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We'd rather not think about it, but everyone will ask you this question, unless you happen to be a cum laude student.
Will you give up?
Wait for a year while doing nothing?
Wait for a year while studying something else?
Choices, choices..
I myself have faced this problem. The System (Central selections) didn't get me into med school, and I was left with several choices. At first, I'd been planning on doing only tiny things throughout the year, like getting a part time job, volunteering, learning first aid and sports-massages.
Several people told me this was a not-so-brilliant choice.
But with this so-called economical crisis (Bitch please, with the shady figures hiding money everywhere, sending troops to the Middle-East and what-not, we're bound to go poor.), the Dutch government made higher education somewhat.. more troublesome.
Anyone lagging behind and redoing years is bound to get a fee if he/she takes too long to finish his or her study. Bachelor phases generally take 3 years to finish. You will get an additional year to finish it, but if you take any longer than that, you get to pay a fee of approx. €3000,- on top of your tuition fees. Ouch.
Same thing for master phase by the way.
Anyhow, lets assume that X student doesn't get into med school for 2 consecutive years, and studies something else while waiting to get into med school. Student X studied.. lets say, biomedical sciences for 2 years, and then, gets into med school's bachelor phase. X will now have studied 5 years to finish the bachelor phase, and gets to pay a fat sum of €3000 on top of his/her tuition fees.
Seems a bit unfair, no?
With this problem in mind, I actually refused to study anything which could land me a €3k sum.
Then again, waiting for 2 years does not automatically get you into med school. Some of us will never get into med school despite it being our childhood wish. I could waste years of my life waiting to get into med school without result.
With a lot of people urging me to study something anyways, I started looking around for a decent study of my interest.
I had several options.
-WO Biology
-WO Biomedical Sciences
-WO Chemistry
-WO Health Sciences
-WO Health & Life Sciences
-WO Pharmaceutical Sciences
-HBO Nursing
-HBO Physical Therapy
(WO = Research university, HBO = University of applied sciences)
Lets say I definitely do NOT like non-toxic plants or mixing chemicals(unless they go boom!), which takes Biology, Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences out of the equation.
I don't like waiting around for people to catch up either, so Health Sciences disappeared off the list. (Apparently, 1st year students studying Health Sciences get subjects taught to N&G high school students. You don't need a specific VWO-profile to study Health Sciences, so someone who hasn't studied Biology in high school can do this as well)
I'm also a sore loser with pride issues.(There, I admitted it!) HBO is typically seen as the lesser brother compared to WO, and why would I stick around with the lesser of the two when my high school prepared me for the big bad one?
This put Nursing and Physical Therapy out of the equation.
To be honest, for some reason, neither Biomedical Sciences nor Health & Life Sciences really interested me (Only med school did).
Both studies train you as a researcher, and if anything, I don't like sitting around in a lab.
Health & Life Sciences however, gives me a shot at studying infectious diseases and epidemics.
In the end, I went with Health & Life Sciences, because it's a rare study (only one institution offers it in the Netherlands) and because students get to choose their subjects in the 2nd and 3rd year.
I have no idea whether this is going to be a good choice. I really do hope I get into med school next year, but if I don't, Health & Life Sciences (Both Bachelor and Master) seems like a good second choice.
Well, enough for today.
See you around, folks!
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