Not really a relationship thread...

[Gwendolyn]

I've enjoyed reading about the schooling system (and prices!!) in Norway, too.

A Master's degree is one of the possible graduate degrees. So the 4-year degree is a Bachelor's degree (like your 3-year degree in Norway; it's also called "undergraduate" as stonyc indicates), and a Master's degree is typically 2 more years. The Ph.D. is typically 4 years more after the Bachelor's degree, and sometimes can include the Master's degree, depending on the program. Lately it seems that some of the Master's and Ph.D. programs are taking longer, so it's not entirely uncommon for the Master's to be 3 years and for the Ph.D. to be 5 past the Bachelor's degree. I don't know how long medical school takes here, but it would be considered a graduate degree, but with a medical degree instead of Master's or Ph.D. Other types of graduate degrees include the MBA (business) and law degrees, but there are still others aside from the ones I've listed.

A lot of students might call their Bachelor's degree "pre-med" when it means they're doing a Bachelor's degree in areas of concentration that are generally required or preferred by medical schools. So someone might be doing a Bachelor's degree with various concentrations or particular selections of courses in biology, anatomy, chemistry, and physiology, and these people might say they are "pre-med". I suppose it not only signals the kinds of coursework they are doing, but also their intention to go to medical school after they graduate with the Bachelor's. Depending on the undergraduate school, there are various concentrations that can fall under "pre-med," so it can be one of a varied set of Bachelor's degrees from a regular college, but such a person probably doesn't have a mathematics, history, or engineering concentration for their Bachelor's. So I was speaking of doing the Bachelor's in Norway for free, concentrating in the requirements for medical courses (so she might concentrate in human biology, for example). I'm curious--is medical school also free in Norway? Or just the bachelor's degree?

edit: Whoops, stonyc posted while I was writing. Thanks for the information on how long the medical schooling and residency are.

 

[gekko513]

A lot of students might call their Bachelor's degree "pre-med" when it means they're doing a Bachelor's degree in areas of concentration that are generally required or preferred by medical schools. So someone might be doing a Bachelor's degree with various concentrations or particular selections of courses in biology, anatomy, chemistry, and physiology, and these people might say they are "pre-med". I suppose it not only signals the kinds of coursework they are doing, but also their intention to go to medical school after they graduate with the Bachelor's. Depending on the undergraduate school, there are various concentrations that can fall under "pre-med," so it can be one of a varied set of Bachelor's degrees from a regular college, but such a person probably doesn't have a mathematics, history, or engineering concentration for their Bachelor's. So I was speaking of doing the Bachelor's in Norway for free, concentrating in the requirements for medical courses (so she might concentrate in human biology, for example). I'm curious--is medical school also free in Norway? Or just the bachelor's degree?

Then it does indeed seem like she could do a Bachelor in Norway and try to get accepted for med-school in the US. The problem would be that if she doesn't get accepted for med-school and she wants to do it in Norway, she could have wasted three years, worst case.

Medical school is also free in Norway. In fact you get paid $2400 per semester to cover living expenses while you study, and you can borrow $3600 more per semester if you need it. There's no interest until you graduate, and if you're not able to pay you can apply for a "pause in interest and repayment". It's quite nice.

Edit: I lie. It's not free. You have to pay around $60 per semester in a school fee.
2nd Edit: Come to think of it. The US medical school is 4 years + 3 years of strictly medical related education. The Norwegian cand.med. is 6+1.5 years of medical related education, so perhaps the Norwegian cand.med. will be accepted in the US after all, even if the US education is broader since it must include some Bachelor.

 

[Macaddicttt]

Wow. That's a lot of information and exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. Thanks guys.