The bigger question is if you DONT get another spot should you still take Griffith? That's a difficult question as you will give yourself a huge FEE-HELP bill but you will qualify as a dentist a year earlier. You have to weight these things up.
Griffith dental students share a common year with the rest of the health cohorts (med sci, biomed, health sci, pharmacy, physio etc) called the Foundation Year of Health; there is one or two individualised courses for each degree type. Presumably this would be the reason that you wouldn't have practical clinic in the first year.
Excellent point, it's a very tough decision indeed. If we estimate the FFP total as $100k, that's more than your average graduate would expect to take home at the end of his first year out. Based on that logic, you would assume refusing the GU offer and trying again for a CSP uni spot next year would be the way to go... However, you have to consider that every year you hold off enrolling, there'll be more and more competition for jobs. Already, the '13 cohort will be the first in QLD with graduates from 3 separate dental schools (luckily, that's the year after I graduate, heh). If stories I've heard from current higher-ups are anything to go by, people starting out are already juggling part-time jobs at 2-3 different private practices and being content with 3-4 day working weeks, just so they can stay close to home. Although it may considerably easier (and much more lucrative) to 'go bush', just keep in mind that job offerings in metro hotspots like Brisbane and the GC are tight as it is.
EDIT - Above paragraph was only really talking about private practice. I hear jobs in the public sector (with QLD Health) are somewhat easier to come by...
Also, foundation health year should be no excuse to delay (pre-)clinical exercises. I had three science subjects (taken with general science/med/pharm kiddies) and only one dental subject in my 1st year. They still found time to teach me Cl. I amalgam preps, impressions, saliva testing, fissure sealants/PRR's and wax carving. Admittedly saliva testing is pretty useless and I had my demonstrator do the majority of my wax work for me, but still...
I am willing to undertake the +100k debt if it means doing dentistry. I just don't want to be 'half-cocked' as a dentist after graduating from Griffith where I may have had more clinical exposure doing dent at UQ. I have noted that Griffith Dent students only get 4 years of 'pure' dental teaching compared to the full 5 years at Griffith, that's made me a bit iffy.
Half-cocked...lol. Don't get too fussed about the year of 'pure' dental teaching you're missing out on. By and large, the real stuff doesn't start until 3rd year at all dental schools, when you actually start seeing patients. It'd probably be more beneficial to research how each school allocates clinical time in these years and how much individual patient exposure you'll actually get.
Even thou the last 2 years is full fee paying, isn't the first 3 years are cheaper than others? I thought that other Unis are around $9000 student distribution a year for 5 years CSP place, and GU is around $4500 for the first 3 years and then full fee paying?
I think you're right, but even so, GU works out to be considerably more expensive overall.
ostgraduate
