The Pros and Cons of the Bond Medical Program
Applying to medical school is a huge commitment. Luckily, at Shield Tuition, we have asked Kye, a 4th-year Bond medical student, to share his thoughts on the pros and cons of the Bond Medical Program.
Let's keep this simple:
These are the pros and cons are about the medical program specifically and not Bond University as a whole.
Pros
Simulated patients in years 1 - 3 which means weekly you are practising clinical skills (history taking skills, physical examination, procedural skills). This is a massive plus, and probably the best thing about the medical program. Makes you feel much more prepared when going on placement.
Bond Virtual Hospital (BVH) in 3rd year is a very comprehensive approach to case-based learning with multiple doctors in a room of circa 18 medical students. You learn directly from doctors and how to approach different patient presentations. The full impact of Bond's BVH is probably only appreciated when you are more immersed in the clinical part of medicine (year 3 and beyond).
Gold Coast is the best duhhh!!!!
Bond is a private university, so there are far fewer limitations for elective placements in year 4 and 5. Of course, you still have to do your usual placements (women's health, surgery, GP), but there is some pretty unique placements at Bond. I know every university says this, but not many universities allow students to go study in Italy! Or to go to the Solomon Islands or South Africa. These are very real opportunities at Bond.
The integration between years at Bond. You will genuinely get to know a lot of students in the years above you, and through the societies, there will be plenty of chances to learn from them. This gives you a feeling of support outside the traditional faculty support.
The fact that the Bond program takes 4 years and 8 months is probably the most desirable thing about the course. Most direct entry programs are 6-7 years.
Cons:
The biggest problem with the bond medical program is certainly how inflexible the program is. All classes are to be attended in person. You will have 0 say about class times, and you can only miss ~25% of classes before the university will call you in to query your attendance. Bond has the capacity to fail students who do not attend classes because it is built into their policy. They will typically give you a warning for the first semester you exceed 25%, however, the next time you exceed.
You may be thinking? Of course, I will attend everything and while that is a nice thought, the reality is that for many people, this imposes unrealistic expectations. Many people will get sick, go visit family, or prefer watching lectures online, and all of these activities will bring you closer to the attendance threshold. Most medical students at Bond agree that all of the clinical classes should be delivered online; there is no other way to learn a physical examination then to do one! However, lectures are much more engaging when you can watch them at home, speed them up, slow them down, search terminology used in the lecture recording. For many students, there are days when they is only 1 lecture, which means they will be required to come into university for 1 class and then leave. This is a big ask for those students who are not so lucky to live close to Bond!
Bond is very fast paced, for many this is the reason you sign up because the degree is accelerated, but it also means that a fair chunk of work is crammed into the degree.
Applicants will receive no credit for precursor university credits or degrees.
The class timetable is released the week before on Friday, which makes it extremely difficult to work because you are unable to give your employer your unavailability with plenty of notice.
