On a sad note, Levi was not accepted at the York Medical School, UK; however, he was invited to another one in Aberdeen at the beginning of March, which means he might be flying there and back twice, since he still has an interview at Warwick.
Decisions, decisions...by far, the hardest we have to make. Let's see the Pros and Cons in going to school in the US and the UK:
US Medical School (Des Moines)
PROS
- Excellent program & faculty
- Moving Level of Difficulty: Fairly Easy
- Familiarity of school system
- Housing space & comfort
- Tuition & living expenses $150,000
- Crazy work load during residency: up to 100 hours per week [there's a reason they call us "the medical school widows"!]
UK Medical Schools
PROS
- Tuition is only $5000 a year and if you apply for financial aid, the government usually pays for the last 3 years
- Residency hours: there is a EU law stipulating that residency students cannot be assigned more that 50 hours per week...which means that Levi would not have to sacrifice his time with family
- Moving halfway across the world = leaving our furniture and most of our belongings behind (which we have already done last year and it took us 6-8 months to start from scratch after that)
- Leaving MY beloved country! I came with the American Dream and have been so happy here...and I'm scared to move to a foreign country where I will not be able to drive for awhile (getting used to driving on the left, going through major 3 lane-roundabouts, etc.)
- I have been following the news on the BBC and the British economy is not looking good at all; according to recent reports, a fifth of all UK shops closed down! As a result, some towns are turning into ghost towns which could increase the crime rate. I'm a worrier, so it's not helping.
3 comments:
You know, I really miss America being here. The tax system here is disgusting and the healthcare is pathetic. People abuse the welfare system left right and centre and the culture is suffering because of it. The economy isn't so hot and the weather is depressing! But yes. Financially I can see why the UK sounds reaaaaally appealing. We'd talked about Andy maybe trying things out here for grad school but now I'm super relieved to be coming back to the states. I feel blessed to have the choice too! People are still happy here if they're living right of course, I think it's just a huge shock to the system after living in America.
150,000? Is that per year?! That can't be right -
Is residency in the UK longer because of the reduced hours?
As someone who's almost through a year of being a "residency widow," I will tell you that it is doable. It's tough, yes, Cameron is putting in long, hard hours. But honestly, it hasn't been as bad as I expected. You need to remember, also, that residency depends a lot on the program and the specialty. Also, there is actually a law that you cannot have more than 160 hours over the course of two weeks. Some programs don't care about the law, but most try to stick to it.
As far as debt goes, yes, it sucks, but as long as certain people in DC don't screw things up, at least you can make the money back after residency (and most loan programs don't make you start paying money back until after residency).
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