Fulbright ETA or Cushy Job

[benjamin94559]

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Hello all,

I am currently in the position of having to decide between doing a Fulbright ETA in South America or working at a large EMR (electronic medical record) company and I'd figure this would be a reasonable place to get some more thoughts.

ETA:

Pros.
Fulbright sounds cool and prestigious, though I recognize that ETA is somewhat less prestigious than a study/research

Work/life balance is way better than the EMR company

I can get my foreign language abilities to the next level

Living abroad is something that I've wanted to do for a while

My ideal world has me making a career within the academy and I am getting the impression that the Fulbright would be better if that was my singular focus.

Cons.
Money is pretty bad. (Though I dont have any student debt or anything like that)

Not sure how many skills I will really get out of this, both for med school and for plan B.


EMR company:

Pros.
Money is pretty solid. After one year of working there, I could theoretically just save the equivalent stipend I would be getting from Fulbright and just go on my own for a year, lol. Benefits and what not are also pretty good

Company has a pretty cool work culture and amazing campus.

A place that I could possibly build a career and develop more technical skills in things like programming.

I would get to travel quite a bit.

Cons.
Work/life is pretty bad

I would have to travel quite a bit


Cheers!

 

[pioneer22]

fulbright doesn't announce winners until next spring...nice one

 

[benjamin94559]

fulbright doesn't announce winners until next spring...nice one

Ah the cynicism of SDN never fails to disappoint.

Indeed, normally the Fulbright commission announces winners later than this. Originally in the interest of preserving anonymity I didnt want to give more details but the Fulbright commission in Brazil announced an expansion for the upcoming year (2018), the results of which were released a month or two ago.

 

[allantois]

What does this have to do with premed??

 

[benjamin94559]

What does this have to do with premed??

Are gap years not a common decision premeds need to make?

 

[DBC03]

I would go With the Fulbright - it’s a unique opportunity you will probably never have again. That would have been my choice if I was debt free at your age.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[Terror Billy]

Definitely go with Fulbright and don't think twice. You have the rest of your career to make money, living in another country and improving a second language is invaluable.

 

[Longshot6]

The EMR company is EPIC right? I heard work-life balance sucks. I would suggest doing the Fulbright, great program and once in a life time experience. However, I would worry about how many days you can take off and the cost of traveling back and forth between countries. I loooked into a fulbright in germany and we could only take 2 weeks off our entire program, I think that's including holidays. but I would choose Fulbright and try to make it work.

 

[benjamin94559]

The EMR company is EPIC right? I heard work-life balance sucks. I would suggest doing the Fulbright, great program and once in a life time experience. However, I would worry about how many days you can take off and the cost of traveling back and forth between countries. I loooked into a fulbright in germany and we could only take 2 weeks off our entire program, I think that's including holidays. but I would choose Fulbright and try to make it work.

I know that it will probably be unfeasible to apply while I am there so I dont plan on applying this cycle anyway. Thanks!