One of the dillemas facing me these days is whether I should send my daughter to study medical in the US or UK.

Can someone help me by roughly calculating the tuition fee and living expenses for a medic student per year ??

I know it varies from college to college and region to region.
Just make your best gues-stimate. Taking into consideration the college is not one of the best five in the country, but one that is above average.

Thanks

Both mentioned countries are in Dire need of Arabic Interpreters,starting pay is quite high,& a good living can be made as well as tuition paid & probably choice internship as well!Nurses have a Good thing going for them here in the states,Doctors even more so!What climate does she desire to learn/work in?The South-West US is alot like Home,Warm&Dry though it's a bit further from home as well,& Gasoline prices outside of your Homeland will literally make you cry!:)

Here are the costs for Harvard Med School:
http://hms.harvard.edu/admissions/default.asp?page=costs
That's probably the worst case scenario. If I were you, I'd use those numbers for USA med schools to be safe.

If you don't want me in your business, then stop reading now. You've been forewarned.

You should not be paying for your daughter's medical school if you have to ask the cost. It's one of those "If you have to ask how much it costs, then you can't afford it." She is full grown, became an adult a long time ago and is still relatively young compared to you. So, she'll be in a much better position to pay off the loans than will you. At some point, you should resume living your own life to the fullest. If she doesn't have a goal of making good money after her residency, then she needs a reality check while not using your dime. Cut the cord.

Thank you both for the responses

Richlacal,
she does not want any job outside the medical profession. I even suggested her to go for computer science (less headache and more options) but she only wants medical.

She started her medical studies in a local university, but I will spare you the long story why she didn't succeed. She is a bright student but other factors got in the way. And I am still not sure I want to send her out. It is still a dillema as I said.

irecon,
I understand what you are saying , and I thank you for the sincere words, but our circumstances are a bit different from yours. And in any case, I am still thinking about what to do next. The financial part is not even high in the list of factors. But it is a factor to be planned for IF sending her is the only option left.

$ 70,000 for first year ????

You are right.
I really cannot afford this kind of money.

Seriously now - if you want to assess whether you can afford to buy a car in the US or UK, would you base your costs on the price of a Mercedes or a Rolls Royce? Harvard at $70k/yr costs a fair bit more than almost any other medical school in the world.

You would be better off looking at in state tuition to medical schools where you live, and also consider general costs of out of state tuition if your daughter chooses another location. For example in state tuition to the University of Washington Med School is around $13,500, out of state tuition approximately $32,000. Its difficult to generalize on costs across all medical schools, but US med school tends to be expensive, and most med students take out loans, which (hopefully) they repay in later years when they earn a good salary.

One other interesting US trend is a number of med students are older, in their 30s - they're becoming doctors later in life, after a first career doing something else. If your daughter had issues earlier in her (pre-med?) studies, it may be a sign that she's not prepared to go to med school right now. No worries - I would appreciate if my doctor came to medicine a little later in life with more maturity and a better sense of why they want to do the job, instead of slotting right into the work right out of college, not entirely sure whether its a good profession for them. Kids go into professions for the strangest reasons sometimes.

Having just graduated from medical school 2 years ago...

Applying for med school is your first cost; figure roughly $50 per school for the primary application, another $100ish for a secondary if she gets it, then whatever travel/housing if she gets an interview. Applications are done through AACOMAS, AMCAS, or if you're looking at Texas, they have their own "we're special" application service. Depending how good/bad her grades are, she may be applying more than on year. If she hasn't taken her MCAT yet, there's another cost.

Most US public in-state tuitions range from 15K-30K annually. Figure another 2-3K for books and supplies, plus whatever living costs she's going to have (close to 1500/mo in a city, 500 in a rural area). Private schools go from about 30-60K annually; I think Tufts in Boston has the highest tuition of any private school, at about $66K/year. So, you're figuring, ballpark somewhere between $40-60K/year total for a decent school.

No idea on UK.

Yes, out of country schools are cheaper. I can't comment on quality of education, but several Caribbean schools send their students back to the US for their third and fourth years, so if she's looking at those options, it's something to consider (as well as moving costs!).

However, there's also a lot more hoops to go through when you graduate from a foreign medical school (FMS) if you want to practice in the US. She'll need to do her homework on that - even if she goes to a first world country like Canada or the UK.

Boards are also pricey. You can look up prices, but don't be suprised to pay about $1K for step 1, another $1-2K for step 2 (it includes a real-life portion), both of which are required for graduation.

Then of course, she'll have to start paying loans off once she's an intern, making around $30k/year for her residency period. After, of course, applying through ERAS and their chunk of change...

Seeing a trend yet?

