Accelerated MD or full cost scholarship?

[Endoxifen]

Hi everyone,

I’m in a bit of a tough spot and I’d like some advice. I’m going to be a bit vague about the schools to maintain as much anonymity as possible. I’m deliberating between two top programs, one of which will save me a year of school and is partially funded (though I will still accrue low six figures of debt). The other is fully funded (not just tuition, but cost of living as well).

The accelerated program has better career prospects and I prefer it personally, but my partner is not super keen on the location. I’m also a nontrad, so minimizing training time is critical. Still, I don’t know if it’s worth turning down a full cost scholarship to save one year.

I’d be very curious to hear what you all thought, especially from those further in their careers.

Thank you very much!

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[Bowel-Plumber]

I think everyone will tell you to choose free tuition over paid tuition.

In my opinion, it honestly comes down to your conversation with your partner. Is this a spouse? What do you mean by “not super keen” at the 3 year MD location? Do they like the free tuition location? Any family/friend support in either area? Not sure how non-trad you are, but if you have kids or plan on having kids then how far are both schools from family to help?

Just a couple of questions I have going on. Ultimately, if you’ve sorted this out, I’d choose the free tuition school. The COA is low 6 figures pre-interest, and sure it might still be less than 1 year attending salary post-interest, but the difference to me seems minimal compared to keeping your SO happy while you’re getting destroyed in school and don’t have as much time for them.

Also, you haven’t mentioned anything about the programs themselves. I know you’re trying to keep some anonymity, but if these schools are places like UCSF vs Wayne State then it makes a big difference. Some direction on rankings would help. A full pros and cons list would also help greatly

 

[m1redsox]

Does the 3-year MD give you guaranteed admission to one of their home residency programs? Does that make your partner nervous that you could actually be staying in that location for 6+ years? Does this limit you in specialty options? I've seen programs that do this give you a spot in a home program for only a few specialties like primary care, anesthesia, rads, path.

 

[Hollow Knight]

Do the full scholarship, 100%. Besides, the extra year you will save is 4th year which is super chill anyway. It'll be nice to have a break before residency. Even more importantly, your partner doesn't like the 3 year.

Keeping your partner happy is important, read my post history haha

 

[gobills123]

Hi everyone,

I’m in a bit of a tough spot and I’d like some advice. I’m going to be a bit vague about the schools to maintain as much anonymity as possible. I’m deliberating between two top programs, one of which will save me a year of school and is partially funded (though I will still accrue low six figures of debt). The other is fully funded (not just tuition, but cost of living as well).

The 3-year program has better career prospects and I prefer it personally, but my partner is not super keen on the location. I’m also a nontrad, so minimizing training time is critical. Still, I don’t know if it’s worth turning down a full cost scholarship to save one year.

I’d be very curious to hear what you all thought, especially from those further in their careers.

Thank you very much!

One year faster to working and making big money could offset loans. Really it’s what you prefer at that point. Did you try asking if they can match the fin aid?

 

[Endoxifen]

I think everyone will tell you to choose free tuition over paid tuition.

In my opinion, it honestly comes down to your conversation with your partner. Is this a spouse? What do you mean by “not super keen” at the 3 year MD location? Do they like the free tuition location? Any family/friend support in either area? Not sure how non-trad you are, but if you have kids or plan on having kids then how far are both schools from family to help?

Just a couple of questions I have going on. Ultimately, if you’ve sorted this out, I’d choose the free tuition school. The COA is low 6 figures pre-interest, and sure it might still be less than 1 year attending salary post-interest, but the difference to me seems minimal compared to keeping your SO happy while you’re getting destroyed in school and don’t have as much time for them.

Also, you haven’t mentioned anything about the programs themselves. I know you’re trying to keep some anonymity, but if these schools are places like UCSF vs Wayne State then it makes a big difference. Some direction on rankings would help. A full pros and cons list would also help greatly

Does the 3-year MD give you guaranteed admission to one of their home residency programs? Does that make your partner nervous that you could actually be staying in that location for 6+ years? Does this limit you in specialty options? I've seen programs that do this give you a spot in a home program for only a few specialties like primary care, anesthesia, rads, path.

Thank you both so much for your advice, and sorry for the delayed response! My partner visited the location of the accelerated program when they were young and remembers not liking it. I, of course, won't force them to go somewhere they don't want, so we're visiting the school and surrounding area soon.

Frankly, the bigger issue is their job. They managed to land their dream position last fall, and they're planning on staying for at least the full year. The accelerated MD is far closer than the full cost school, though still not an easy or cheap journey. They're holding out hope I'll get into a school closer by, but we've agreed that it'll come down to aid. As such, we have to assume that we're working with the two current schools.

These are serious issues, but we feel prepared to weigh them. The thing we don't fully understand is the value of a year vs full funding. We've managed to avoid debt thus far, so don't know what kind of choices six figures of debt would force us to make. We also don't understand how serious or not such a large amount of debt is for physicians specifically (given reasonable attending salaries and loan forgiveness programs). We don't have any kids yet, but we're planning on starting in the next 5 years, making the accelerated program more attractive.

I should say that the reputation of both schools are equal, though the established relationship with the residency program in the accelerated MD is particularly attractive.

 

[Endoxifen]

OP, I hope you give your considerations a little more weight because frankly these concerns seem overly SO-centric. Your reasons for choosing the accelerated one (eg career prospects) also seem more longer term than the ones from your SO. Does your SO want to stay at their job long term or are they planning to be there for a couple of years either way and does the decision affect their career prospects? It seems it would already be a year by the time you start at your preferred school, so why wouldn’t that work?

Having said that, my vote is actually with your SO for the full cost scholarship school. One pro for accelerated programs is saving a year of tuition but you already have that taken care of. The other about an extra year of attending salary doesn’t seem worth the extra stress of compressing medical school into three years and losing things like the first year summer break and a more laid back fourth year before residency.

Thank you, genuinely, for your concern for me. I think it seems SO-centric because you're only hearing from me. If they were to be posting this, I suspect you would be saying the same thing to them. We're both concerned for each other's careers and don't want to forward one at the expense of another. This job of theirs isn't supposed to be short term, and they could easily stay for their full career. Because this is such a special position, it's unlikely that we could find an equivalent elsewhere without quite a long time of searching (it took months and months to find this).

As it happens, I literally just got a full tuition scholarship at one of the closer schools. It's still a schlep, so we couldn't live together full-time, but it's much closer than either of the previous options. Unless I can find another way to supplement the accelerated program, I suspect this new scholarship gives me my answer!

Thank you and everyone else who posted for their wonderful advice! I really appreciate it.