How do you afford to go to Bond?

[batman_99]

Hi there, I am a current year 12 student thinking of studying medicine at Bond. I have calculated that I would have to pay $235,771 for my entire degree (this is counting the FEE-HELP scheme). How would a normal student be able to pay off this amount? Is there some kind of a loan I can take in which I can start repayment after the completion of my degree? FEE-HELP only covers some of the payment but I still have 235k to pay off! I have researched and all student loans only give like around 35k...

 

[A1]

Hi there, I am a current year 12 student thinking of studying medicine at Bond. I have calculated that I would have to pay $235,771 for my entire degree (this is counting the FEE-HELP scheme). How would a normal student be able to pay off this amount?

Unfortunately doing medicine is not for everyone who doesn't have sufficient marks or sufficient money for Bond. You can try do an undergrad degree + GAMSAT and go for Grad MD, or a slightly easier to get in full-fee place at UNDS which is around $32k/year x 4.

 

[MeddyBear]

To get a full-fee place at University of NotreDame Sydney do you have to finish and undergraduate degree as a pre-requisite or can we pay our way in provided a good incomplete degree GPA?

 

[Mana]

To get a full-fee place at University of NotreDame Sydney do you have to finish and undergraduate degree as a pre-requisite or can we pay our way in provided a good incomplete degree GPA?

A complete degree is required.

 

[duubz]

Hi there, I am a current year 12 student thinking of studying medicine at Bond. I have calculated that I would have to pay $235,771 for my entire degree (this is counting the FEE-HELP scheme). How would a normal student be able to pay off this amount? Is there some kind of a loan I can take in which I can start repayment after the completion of my degree? FEE-HELP only covers some of the payment but I still have 235k to pay off! I have researched and all student loans only give like around 35k...

Hi I am currently a first year bond med student and I can shed some light for you. I am fairly middle class when it comes to family income. The way I am affording it is through my parents home loan which has a lower interest rate.
But bond can be quite competitive to get into and don't underestimate its difficulty. This years entry's lowest atar was 98.1 and the GPA for post graduates were around 6.5 but mostly higher.

 

[eddterrange]

@med989 Priority groups | Queensland Health
so far all P1 medical graduates are guaranteed an intern position in QLD - however this may change in the future so who knows

 

[batman_99]

Hi I am currently a first year bond med student and I can shed some light for you. I am fairly middle class when it comes to family income. The way I am affording it is through my parents home loan which has a lower interest rate.
But bond can be quite competitive to get into and don't underestimate its difficulty. This years entry's lowest atar was 98.1 and the GPA for post graduates were around 6.5 but mostly higher.

Yeah, many people assume that you must be "less smart' if you go to Bond which is not the case! So how much extra will my parents have to pay each year? A ballpark figure will do thanks.

 

[Mana]

Yeah, many people assume that you must be "less smart' if you go to Bond which is not the case! So how much extra will my parents have to pay each year? A ballpark figure will do thanks.

The total cost of Bond Uni med is about $350k or so, give or take a few grand.

Of this, you are able to put about $130k on a FEE-HELP loan. The rest will have to be paid upfront near the beginning of each trimester.

 

[bang]

Hi I am currently a first year bond med student and I can shed some light for you. I am fairly middle class when it comes to family income. The way I am affording it is through my parents home loan which has a lower interest rate.
But bond can be quite competitive to get into and don't underestimate its difficulty. This years entry's lowest atar was 98.1 and the GPA for post graduates were around 6.5 but mostly higher.

98.1 is relatively quite low for an undergraduate program.. So Bond is definately less competitive to get in than most other undergraduate schools. Not saying their grads are 'less smart' just stating the fact.

 

[sada93]

98.1 is relatively quite low for an undergraduate program.. So Bond is definately less competitive to get in than most other undergraduate schools. Not saying their grads are 'less smart' just stating the fact.

TRIGGEREDDDD

 

[Bala]

I am not sure how it is low. By looking at the limited sample size(of members in various threads here), it seems UWS and UON and few other universities are offering students with 95.5 + ATAR.

