I perceive the schools without teaching hospitals as schools that should not be charging their 4th years the exorbitant amounts that they do, since the majority of their 4th year is not even spent on campus (and students still foot the bill for travel/housing to spend required time off campus). Can't say I know specifics of any of the programs, but my school has hosted students from Western and they've also brought up how expensive their fourth year ends up being on top of a full year's worth of tuition they get slapped with. it just doesn't make sense, but maybe someone has a better explanation as to why you'll be charged $50,000 to spend most of your year away from school and not using campus resources, faculty, etc. It should not be the same tuition you are charged years 1-3. Afaik (someone please correct me), the sites that actually host these fourth years don't even get a cut of this tuition money so it raises a lot of questions for me. I don't know that your education is harmed or anything I just have concerns related to tuition.
The entire higher education model in Canada is different than in the US, though, so it's not a realistic comparison.So not all schools with the distributed model are super expensive for fourth year. Doing some research into how the program handles fourth year is important
Go to the cheapest school. There will probably be a bit of stigma about graduates of the new schools for a while until the grads have shown themselves, in enough jobs, to be up to par -- but I think that shouldn't be a deal breaker if it would shave $50,000 or more off your total debt load. So, go to the cheapest school (including tuition, living & traveling expenses, etc).
That's at least $16k difference not including interest or if either school increases their tuition. Here is the debt simulator to give you an idea of how much a difference that $16k will make. Personally for me it would be worth it assuming COL is similar. Student Debt Center - VIN
Shouldn't have made a blanket statement about all schools without a teaching hospital, my apologies. Just assumed we were focusing on LMU and Western here since those are the schools that come to mind for everyone.I'm at one of these schools (in Canada though) and they give us a stipend for every rotation of $2k base + additional funds depending on how far out from a major city center you are. All of the travel for the international rotations is paid for/funded in some way. Almost all of the teaching clinics have somewhere you can stay for free/small fee as well. So not all schools with the distributed model are super expensive for fourth year. Doing some research into how the program handles fourth year is important
Like I said, the Western students I've met have paid out of pocket. Whether or not they had a stipend they burned through before paying out of pocket, I'm not sure, but they definitely said it was very expensive to get all of these experiences checked off. I've done just two externships that have required travel and housing and that was expensive enough for me.I agree with this to some extent, but my idea of 'dud' isn't solely based on clinical competency (not sure what you consider to be a 'dud'). I also consider teamwork abilities, patient care, etc. Some of the students that come to us clinical year never came in 2-3 hours before rounds like the rest of us for SOAPs/treatments so we would be the ones caring for their patients so they wouldn't go hungry/without meds (yes, they knew they were supposed to come in), refused to be on call, case dodged for a living, etc. A few students come in with a chip on their shoulders and it shows, many assimilate just fine and are great additions to our clinical year crowd. Considering that island students come in small groups compared to my class of 125, I do agree that a higher percentage of island students become notorious for certain things compared to how many of my classmates have earned a bad rep on clinics. My school is also far too tolerant of irresponsibility and pure laziness on clinics, but that is true for both island students and Illinois students. Another conversation for another day.
OVC students have to do an externship of a minimum of 2 months in a mixed animal practice (or 1 month each in LA and SA) between 3rd and 4th year......those can get expensive for students who can't fulfill that near family (as a cheap place to stay). That's the only required externship - the school's clinical services make up the rest.
Illinois doesn't have any technically 'required' externships but pretty much everyone does at least one. Our food animal students end up doing several because we are sorely lacking in swine, poultry, and small ruminant experience, and lacking a lot of herd management experience. Even our elective time can be taken on campus, a total of 16 weeks. We can go our entire fourth year without a single externship.
I think that's a real mistake, and spending time in a "regular" clinic is so important. But I understand the financial issue, as well.
seriously?! What's the reasoning behind that? Where does that money go?
Not for students so it's a different situation, but my residency program charges outside (usually private practice) residents $500/week to come rotate with us. The fees are usually paid by the visiting resident's hospital and the money goes into a fund to help pay for books and travel for us residents. It definitely slows down workflow to have a student with you and also takes away time/resources that you could use for an internal person, so it needs to be worth it.
The charge to the visiting student or the fact the school makes them pay? I imagine the schools require visiting students to pay because they're using that school's resources without paying tuition. It seems pretty common.
My foggy fourth year brain interpreted this as private practices charging the student a fee, my bad. I've definitely heard of other teaching hospitals charging students tuition (and I think Ohio State even charges application fees per a classmate who wanted to extern there).
The cost deterred my classmate from applying.
Same!
If you're from a distributed school (I am) add on another $475/week.
Of course! I'm very lucky that my parents are willing to help make Davis happen for me. Without them there's no way I could go!
