Should I attend the University of Oxford Medical School?

Question

Hi,

I am a pre-med student(first year) and I'm trying to plan ahead when it comes to taking my MCATs, researching great medical schools so that I can prepare early. I've lived in New York all my life and while I've been researching medical schools in the US(Harvard, John Hopkins,Columbia) I have also been researching Oxford. I want to branch out and maybe travel out of the country for medical school( because I am incredibly shy lol)

Is it a great medical school?

How does the government work with traveling overseas for medical school?

Is it in the same price range as Harvard or John Hopkins would be?

Please and Thanks in advance for anyone who can answer these questions for me.

Answer 1

Medicine courses are pricey over here and foreginers will typically pay a premium. (Citizens get their tuition fees almost completely paid for by the govnerment). For a good medical school you should expect to pay £30,000 / $60,000 for the fees alone - consider that you will have to pay for your accomodation, food, books and other living expenses too as well as mandatory health checks and criminal record checks.

However, if you're very clever indeed or have some amazing sporting or muscial ability you may well be able to get a grant or scholarship. The UK operates a 0% interest Student Loan system which covers all the fees and you don't have to pay it back until you start earning more than £15,000 / $30,000. However, I am not sure if this is available for international students.

Oxford is certainly a great medical school, however I would think that Cambridge is probably even better. It also comes down to personal choice. I prefer Cambridge as a city over Oxford, yet the Cambridge faculty are certainly more... pretentious. Oxford are also often considred better for teaching and Cambridge better for research and traditionally, Cambridge is the science university and Oxford is for Arts and Humanities (but that isn't really the case any more).

If you're considering British universities, you should definitely look at King's College London - as far as I know they're one of, if not the best for medicine and London is a great city.

Have a look at Southampton too.

My advice is to actually go to these places if you can - I know it's a long way and a big deal but you cannot know what you're letting yourself in for if you don't have a look. You should also look for the university prospectus - most will send one out to you but if you want to see something straight away you can usually download them too.