Hey mate, a tough decision I'm sure. I'm moving from NSW to WA this year to begin a Bachelor of Biomedical Science with provisional entry to the Doctor of Medicine at UWA. (Massive thanks to everyone here who helped me make the decision
A1 chinaski matcha.latte TheWhiteKnight TKAO LMG! dotwingz Caffeine)
I am cautious to give advice of this sort - please take everything I say with a grain of salt. This is just my perspective, which will most likely be very different to how you view life, and other things.
I think the question you're struggling to answer is "How much do I want to study medicine? Is it worth the sacrifice of having to leave behind family and move interstate?"
There is no doubt you still prefer medicine over dentistry, otherwise you wouldn't have posted your question at all. Although you might prefer medicine to a lesser degree over dentistry now, because you accepted that you were going to Adelaide dentistry and become a dentist for a long time, you did a lot of research into dentistry, and the UQ Medicine offer just came through unexpectedly.
I think you should ask yourself, "If I got a super late top-up offer from Adelaide Medicine, will I go?" If the answer is yes, then it is my personal opinion that you should go UQ Med.
My reasoning is that you are not alone in making the decision to move interstate to study medicine, and I think you were willing to do so when you made an application to QTAC and sat the interview for UQ Med. (Or did you do interstate interviews only as practice for the Adelaide med interview with no intention of going?)
I know only one person who
only applied to UNSW Medicine - not even WSU or UoN, let alone interstate. He got an offer from UNSW Medicine, but not everyone can be as lucky as him. Everyone else I know applied everywhere, and I I have lots of friends who moved interstate for medicine - mostly UQ, some Griffith, and one in UAdel. I think moving interstate to pursue medicine is a possibility every medical school applicant in Australia has to face.
The next question is that this is a bonded offer. Now this is a tough question, and is an area in which I am terribly unqualified to give advice in, as I have not researched the bonded medical place agreement to the level I would have if I received a bonded offer and had to make a decision. To my understanding, bonded is tough. You have a 3 year return of service obligation, and from what I've read on MSO, it's hard to decide when to complete the 3 year return of service - if you do it straight out of med school, it means you can't do your internship & residency at large metropolitan tertiary hospitals (which some say is beneficial for your future career, some say it doesn't matter, but it definitely won't negatively affect your future career, whereas doing your internship & residency at a rural location might. Of course, doing your internship & residency at a rural location might not negatively affect your future career at all - I have no idea). If you do it once you've completed your specialty training, you are most likely married with kids - your spouse might find it difficult to find a job in such a rural location, and you might want to send your kids to school at a metropolitan location. This is why a lot of people buy their way out of a BMP by paying around $300k, although
this post says "Buying your way out of it is less of an option than it used to be. It's not a choice at all."
I recommend reading
this MSO thread and official government websites to find out more about the BMP agreement.
But if I were in your position, I reckon I'd still go UQ Med Bonded. Yes, bonded is not ideal, but med is med, and you'll still be a doctor. I guess we spend at least 30 years working - 3 years is a long time, but 27 years is even longer. Ask yourself, "If this was an unbonded offer, would I go?" If the answer is yes, then I would take the bonded.
Those are my thoughts as someone who is neither a doctor nor a medical student, but as someone who has thought about this kind of stuff a fair bit. Hope this helps, and whichever decision you make, remember that the more research you do, the more thought you put into this and the more number of people (friends & family) you talk to about this, the less likely you are to regret your decision in the future.
