Extra Year at B.S./M.D.--for a Liberal Arts Degree

Sejarah
Sat, 21 Nov 2015 05:37:45 +0000

I am a sophomore in the undergrad portion of an accelerated six year B.S./M.D. program, expecting to complete not just the med school matriculation prereqs, but also a minor in History by the end of spring semester. Evidently, medicine aside, history has all along been a passion of mine and I feel even with my history and nonscience gen ed courses taken, the science requirements for my program have not permitted enough breathing space to study other subjects as an undergrad.

After a recent, particularly strenuous week of science midterms, I began to seriously consider taking a third year (acceptable with, even encouraged by my advisor) to essentially just take history and arts courses, with the idea of completing twenty-one more history credits to attain a B.A. in history. Working towards the degree would be a matter of personal development, having one more year of fun, and, however strange it sounds, getting credentialed for my passion. Yet, the extra year would tack on $40k to any future debt and delay my career by a year, and I would not be seeing most, though certainly not all of my cohort peers for that year; the finances are what I really have reservations about, since my family is not rich but would also not qualify for need-based aid. Seeing that “you only do college once” and med school debt is a very real problem for graduates, what are some thoughts from those who have gone through the med school/residency/work route?