Guest byjude Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 A few years ago, I'd heard in an info session for premed students not to worry about finding the money to pay for med school, since the banks will be dying for the chance to loan you money (or something to that effect!). I'm curious though - there must be a pretty reasonable limit on what most banks will offer 20-something med students with no assets and no salaried partners. With the rising cost of tuition in some Canadian schools, does it become difficult to cover the cost of living with the money from loans? (eg, U of T's tuition is going to hit $20,000 in a few years if there is no Ontario tuition freeze + the cost of living in Toronto is pretty high. I doubt the banks give much more than $100K without some sort of equity/2nd mortgage, etc, so how do you cover the cost of rent, food, books, livelihood?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cracked30 Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 CIBC will give you 125K. 25K each year plus an extra 25K in clerkship. Total, for four years, 125K line of credit at prime rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 The real big problem right now is that student loan sizes have not increased proportionately to tuition increases. For that reason, the amount of money you were eligible for via Student Loans has basically remained constant, while tuition costs throughout the country have increased dramatically. People end up making up that difference by taking out additional loans other than student loans, usually via a line of credit at a bank. Banks are very familiar with med students, and each medical school has good relationships with the local banks, such that med students invariably get great loans (due to the local competition, you can expect to get basically the same loan wherever you go, whether that be at Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal, CIBC, ScotiaBank, etc). There will be minor differences that need investigating for you to get the best package for your individual needs, but everyone usually can get these loans. I've never heard of a Canadian med student who had to leave school due to lack of tuition money. Once you start med school, if you join the CMA, they'll hook you up with MD Management, the financial group run by the CMA, who have financial advisors who can help you look at your money management, budgeting, loan repayment options, and all sorts of stuff. MD Management is a free service to all CMA members, so you can continue to go back to them as you proceed into residency (where you finally start drawing some cash, and therefore might want advice as far as loan repayments, vs RRSP's, vs mortgages, etc), and certainly as a practising physician. You WILL be able to pay those loans back, as onerous as it seems (it's frightening for most people, myself included, to think of being in debt tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars), but you will be able to pay them back in the future. It might hurt for a while, but it'll get done. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TimmyMax Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Hey, Shop around a bit, but make sure that you go to a branch that deals with medical students, otherwise the banks will tell you to blow it out your ear. BMO, CIBC, TD, and RBC all offer professional lines of credit for medical students and your earning potential serves as your collateral, so that's how students with $20 to their name after undergrad can get these mammoth loans for medical schools. The most important thing to do is shop around, and don't be afraid to let the banks know you are doing this (a little healthy competition never hurt anyone), so that if they are holding something back from you (ie: a waiver on service fees, prime interest rate), they will be motivated to pull out all the stops in order to win your business. Simply put, don't settle for anything above prime- if one bank won't give it to you, go somewhere that will. Oh, and don't forget that it is YOU that are the hot commodity, not the banks- you have a lifetime of banking to be done and if they decide to treat you like garbage, take a walk. That is my two cents. Best of luck! Timmy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest byjude Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Excellent advice! So it seems there's no trouble finding the money to cover tuition, but do med students ever find it hard to cover living expenses on top of that? (especially at schools where both tuition and cost of living is high; eg, UofT students - you must pay well over $25K each year when you throw in tuition + rent + everything else). Aside from the overwhelming thought of that huge debt load, is it difficult to afford living expenses without the good fortune of lucrative associations (eg, parents, spouse, dear old grandmother)? ie, Are you eating more KD than you did in undergrad? Can you afford the small luxuries - TV or excursions to the pub, non-infested living accomodations, or even a car (as I've heard is almost a necessity at UWO) if you barely managed to afford undergrad? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Yes....in short...but be prepared to borrow to get it. Tuition at UWO is ~$16 000 this year...of which I was lucky enough to get $3600 in bursary from UWO and a $3000 Millenium bursary from the gov't. I worked in the summer, adding an additional $4000 to the total. Total income = $10 600 School expenses Tuition and Fees - ~$16 000/yr Books/notes/photocopying - $2000/yr Monthly expenses - Housing Rent - $880/month Hydro - $40-140/month Phone - $60-90/month Cable/Internet - ~$123/month House-mates contribution to above expenses - $520/month Other expenses Interest on Line of Credit - ~$140/month Food - ~$200/month Car payment - $267/month + Other miscellaneous stuff (entertainment, clothes, etc) You can always borrow...but the more you borrow the more interest you pay...so it becomes a vicious circle. Some med students are more aware of $$ than others...some bought/leased new cars...some go to Europe in the summer instead of working...some work at a bar during the year...there really is a lot of variety...but your life isn't totally over in med school...you will be able to do what you want (more or less) but you do have to stick to a budget and not treat your line of credit like lottery winnings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest byjude Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 And med students have the time to work part-time (in the preclinical years)? That's reassuring to hear that depending on your tolerance for pain of long-ranging debt, there will always be some way to cover the cost of medical school for those fortunate enough to be accepted. Thanks for sharing your budget, aneliz! All of your examples help to elucidate this worrisome concern. The question of how to pay for school seems silly to plan for in advance with no idea of whether one will be accepted, but still one of those black box concerns... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted March 15, 2004 Report Share Posted March 15, 2004 Hi there, Byjude, a pal of mine who is in second year at UofT meds has been moonlighting for the past number of months as a bartender/waitress, so it is done by some. Also, on lines of credit (LOCs), I went in to chat with my local bank (RBC) about options. I had mentioned the LOC available through the National Bank that measures $150K, as RBC is willing to offer $125K to new medical students. They said that it is always an option for RBC to do some customization of the medical student loan packages to meet what is being offered by other institutions. That is, they would be willing to extend the LOC to $150K or more if necessary. The bottom line is that banks are businesses and they are open to negotiation with you, a valuable customer. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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