seven or eight?

[earthangel]

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hi, i am a freshman in an eight year med program w/ a seven year option.... i was just hoping to get some insight from ppl currently in college... some things i guess u should know when responding.... yes, i have to take the mcat (and get 9's)... yes, i have spoken to my family and they all want it to be seven years... yes, i am an american desi
o, yea i have to maintain a 3.2 gpa
thanx 😉

 

[Drako]

What do YOU want though?

 

[rxfudd]

If it were me, I'd go the full eight. No reason to stress yourself out to squeeze out a measly year of your life. Spread things out. Allow yourself to enjoy things other than school and studying. In fact, I'm on the 9 year plan: five years of college, 4 years med school, assuming I get in this year. If I don't get in this year, that even puts me on the ten-year plan.

 

[Popoy]

Originally posted by Drako:
•What do YOU want though?•

Drako makes a good point.... what do YOU want? You know capacity better than anyone else.... This is your future not others.... Good luck in whatever decision you make.

 

[AJM]

Yeah, I'm on the 9 year plan, too -- but 4 years of college, 5 years of med school. I wouldn't have done it any differently, although I have gotten a bit of heat from my family. Now that I'm a 5th year med student, I think my mom has finally "accepted" my decision to do a 5 year plan! 🙂

My take on it is that I have my whole rest of my life to be practicing medicine, but while I'm in school I have the opportunity to do a whole lot of other things that I might never get to do again. By spreading out my time, I've been able to enjoy my life both as an undergrad and as a med student. And I definitely don't think I'm missing out or getting too old by taking the extra time.

This decision is your own to make, and one that you alone are going to have to live with. Do what you think is best for *you*. If that means doing it all in 7 years, then go for it. If it means doing 8 years and taking out extra loans, go for that. I would not recommend making your decision based on what your family wants you to do. If they had their way, they would probably have you doing everything in 3 years! (I know my family would!)

 

[md2be06]

hey ajm,

What program lets you go through med school in 5 years? Did you just decide to slow it down and try to enjoy life after you got into med school or is there a special program that's tailored towards people who don't want to rush through everything in 4 years? This seems like a good idea for people with other commitments such as family, etc. Anyone know of any decelerated programs out there?

 

[AJM]

Originally posted by md2be06:
•hey ajm,

What program lets you go through med school in 5 years? Did you just decide to slow it down and try to enjoy life after you got into med school or is there a special program that's tailored towards people who don't want to rush through everything in 4 years? This seems like a good idea for people with other commitments such as family, etc. Anyone know of any decelerated programs out there?•

I'm at Stanford Med, where there is a "5-year plan", and about half of the students take 5 or more years to go through. When I started, I thought that I would do med school in 4 years like everyone else in the country, unless opportunities came up that I felt were worth spending an extra year doing. I decided to do 5 years around halfway through my 1st year. The way I did it was to spread out my 2 years of preclinical courses into 3 years (which is the most common path for the 5-year people here), and I did other things to keep me busy.

There are a bunch of students here with families who are on the 5-year plan, and they use the extra time to take care of their kids. I don't know of other programs that do a spread out plan the way Stanford does, but lots of med schools allow students to take a year or two off to do other things.

 

[Legend]

Originally posted by ajm:
•I'm at Stanford Med, where there is a "5-year plan", and about half of the students take 5 or more years to go through. When I started, I thought that I would do med school in 4 years like everyone else in the country, unless opportunities came up that I felt were worth spending an extra year doing. I decided to do 5 years around halfway through my 1st year. The way I did it was to spread out my 2 years of preclinical courses into 3 years (which is the most common path for the 5-year people here), and I did other things to keep me busy.

There are a bunch of students here with families who are on the 5-year plan, and they use the extra time to take care of their kids. I don't know of other programs that do a spread out plan the way Stanford does, but lots of med schools allow students to take a year or two off to do other things.•

5 years of med school? Does that mean an extra $50000 ?

 

[AJM]

Originally posted by Legi:
•5 years of med school? Does that mean an extra $50000 ?•

Actually no. Stanford tries to encourage people to go through med school in this way, so they offer financial incentives so that it doesn't cost much more than going to school for 4 years. We're on the quarter system, and we have to pay full tuition for 13 quarters, which considering the fact that med students enroll during some summer quarters usually means that our last quarter of full tuition is Winter or Spring quarters of our 4th year. After the 13 quarters, we pay 10% of full tuition, which comes out to about $1,000 per quarter (or $4,000 per year). So basically the main cost of the 5th year is living expenses.

The students who are on the 5-year plan also have more time than the students on the 4-year plan to do research and TA classes, which are the big money-makers here, and doing research and teaching is usually the main reason most people do the 5-year plan. The money you can get from doing these things is really significant, so when you figure everything out, the average debt of students on the 5-year plan is the same as the average debt of students on the 4-year plan.

 

[jdub]

hey,

i don't know which schools, thus, not a big help, but i have read that other schools also let students stretch it out to 5 years, so i would look into it for every school that one applies to, if they are interested. 😀

 

[12R34Y]

I guess I'm on the 12 year plan. 2 years college, 4 years paramedic, 2 years back in school, 4 years medical school.

wow, 7-8 years sounds tiny.

later

 

[earthangel]

hey it's me again...
i just wanted to thank u guys for answering my post and i wanted to let u know that i am seriously considering going the seven year route... what i did forget to mention in my original message was that i wanted to go for seven so that i could spend the year i saved to get an mph...
thanx again
~angel
ps. i mentioned family cuz they're the ones paying for it and they usually do give pretty decent advice... peace out 😉

 

[mannyr26]

gw has a 5 year plan but it spreads the first year over two years...from the website...
"A special decelerated program, which spreads the course work ordinarily completed during the first year of the M.D. program over two years, is available. Applicants the committee sees as clearly having high potential and promise for medicine, but possibly experiencing a difficult transition in medical school are reviewed and selected for this program. Applicants may not apply specifically to this program. "