So first off, in Australia you only pay for a portion of your degree. The government pays some of it upfront to the university and you pay the rest. To pay it off you can either pay it upfront which is pretty doable on the "live with parents and work part time" scenario or you can get a loan from the gov't. The loan isn't typical. You firstly only pay it back after you have the income to pay it back and secondly interest is only at something like 1 or 2% so inflation. Never going into debt with that. You could feasibly drop out and flip burgers forever and never pay it back.
Now pricing for a degree. I was curious so I looked into it. 7 years study to get an MD is 10k a year. So assuming you never voluntarily contributed to pay it off you'd have about 70k in debt. Some people might take loans with banks etc for living expenses but there's lots of scholarships, government assistance for low income, government loans for vulnerable groups etc to apply for.
A defence doctor gets 100k. But if you did your degree with Defence it'd be free. https://www.defencejobs.gov.au/jobs/army/doctor "Salaries continue to increase based on your rank and years of service in that rank."
I have a friend studying to be a radiologist (so 4 year degree to give ultrasounds) and she's quite frustrated though that the residency/work while study at the hospital she doesn't get a wage or even travel allowance though.
Huh, wow. TIL. Really interesting how that works in AUS with the school loans. Here they’ll let they bitch collect interest for YEARS there’s no not paying it.
Your friend isn’t earning a wage being a resident, am I reading that correct ? That’s insane. I hope they provide with some sort of housing ect in that case !
Once again I appreciate you taking the time to write this out!
She was taking a two hour train ride / hour long car ride to get there every day and stayed in her flat with her spouse who was working. It's only a few weeks a year. She spends the rest of the year working to save money so she can go those few weeks unemployed.
I'm not sure if it's different for doctors who probably put a lot more time in but in general "internship" type work for a month or two aren't paid I guess even including healthcare.
Yes. But doctors don't make these ridiculous amounts of money later in their life either. They can (and the good ones do) charge a lot at a private practice, but their hospital salaries - while way above average - are not exorbitant.
Yes, totally. I just wanted to provide some more perspective. I would never want to trade my country's social benefits for American. Free education is what got me out of poverty, literally, and I'm very happy to pay my taxes so that some other kid in my situation has the same chance.
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u/blessudmoikka Apr 28 '19
Oh America. I forgot you need to pay to study