 

[Mana]

I am not sure how it is low. By looking at the limited sample size(of members in various threads here), it seems UWS and UON and few other universities are offering students with 95.5 + ATAR.

In terms of published cutoffs, yes. However, these are a different category because ATAR does not contribute to the final weighting for offer at UWS and the JMP (the entire weighting is on the interview for the JMP and 2/3 interview and 1/3 UMAT for UWS).

On the other hand, Bond *does not require UMAT for entry* and does use the ATAR as part of ranking their candidates for final offers. Given that the median ATAR for all the universities that count ATAR towards final offers is well into the 99's, a 98.1 is not particularly high.

 

[duubz]

In terms of published cutoffs, yes. However, these are a different category because ATAR does not contribute to the final weighting for offer at UWS and the JMP (the entire weighting is on the interview for the JMP and 2/3 interview and 1/3 UMAT for UWS).

On the other hand, Bond *does not require UMAT for entry* and does use the ATAR as part of ranking their candidates for final offers. Given that the median ATAR for all the universities that count ATAR towards final offers is well into the 99's, a 98.1 is not particularly high.

I can confirm that bonds median atar was also well above 99 for last years intake. I'm not trying to say it's harder to get into than other unis because i know they have different criteria. All I am saying is that it isn't as easy as many people think it is. I know people who have got into uws 95 and uon with 96 and even people in nsw with 97s. If those people were to apply for bond last year they would not have recieved an offer. In no way was their entry easy because they had to do umat which i know is a very hard exam, but all I am saying is that its not a back up option for people with low atars and low umat which many people are led to believe. There are mainly two classes of people at bond this year, people that had a high atar that got a low umat score and were rejected by jcu and people that had just missed offers from other unis but could not be bothered wasting a year (interviews with unsw uon and mostly jcu). I understand that some stereotypes arise because it is a private uni and i too had these perceptions but once your here you realise its just a normal medical school which happens to be private.

 

[Bala]

It is not surprising to me as there are a lot of people with 99+ ATAR

 

[M1984]

Despite all of the negative comments you've made Amirbang, I know a few graduates from Bond University and current students and they couldn't speak good enough words about it. I look forward to applying for Bond University Medicine for entry in 2017

 

[sada93]

I can confirm that bonds median atar was also well above 99 for last years intake. I'm not trying to say it's harder to get into than other unis because i know they have different criteria. All I am saying is that it isn't as easy as many people think it is. I know people who have got into uws 95 and uon with 96 and even people in nsw with 97s. If those people were to apply for bond last year they would not have recieved an offer. In no way was their entry easy because they had to do umat which i know is a very hard exam, but all I am saying is that its not a back up option for people with low atars and low umat which many people are led to believe. There are mainly two classes of people at bond this year, people that had a high atar that got a low umat score and were rejected by jcu and people that had just missed offers from other unis but could not be bothered wasting a year (interviews with unsw uon and mostly jcu). I understand that some stereotypes arise because it is a private uni and i too had these perceptions but once your here you realise its just a normal medical school which happens to be private.

Hi MrDuubz,

just wondering if you were a year 12 applicant or a graduate? Also what was your ATAR/ GPA.

thanks

 

[Mana]

I can confirm that bonds median atar was also well above 99 for last years intake. I'm not trying to say it's harder to get into than other unis because i know they have different criteria. All I am saying is that it isn't as easy as many people think it is. I know people who have got into uws 95 and uon with 96 and even people in nsw with 97s. If those people were to apply for bond last year they would not have recieved an offer. In no way was their entry easy because they had to do umat which i know is a very hard exam, but all I am saying is that its not a back up option for people with low atars and low umat which many people are led to believe. There are mainly two classes of people at bond this year, people that had a high atar that got a low umat score and were rejected by jcu and people that had just missed offers from other unis but could not be bothered wasting a year (interviews with unsw uon and mostly jcu). I understand that some stereotypes arise because it is a private uni and i too had these perceptions but once your here you realise its just a normal medical school which happens to be private.

