really any advise you can give me is greatly appreciated.
Dan.</p>
<p>I would personally feel that going to Oxford would be worth it. I've always felt that no where offers a better education and global environment. However, I think the type of Medicine you plan to go into would influence how easily paying off your bill will be. I know the starting salary for joint-replacement surgeons is about 500,000$. But if you plan to go into family medicine or a related field. An education at UofM would most likely be just as helpful.</p>
<p>thanks and also do you think that i might be able to get a full ride with a masters and assuming good mcats easier than with a bachelors and same mcats??</p>
<p>People don't typically get full rides or anything of the sort for medical schools.</p>
<p>And you really need to stop making such huge assumptions about your future academic performance. Your plan seems poorly thought out. Go to the premed forum for more info.</p>
<p>^ you beat me to it. also, being a doctor is often viewed as a great financial move, but you also have to consider many factors, such as malpractice insurance (very expensive), cost of living, and the length of your residency. it can take some time before your out of debt. congratulations on getting into oxford! i heard its near impossible to do that if your from the us.</p>
<p>I hate to be a contrarian, but you need to think really hard. You may be in debt for $400,000 when you finish medical school. This would definitely have a great impact on your career. if you really want to do research, you will never be able to pay your debt on a medical school asst. professor salary.
Don't forget that residency can be 3 to 7 years after medical school.</p>
<p>Money magazine recently had an article about a couple who are both MDs and they owe a total $480K for school debt. They are both making somewhere $40K-$50K. That is too much debt to carry. Think carefully. Go to big name school if you want something else but not MD as a career.</p>
<p>Full-rides or even half-rides are almost nonexistent for med school in the US. Merit scholarships in general are scarce. This is because med school admissions is so tough that applicants are begging to get into med school, not the other way around. If you want to be a doctor, you cannot be debt adverse.</p>
<p>There are full-rides available. They're just rare. For example, at Penn Med (one of the wealthier med schools), they give out approx. 5 full-rides and a handful of partial-rides in a matriculating class of 150. But, you cannot get a full-ride on the basis of GPA or MCAT score alone, no matter how high your stats are. You need to demonstrate amazing potential and leadership ability. Because med school applicants in general are very bright, it's very difficult to distinguish yourself from the rest. Often the scholarships are reserved for URMs with amazing stats, people who were Rhodes or Fullbright scholars, people who've been published in Nature or Science, etc.</p>
<p>so i would be completely off base in thinking that a masters would be significantly more beneficial than a bachelors in the grand scheme of things???</p>
<p>Quite frankly med schools don't give a damn. There are going to be multiple people with phD's in every med school class. Med schools are not going to be impressed with a masters.</p>
<p>I think you underestimate how amazing med school applicants are. I've personally met phD's, people who've done Peace Corps, Teach for America, people who worked as investment bankers, people with >3 publications, people with NIH/Marshall/Fullbright fellowships, etc. It takes a lot to stand out from the crowd.</p>
<p>ya i guess i have from everything you have said. thanks for all your help so u would suggest going with the cheapest school i can get that is still one of my top choices and ditch the dream or what?</p>
<p>I can't tell you where to go. I do think it is extremely important to go to a school you'll be happy at. Premed is tough enough so you don't want to go to a school where you'll be miserable. You will most likely accumulate around 150-200,000 in debt during med school. So 20,000 in undergrad debt is chump change. I personally chose to go to Cornell rather than Berkeley (and thus cost myself around $30,000) because that's the school I liked better.</p>
<p>My above comments are just observations I've made while interviewing at med schools so you have somewhat of a limited sample size. However, I have interviewed at nine med schools so far so I've met many other med school applicants.</p>
<p>oxford is a really amazing school- i love it there. Something to bear in mind, though, is that oxford degrees (and indeed almost all degrees at UK schools) are very structured with almost no opportunity to do courses that don't relate to your chosen subject. As such, you might struggle to fufill pre-med requirements. You'd be fine on the chem, bio, calculus and probably physics front, but you wouldn't have done an non-science courses, which may restrict your choice of medschool in the US. You could apply for med school in the UK as well, in which case you'd be fine (and probably cheaper*), but then you're getting into a more and more divergent system and more hassle if you wanna work back in the states.</p>
<p>Basically, make sure you research your options carefully before you decide what to do. If you do decide not to take the place at oxford, though, tell them sooner rather than later, so they can reallocate your place to someone else (they don't expect people to decline their places- arrogant, perhaps, but that's the way it is).</p>
<p>*UK med school fees - 2/3 pre-clinical years at £12K and another 2 clinical years at £20k, plus living costs.</p>
<p>thomasjl is right - at UK universities you can't just 'pick and choose' courses in your degree programme, the course of study will already have been set out by the university. Oxford is even stricter in this regard than other UK universities - at other unis, you may be able to select one or two electives, but at Oxford, these will be very restricted. </p>
<p>It's also worth bearing in mind that in the UK there is a distinction between a four-year undergraduate masters degree (in your case an MBioChem) and a postgraduate masters degree (MSc/MA). They are not regarded as being of the same standard. </p>
<p>I'm an Oxford student, and frankly, given what you've said about your financial situation, I'd say go elsewhere. Oxford is not worth that much debt. The education here is wonderful, but you can get a wonderful education anywhere if you're willing to work for it.</p>
<p>Both of my parents are doctors, and they were both 30 years old before they started making any money. Do expect to shoulder 200 grand for a long time. </p>
<p>Because of that, make sure to research financial plans like loans, talk with banks about managing your money, etc. And also research Oxford, because as others have pointed out, programs are very stringent. I'm sure yours will be doubly so as a pre-med fast-track Masters. </p>
<p>Ultimately, you cannot buy yourself a medical admissions advantage. An exchange, Master's applicant is going to open far fewer doors than your finances may shut. I do believe in pursuing your goal, but I certainly hope that being a doctor is a more important goal than attending Oxford. You may very well be able to pursue that goal in your home country with half the debt.</p>