<p>“I’d say my long days were 5:30a-6p” - this is normal day. They had to do the 24 hours, I bet you did it also (it was actually 21 hours), it never started at 7am though.
D. had 2 exams as part of surgery shelf exam. Oral was hard and she was thinking that she did bad, but got 10 out of 10. Written was really hard, not comarable to Step 1 and we do not know results yet. Everybody who took the test were practically devastated after such a hard work and huge preparation, everybody realized that there is no way to actually be prepared to questions that do not reflect their background.
After 3 days, D. really likes her psych rotation. The big difference is the type pf people in psych vs. surgery and the place is practically the PALACE (but we knew it from her previous visits). She mentioned that Psych shelf exam is very hard, harder than most anticipated, but it is so far ahead, she is just enjoying more relaxed rotation with very nice bunch of people.</p>
<p>Those 12 hour days are not bad compared to real life hours.</p>
<p>(^Oh yeah, I’m well aware that others work considerably more. Just wanted to contrast my experience to hers)</p>
<p>D’s been assigned to surgical onc service. Days routinely are 4am-7pm. Lunch is whatever you can grab on the run.</p>
<p>Looks like I will not be having lunch with D1 anytime soon. :(</p>
<p>Just wondering about med school debt. My nephew is in his second year of med school and will have probably have $230-$250K debt when he finishes. I’m so proud of him–his hard work and dedication–but I worry about the burden of this much debt. He says it’s unavoidable in his case and he’ll just have to pay it off. I’m wondering how common this is and how you’d feel about it if this was a member of your family. Does anyone here have first hand experience? He was surprised at the number of students at his school who have wealthy families that are picking up the tab. Sadly, he’s not so fortunate.</p>
<p>^ DS is in MS now. Our goal is to limit his debt to about a half of the amount you referred to (Knock! Knock!) You know who picks up the tab - and we are by no means wealthy. (We even can not afford to go to his white coat ceremony due to the cost of flying there.) It is like shifting the money that should go to the retirement account to his education expenses.</p>
<p>I also feel that quite many of his classmates are likely from a wealthy family.</p>
<p>A majority of the students at his med school would take a tuition-free 5th year for research. It appears whenever DS feels the “pressure” of the ever- increasing debt, he would think of not adding the extra year (to pad his credential for residency application.) But we prefer he would take the fifth year because we know he does like to be “rushed.”</p>
<p>He once mentioned that if a student’s board test (like STEP 1) score is high enough, he/she does not have to take the 5th research year assuming he is not shooting for one of the competitive specialties like ROAD. Is there any truth in this statement?</p>
<p>According to the AAMC 2012 survey median education debt of indebted private school graduates was $190,000. On my phone or I would link report.</p>
<p>I don’t believe your nephew’s numbers are the norm but are certainly not rare.</p>
<p>mcat2, I think he has it right. But that tuition free 5th year is where my good scoring D is right now. Needed? Probably not. But dang. It sure is nice. </p>
<p>Taking a trip or 3. Getting some pub’s. Getting some leadership opp’s. Really beefing up the r</p>
<p>Here’s the AMCAS 2012 report</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/152968/data</a></p>
<p>Curm, regarding “earning money during a year/summer”, one of DS’s classmates complained that, yes, you do earn the money in that year. But in the next year, the school takes most of the money back because you had the income in the base year.</p>
<p>These “greedy” students!</p>
<p>WOWmom. The one I read was much longer but I can’t get the PDF to load on my two cans and a string ranch internet. It was quoted here in a pdf on specialty choice and debt. </p>
<p>Class of 2012 Indebtedness<br>
All Schools Public Schools Private Schools<br>
Mean $166,738 $156,018 $183,002
Median $170,000 $160,000 $190,000
86% of graduates report having educational debt 36% of graduates report debt $200,000 or higher</p>
<p>Yeah, we’ll see how that works. FA suggested my D choose to submit FA based on paying half of her tuition in her tuition free year and the other half in her 4th year. I dunno if that changes anything. We shall see because that’s what she did. ;)</p>