By virtue of the fact that the only people that accept a Bond offer are those who have not received an offer elsewhere, it would be easier to get into than the other universities.

 

[Mana]

And I've been hearing from current students there that in 2017, Bond's intake will increase to 120 and in 2018, it will increase to 180. But this may not happen, it's just what the uni is looking at. And it doesn't surprise me, as Bond is now becoming an established and respected medical school, as in the past it did cop a bit of criticism for being a "newbie" on the block, similar to any other new medical school that would've recently opened up.

I highly doubt that the government will approve a rise in a medical school cohort of 33% at any point in the near future.

And yes, although Bond is very expensive, the reason that they get so many applications each year is that people know that once you're a fully registered doctor, you will make all that money back in 1-2 years.

Not really, unless you happen to be in a very high paying specialty, and if so, not for many years.

The issue is then not whether you can pay it back at the end, but whether you are able to borrow that amount of money during the degree which is when you need it. Once you have maxed out your FEE-HELP loan, payments for each trimester must be made near the commencement of that trimester or your enrolment is forfeit.

I'd like to make a few corrections on this post.
Bond just uses atar for an interview, and then applicants are given an offer just based on interview alone.
For school leavers, the cut of for 2016 was around mid 98 and for post grads, applicants with a GPA above 6.80 were given interviews.
I know people that get into JCU each year with 96 every year consistently, and I know two people that are currently at uws with atar's of 95.
However, no medical school is better than another. The beauty of medicine is that it is one of the only courses, where it doesn't matter which uni you graduate from, as all Med graduates are treated the same (all Bond graduates at this moment in time are guaranteed internships in QLD).
And yes, although Bond is very expensive, the reason that they get so many applications each year is that people know that once you're a fully registered doctor, you will make all that money back in 1-2 years.

However, no one who has received a place at JCU or WSU decline a place offer there for a place at Bond University, ever in the history of Australian medical schools. Ever.

All med graduates are treated the same in each category in each state, but not all med graduates are in the same position once they graduate. Some of them have a HECS-HELP loan of under $60k AUD in total, while the Bond graduates have a FEE-HELP loan of $130k as well as having had to find $220k over the course of their degree to fund their studies. This makes them $290k AUD worse off over the course of the degree and a lifetime - a significant burden especially when you are a student, to the point where it is prohibitive to the vast majority of the population. In this sense, it's rather difficult to say that some other university offering a CSP place is equal to Bond, because it isn't, it's better by $290k AUD.

"No medical school is better" is a rather difficult position to defend in this regard.

Furthermore, while the government has agreed to fund internship places for all Australian domestic medical graduates for now, if any change were to occur to this policy, it would be the full-fee paying students that miss out first. The Australian government's current hard line policy is that CSP/BMP places will be guaranteed an internship place in the future.


Don't say you weren't warned.

 

[Cooldude132]

Although I agree with everything you said (like of course people would want a CSP over a FFP), it is important to keep in mind that bond's interviews occur in late feb, which by when most people would have already accepted their med offers at other uni's if they were to receive one.
However, the majority of medical courses in Aus are post-graduate, meaning they are allowed to offer FFP (eg. Melbourne uni which has approx. 90 FFP and Notre dame which has more than half of places being full fee).
So there is no guarantee you will get a CSP even if you try to go for the post-graduate way in medicine. Now if you just look at the FFPs in Aus, an advantage at Bond is that it is an undergrad course and thus you will enter the workforce earlier in comparison to other full fee applicants, and so you will have those extra years to regain your tuition fees money.
Yet if you're struggling to find the money for any FFP in Aus, either keep trying for a CSP or look at other programs such as doing med through the army as I know they provide a fair amount of money for your tuition fees + a salary etc.
Good luck to everyone

 

[chinaski]

And yes, although Bond is very expensive, the reason that they get so many applications each year is that people know that once you're a fully registered doctor, you will make all that money back in 1-2 years.

Best laugh of the day. Seriously.