In med school, how does one pay for abroad experiences?

[KMFDM]

Hey folks,

One of the things I'm most excited about for medical school is the opportunity to go abroad. I'm referring partially to doing clinical electives abroad, but I've also heard that at least some schools do week-long trips to various developing countries during winter break or spring break. Also it seems that many students go abroad on medically-related trips during their one and only summer after first year of school.

This is all well and good.

However, I never thought to consider how these trips are paid for while I was interviewing at schools.

Now, in undergrad I wasn't able to do these abroad experiences because it wasn't financially feasible.

So for any current or future med students, how does one typically pay for these abroad experiences in medical school? I know that at one top ten school, they have a Global Health Office that has its own endowment, so med students have their airfare/housing covered. Do most schools have similar funding, or do the students pay the bill through more loans?

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[NickNaylor]

I believe many pay for trips through extra loan money. Not sure if/how individual schools fund these trips.

 

[Catalystik]

My impression is that most of the time you pay the expenses on your own, but some schools have a fund where they give you some assistance toward the travel expense.

 

[Bacchus]

The school sometimes throws in, but plan on fundraising or using your loan runoff.

 

[brooklynblunder]

I've asked this at every school I've interviewed at, and nearly all of them have said that they either pay for the whole trip (provided you stay under a set budget) or they pay most of the trip. These are for like fourth year rotations abroad and such.

i've been asking this to students in a non-interview setting, they say that while theres no extra cost, you still have to pay for the plane ticket and the cost of living. some people do get some minor grants/fellowships but i think that would be kinda rare. i could have heard wrong though

 

[FloatOn]

Generous donations from family and friends?

 

[organdonor]

For the program that I hope to do at my school, we have to pay for our own plane ticket. Gotta love that fiance and her income

 

[jiayo]

Are there a list of schools that have these options, or do we have to search for them individually?

 

[Bernoull]

There's grant money also both within and outside the school. If you abraod trip has a research component as opposed to volunteering, it's easier to get grants/stipends etc..

 

[medat101]

Hey folks,

One of the things I'm most excited about for medical school is the opportunity to go abroad. I'm referring partially to doing clinical electives abroad, but I've also heard that at least some schools do week-long trips to various developing countries during winter break or spring break. Also it seems that many students go abroad on medically-related trips during their one and only summer after first year of school.

This is all well and good.

However, I never thought to consider how these trips are paid for while I was interviewing at schools.

Now, in undergrad I wasn't able to do these abroad experiences because it wasn't financially feasible.

So for any current or future med students, how does one typically pay for these abroad experiences in medical school? I know that at one top ten school, they have a Global Health Office that has its own endowment, so med students have their airfare/housing covered. Do most schools have similar funding, or do the students pay the bill through more loans?

UMich students raise funds and the school's GH office also helps with funding, I believe. So in the end, students pay veryyy little for an spring/summer abroad trip in their first/second year. For fourth year rotations abroad, the GH Office has funding for that too. UMich won me over with this!

 

[organdonor]

So for any current or future med students, how does one typically pay for these abroad experiences in medical school? I know that at one top ten school, they have a Global Health Office that has its own endowment, so med students have their airfare/housing covered. Do most schools have similar funding, or do the students pay the bill through more loans?

UMich students raise funds and the school's GH office also helps with funding, I believe. So in the end, students pay veryyy little for an spring/summer abroad trip in their first/second year. For fourth year rotations abroad, the GH Office has funding for that too. UMich won me over with this!

medat it seems that UMich has some pretty impressive medical mission trips. Several to latin america, jamaica, cuba, egypt, nice. Here is their link that talks about funding.

http://med.umich.edu/medschool/globalreach/students/funding.html
http://med.umich.edu/medschool/globalreach/students/funding.html

 

[FloatOn]

UMich students raise funds and the school's GH office also helps with funding, I believe. So in the end, students pay veryyy little for an spring/summer abroad trip in their first/second year. For fourth year rotations abroad, the GH Office has funding for that too. UMich won me over with this!

That's awesome! OP, I want to go abroad too, in the summer after my first year (second year too?). I better start saving up in general because I love traveling.

 

[KMFDM]

UMich students raise funds and the school's GH office also helps with funding, I believe. So in the end, students pay veryyy little for an spring/summer abroad trip in their first/second year. For fourth year rotations abroad, the GH Office has funding for that too. UMich won me over with this!

Crap I knew I should have applied to Michigan, haha, but that's good to know.

But is the reason they won you over because other schools didn't have such funding? I had about a million questions at my interviews, but this is the one thing I forgot to ask.

I know that Penn has some a similar situation, where students can pretty much get funding for most of their travel expenses.

 

[bamtuba]

Crap I knew I should have applied to Michigan, haha, but that's good to know.

But is the reason they won you over because other schools didn't have such funding? I had about a million questions at my interviews, but this is the one thing I forgot to ask.

I know that Penn has some a similar situation, where students can pretty much get funding for most of their travel expenses.

Ask the students at the school you are interested in attending as there is some variation. According to a current Mayo student, they are provided a furnished apartment, car, and money for all travel expenses if I am not mistaken. Other schools to which I applied pay very little of the cost.

Just ask current 3rd/4th years and I'm sure you'll get straight answers.

 

[HamidNia101]

What schools do you guys know of in particular, other than Michigan, that participate in study abroad programs? I know that a quarter of UPenn students study abroad for a semester doing elective classes (source: the pamphlet). Is this option universally feasible in all US medical schools?

I cant find a list of participating schools anywhere, is this because medical students very seldom partake in this?

 

[drizzt3117]

Straight cash, homie. Rich people don't write checks.

 

[justdoit31]

At my school it seems like you live frugally and use extra loan money for it- or have friends/family contribute.

 

[DrBowtie]

Most people have rich parents.

 

[Evergrey]

Most people have rich parents.

Yeah... in 2008 the average income for parents of medical students was $164,000 (Source), which is really high.

 

[DoctaFuture]

yeah it's more likely that you'll have to pay for them yourself. As the Great Philosopher Randy Moss once said "Straight cash homie"

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-aAitwm_yo[/YOUTUBE]