<p>Is it this one?</p>
<p>Physician Education Debt and the Cost to Attend Medical School</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/328322/data/statedebtreport.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/328322/data/statedebtreport.pdf</a></p>
<p>~~~~</p>
<p>Interestingly, it seems there is now substantial data that suggests that educational debt is not a primary driver in a student’s choice of specialty.</p>
<p>[Personality</a> fit trumps finances in medical specialty choice - amednews.com](<a href=“American Medical News - Home - amednews.com”>Personality fit trumps finances in medical specialty choice - amednews.com)</p>
<p>Current Trends in Debt and Specialty Choice
<a href=“https://members.aamc.org/eweb/upload/130Youngclaus115.pdf[/url]”>Home Page;
<p>And if you want scholarly sources:</p>
<p>[Can</a> medical students afford to choose primary care?.. [Acad Med. 2013] - PubMed - NCBI](<a href=“Can medical students afford to choose primary care? An economic analysis of physician education debt repayment - PubMed”>Can medical students afford to choose primary care? An economic analysis of physician education debt repayment - PubMed)</p>
<p>[Payback</a> time: the associations of debt and income w… [Med Educ. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI](<a href=“Payback time: the associations of debt and income with medical student career choice - PubMed”>Payback time: the associations of debt and income with medical student career choice - PubMed)</p>
<p>[Medical</a> student debt and primary care specialty inte… [Fam Med. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI](<a href=“Medical student debt and primary care specialty intentions - PubMed”>Medical student debt and primary care specialty intentions - PubMed)</p>
<p>IF the student has income in the research year, they should be able to submit a special form denoting that they no longer have that income. I forget the name of the form, something to do with special circumstances loss of income, but DD had to do that for med school as she worked full time her glide year.</p>
<p>Just got off the phone with DS. He thinks Emergency Medicine may be a desirable choice. He even has not had that rotation yet. Its desirability could be his imagination only.</p>
<p>His next rotation (I think it is still a part of IM) will be at a VA hospital many miles away. He needs to be there by 6:30 am (by bus) everyday. I think he needs to get up by 5:30 am. Very different life as compared to UG or MS1-2 life.</p>
<p>^ To clarify, I confirm with my wife who was actually talking about this with DS that the bus I referred to is school’s own shuttle bus, not the city bus. The school’s shuttle bus has the stop in front of his dorm and a stop in front of the VA hospital.</p>
<p>I would guess the bus will continue its route to the “west campus.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It’s not - best specialty out there :)</p>
<p>*My nephew is in his second year of med school and will have probably have $230-$250K debt when he finishes. I’m so proud of him–his hard work and dedication–but I worry about the burden of this much debt. *</p>
<p>Yes, debt is common. On the other hand, many med students seem to have “doctor parents” who pick up the tab. During son’s White Coat, one of the speakers asked for all the physicians in the audience to stand up. There were a ton of them scattered amongst the families seated. </p>
<p>that said, a student worried about a lot of debt should look to see if their school has any endowed scholarships to apply for. Many doctors and corporations endow scholarships at my son’s SOM. </p>
<p>My son’s SOM’s Alumni group is also a source for merit awards. Certainly other SOMs have similar. Look into those.</p>
<p>Some non-MD parents will pick up the tab depending on each family sitution and history of kid willingness to attend the “cheap” or free UG. Merit awards for Med. Students are very rare. And although there are “free” options, some are not so free as they are made to do research for additional 5th year stay at school, which is the same as giving up whole year of MD salary. At least one of the free Med. Schools is 5 years, I do not know about others.</p>
<p>^^
Very true. </p>
<p>I didn’t mean to imply that only doctors’ kids had parents paying. It was just an amazing observance to see all those doctor parents standing up. Of course, I have no evidence that they’re all paying, but I’m guessing that they are. A friend of mine’s H is a surgeon and they’re paying for two kids in med school right now.</p>