MD/PhD without tuition remission

[neuro raqs]

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Hey so I have one last secondary left, it's for a safety school. While looking over their site, I found that they only provide funding during the PhD years, and I'd have to pay for the med school. I'm wondering if anyone is taking into consideration whether or not they would get full vs. partial funding. Some of my mentors that I've spoken to have really stressed going for full funding. I could be looking for reasons not to write any more essays 🙂, but I'm wondering if it's worth it with no shot at full funding.

I did get some interview invites for schools that I really like, granted they aren't offers of admission but I wonder if an interview is a good enough chance to not need to apply to one last safety.

What do you all think?

I sort of really want to be done with this 😉 (plus save myself ~$80)

 

[Katatonic]

Personally, I would only apply to schools offering full tuition remission. It'd be putting off paying all that debt off another 4 years down the road. On the other hand, if it's a "safety" school, and you REALLY don't want to apply again, you could take your chances and see how it goes, then cross that bridge when you get there.

 

[xanthines]

I'd avoid that school since lack of funding usually means lack of support, and not just in the financial sense. Even in well-integrated, fully-funded programs there is a divide between "us" and "them." The fact that school has a program of sorts indicate there are some at that school who consider physician-scientist training to be important. However, they may be in small numbers and in low on the totem pole. There's a high chance you'd be the red-headed bastard stepchild program of the school.

After graduating you'd have a pretty heavy debt-burden that could hamper your road to being a physician-scientist. There are already enough roadblocks as is!

-X