Course fees for the University of Dundee Medical School for overseas students are;

School of Medicine
MBChB Pre-clinical £16750 ($26,921)
MBChB Clinical £25500 ($40,984)
BMSc (1 year) £12000 ($19,288)

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/registry/main/com/fees/20112/ugo.htm

Students from England now have to pay around £9000 for all undergraduate courses including Medical degree course fees (attending Scottish universities such as Edinburgh and Dundee Medical Schools) and students from Scotland will not pay fees.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13951685

I guess the main difference between the Medical education in the UK and the USA is that education for the treatment of penetrating gun shot wounds is sorely lacking in the UK unless you happen to be studying at a London or Manchester Medical School. The Scottish NHS ethos (such as free prescriptions for everyone) might be a bit of a downer though if the aim of becoming a medical professional is about maximising your own personal wealth.

The University of St Andrews Medical School might be worthwhile investigating simply because of its location and size and the relaxed atmosphere whilst studying there (very little distraction to study). They have been teaching Medicine there for about 600 years.

http://medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.aspx

Given the state of medicine 600 years ago, I'm not sure that's a stellar point to be advertising



Sorry, had to get you back for the gunshot comment! (In med school, I did a trauma month - 12 in one day was the record!)

That is a lesson I did not learn....On the hook for 40K-plus 'cuz she can't find a job to pay the $535-a-month. Any job I get the first $550-plus is not even mine....Life sucks.

Depends. If the desire it that she gets trained to run medicine as a profit making business and make big bucks the US medical schools lead the pack. If the goal is that she gets trained to practice medicine to benefit patients with a much lesser emphasis, and expectation, of making large profits, then schools in the UK would be the better choice.

It also has to be pointed out that most US medical schools are set up to to operate on student loans that that are set up to be repaid upon completion of residency. Most newly minted doctors start with several hundred thousand dollars in debt. Debt that can be used to excuse higher prices.

The schools in the UK, as I understand it, leave the new doctors far less burdened, and far less concerned with financial issues.

Lots of approaches available. Lots of scholarships available. US Public Health Service will help pay off loan in exchange for service in a designated medically undeserved area. Military will pay for medical school with similar indenture. Stepwise progression-bachelors in nursing or anything, really, followed by 2 year masters leading to advanced nurse practitioner or physicians assistant license. Medical schools are less expensive in countries where physicians are paid less. I have worked with superb physicians and surgeons who received medical education in India, Pakistan, Russia, Poland, Belgium, Italy, and England. See MDinan's comments regarding FMG issues. Y'all need a guidance counselor-Has daughter completed a pre-med bachelors degree?

mmmm , lots of thoughts for my tired brain
Need to re-read them to absorb some

I like it that there are few distractions from study in St Andrews Medical School. So, I will ask a related question

Where are the best areas in the US and UK for VERY peaceful living for a college student. That means no hurricanes, floods , earthquakes, and very low crime.

I can't agree with your advice, Izzy:
Your International Medical School Graduate (IMG) Plastic surgeon is quite an exception at $5 million annual income. The national average income for plastic/reconstructive/cosmetic surgeons is closer to $400 K, with the highest reported income in a recent survey around $800 K.

IMG's are at a significant disadvantage in finding a residency program in the U.S. It is unfair, discriminatory, etc. But studies published as recently as last year indicate that the discrimination exists and an IMG is going to have a harder time than a U.S.graduate. I won't argue with you about your statement that "medical school is the same everywhere".. I haven't seen the data one way or another on that. BUT, the perception that IMG are inferior to U.S. programs HAS made it an uphill slog for international graduates.

Finaly, ... COST: Students of foreign medical schools graduate with higher average debt, $235,000 compared to the average $158,000 owed by graduates of U.S. medical schools, according to an August report to Congress by regulators.

If there is any way for the OP's child to go to a U.S. Medical School rather than an offshore one, I think she should.

Izzy, I would be in the thick of it... but I went military. So they interrupted my residency to let me play doctor over here in the sandbox right now.

In fact, I'm a D.O. too. Yes, there's still some discrimination in the US, but technically we're equivalent in every state to an M.D. "Not hiring" DO's is likely cause for a lawsuit. More likely, the state isn't super DO-friendly, ie harder to get a license and stuff, so there aren't a lot of DO's in the area. The downside of a DO degree is that it's not as internationally accepted as an MD degree, if you're looking for that.

Chisel, there are LOTS of places that are fine. I mean, there's probably over 100 medical schools in the US. They aren't all in the festering armpits of an inner city! I went to school in the midwest, a population of about 20K. Minus the ice storm and occasional tornado, it was fine (in fact, the tornado hit about 2 days before graduation, when I wasn't in town). Most states have at least one school; Alaska, Idaho and Montana being exceptions I can think of. However, a lot of the states in the pacific northwest won't take out-of-area students, since the schools in Washington and Oregon typically have agreements with those other states to take students from there.

https://www.aamc.org/about/medicalschools/
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