Doctor dream at a nightmare $230,000

[Gloamglozer]

I found a pretty interesting article in today's The Age.  Worth reading if you are planning to study or are studying postgraduate medicine at UoM.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/doctor-dream-at-a-nightmare-230000-20110416-1ditb.html

Some worthy quotes:

''If you graduate with a debt of $250,000, are you likely to take up lower-paid specialties such as general practice or are you going to want to be an orthopaedic surgeon or a plastic surgeon?

Government-subsidised places were offered to 270 of the 355 students enrolled in the first year of Melbourne's graduate medical program, with fees of about $9000 a year, paid back in a HECS-style loan scheme. A further 30 are full-fee-paying international students, while the remaining 55 are domestic full-fee payers.

[Souljette_93]

Wow, that is a lot of money

[iNerd]

Wow, that is a lot of money

This.

[taiga]

Yeah that's a joke. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiJczH3cr48

How much is it with the government subsidy? These people wouldn't have gotten into medicine if the cap wasn't higher right?

[Zien]

It's definitely a factor I had to (and still have to) consider, along with many other pathways. The more you consider the $$ associated with full-paying fees, even if you probably won't take it, the more you ask yourself whether you'll be willing to go that far to do medicine. Really opens up your eyes. It did for me.

[Russ]

How much is it with the government subsidy? These people wouldn't have gotten into medicine if the cap wasn't higher right?

CSP is ~9k a year. And I'm not sure what you mean by the second bit, she wouldn't have gotten a place if FFPs didn't exist because her marks evidently weren't good enough for a CSP

[shinny]

Yeh, it's a bit of a utilitarian kinda thing I guess; greatest good for the greatest number. Just under 80% (270 of the 355) spots are CSP and I think that's fair enough. Only 55 have to pay full-fee. If there weren't any full-fee spots, those people who now have the undesirable option of paying full-fee wouldn't have it at all, and those on the CSP spots would have to pay more to compensate and possibly might not be able to go either due to this cost increase. But still, I still stand by my assertion that the Melbourne Model sucks

[Russ]

Yeah the FFPs subsidize the CSPs. Without them, there would be less places overall.

And pssh, at least our website isn't hacked and defaced

[simpak]

Ahahahahahaa that's hilarious.

[werdna]

Wow, I didn't know the Melbourne Model was under THAT much scrutiny.

[luken93]

Does Monash UG Med have full fee places as well? If so what's the difference then?

As Zien and shinny said, I'd rather the option of a full-fee place than no option at all. I guess you just have to live with the debt for ~10 or so years until you actually earn decent money, at which point you'll be able to pay it off fairly rapidly

[Russ]

Does Monash UG Med have full fee places as well? If so what's the difference then?

No. It's illegal for undergraduate courses to charge domestic students full fee.

[simpak]

Yeah most people would rather the option of full fee.  I mean if you've been trying to get in to med you'll pretty much take any option you're given!  As she did.  At least she got a place.

[Zien]

Does Monash UG Med have full fee places as well? If so what's the difference then?

As Zien and shinny said, I'd rather the option of a full-fee place than no option at all. I guess you just have to live with the debt for ~10 or so years until you actually earn decent money, at which point you'll be able to pay it off fairly rapidly

The anaesthetist I was under for a day at the Royal Melbourne Hospital for work experience got paid ~$40-50k a year as a registrar (he was in his 5th and final year). Then he said once he got his certificate of specialty in the field, his pay will jump to $100-110k. This is for the Royal Melbourne Hospital which is a public hospital (which is pretty good actually). If you work private, he estimates you can earn up to $200k a year with less sleep. :p

So yeah, you get paid in small potatoes as a registrar, but once you get certified as part of a specialty field your pay dramatically jumps. But he was supporting a wife and 2 kids with his registrar pay (well, his wife was working too) so repaying the HECS-Loan over time wouldn't be too bad to make ends meet. HECS can be a life-saver if you really want to do medicine despite of the price.

That said, $230k is no small price to pay even over a number of years. It's still a crap load of money to invest in your future. It'll pay off big time but the question is simply: Do you really want to do medicine?

[taiga]

Wow, I didn't know the Melbourne Model was under THAT much scrutiny.

Of course it would be under scrutiny.
Increases the cost of education, reduces the amount of students eligible for a place, removes the certainty of the future that students used to have (Bachelor of Laws, MBBS etc, BEng etc.), sacked a hundred+ staff, teaches bachelor level content at other unis in their Masters Degrees, and all in all sounds very businesslike to me...

The model does have its merits, and whilst the teaching may be of the same quality, it definitely put me off the uni. I myself was wanting to do IT or Engineering at the uni pretty early in my high school years, and then I developed an interest in doing a double degree. The model would not allow me to do any of that without jumping through their hoops of uncertainty.