More expensive than med schools?

[crazy4clana]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

Just curious, why are dental schools usually more expensive than even med schools? I know it's true for BU and U of M, their med schools are a little cheaper than their dental schools. I find it really strange since med schools need a lot more money for research, labs, cadavers...ect. Dental school is becoming the most expensive professional school!

 

[rollypolly]

Just a guess, but I think it is incredibly expensive to operate and maintain a dental school. Much more so than with a medical school where the clinical training of the students takes place at hospitals. The expense gets passed along to the dental students.

 

[SugarNaCl]

I agree with what the previous poster says. You won't understand until you get to school how much is involved with materials and equipment... AND DENTAL MATERIALS ARE EXPENSIVE!!! Like none other! We have gross anatomy with cadavers as well... but honestly, that is not the primary expense I am certain. Dental schools don't get any benefit at all when we are in our practice years on pretend patients... and it costs a LOT of cash.

In addition at VCU, they already do a lot of research in the dental school, but now, they are constructing a 3rd building for the D school... purpose being to bring in more research in collaboration with the Massey Cancer Center! Great opportunties = Great expense.

 

[crazy4clana]

The last two years of med school are sometimes even more expensive because they are basically interns at the hospital and have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for their malpractice fee. Even though they are doing clinicals, they are being charged. For instance, U of Chicago's tuition for the first two years are $35,000 and for the last two clinical years is $75,000/year.

I was just curious why dental school is sooo expensive! We even beat out medical school and law!

 

[smq123]

The last two years of med school are sometimes even more expensive because they are basically interns at the hospital and have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for their malpractice fee.

I don't know who told you this, but this is totally incorrect.

I'm not "basically an intern" - interns work a lot harder than I do.

I don't pay for malpractice insurance as a med student. The school has me covered, somehow, should I ever do an away rotation, but that malpractice insurance doesn't come from my tuition.

Even though they are doing clinicals, they are being charged. For instance, U of Chicago's tuition for the first two years are $35,000 and for the last two clinical years is $75,000/year.

You're not understanding this correctly.

http://pritzker.uchicago.edu/admissions/financialaid/budget.shtml

It's closer to $53,000 per year, total, for the first two years at Pritzker.

The third and fourth years of medical school are a lot more expensive because your living costs are higher. You now need to travel for rotations and interviews, and you have to pay for Step 2 CS and Step 2 CK.

In response to the original purpose of this thread, I would imagine that dental schools are more expensive because of equipment costs. I also think that med schools tend to do more research than dental schools, which also increases the amount of research grants that you can get.

 

[bodiddely]

With regards to grant money for research; isn't it all spent directly on the costs of the research? So schools that get more grant money aren't going to somehow be able to lower their tuition; they simply conduct more research/spend more money on it.

 

[crazy4clana]

I don't know who told you this, but this is totally incorrect.

I'm not "basically an intern" - interns work a lot harder than I do.

I don't pay for malpractice insurance as a med student. The school has me covered, somehow, should I ever do an away rotation, but that malpractice insurance doesn't come from my tuition.

So you don't work the entire day for 7 days a week and go on calls? Consult with patients getting their histories, follow doctors, go on rounds, be on call overnight? Sounds like a watered down version of being an intern to me. Obviously an intern is a full fleged doctor, works more and has more medical privelages, but basically do the same scutwork. And not all residencies are equivalent, derm residents work less than IM and surgical residents.I know people in med school who pay malpractice fees, maybe not for your school.

 

[lgwdnbdgr]

All schools charge their research labs an overhead fee, a somewhat arbitrary percentage of either grant money or salaries. That overhead money is to cover all the research support provided by the university but much of that support really supports the entire university -- building maintenance, administration and paperwork, salaries of faculty, etc.

With regards to grant money for research; isn't it all spent directly on the costs of the research? So schools that get more grant money aren't going to somehow be able to lower their tuition; they simply conduct more research/spend more money on it.

 

[smq123]

So you don't work the entire day for 7 days a week and go on calls?

Not 7 days a week.

We go on "call," which (depending on the rotation) basically just means an extended working day.

Consult with patients getting their histories, follow doctors, go on rounds, be on call overnight?

Interns don't follow doctors - they ARE the doctors!

No overnight call on internal med or psych or OB/gyn (nightfloat, which is different from call). Overnight call on surgery, but I didn't get paged every 2 hours like the interns do.

I see patients and get their histories - but far, far fewer patients than the interns do. I might have seen 4 patients on surgery (which is a lot for an MS3), but a lot of surgery interns see 12-20 patients a day.

A "watered-down version" of an intern is still vastly different from an intern. I worked hard, but they had to work themselves ragged AND watch out for their med students. Much tougher than what I had to do.

And it's okay if I don't know anything - which is not the case for the interns! 😀

I know people in med school who pay malpractice fees, maybe not for your school.

I don't know of any students at US allopathic schools who pay malpractice. May at osteopathic schools and almost certainly at foreign med schools.

 

[pharoh]

Just curious, why are dental schools usually more expensive than even med schools? I know it's true for BU and U of M, their med schools are a little cheaper than their dental schools. I find it really strange since med schools need a lot more money for research, labs, cadavers...ect. Dental school is becoming the most expensive professional school!

I've always wondered the samething too....and it's kinda funny how the general public always thinks that med schools are more expensive

 

[SugarNaCl]

With regards to grant money for research; isn't it all spent directly on the costs of the research? So schools that get more grant money aren't going to somehow be able to lower their tuition; they simply conduct more research/spend more money on it.

In biomed research for 5 yrs before dental school... the institutions generally get just under half of the grant money... the rest goes to the research project.

 

[crazy4clana]

We go on "call," which (depending on the rotation) basically just means an extended working day.

Like 12 hours a day? That doesn't seem like just an "extended" work day.

Interns don't follow doctors - they ARE the doctors!

Well obviously they are but they still follow orders from attendings don't they? At least that's what I saw at the hospital that I volunteered at. You learn the most RELEVANT medicine during residency, interns are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to treating patients.

I don't know of any students at US allopathic schools who pay malpractice. May at osteopathic schools and almost certainly at foreign med schools.

I was talking about an allopathic med school but if you don't believe it then that's your perogative.