Is a car needed for first year med at X school?

[Guest KatieKat]

Hi everyone!

 

How useful is it to have a car during the first year of medicine? Would it be wise to use the LOC towards leasing a car or would a bus pass suffice? I'm particularly interested in how mobile you need to be when going to UBC, but I'm sure there are others on this board who would be interested in other schools so please post from wherever you are! Thanks!

[Guest Ian Wong]

In general, having a car is more crucial once you get to your clerkship years, because you may be doing rotations at multiple hospitals (which may be located at different sites within your city), and the start times (ie. 6-7 am) may be so early that public transit isn't operating on that specific route.

 

I survived Med 1 at UBC without a car. If you live near UBC, it's pretty manageable because there are free shuttles that go from UBC hospital to St. Paul's, VGH, or Women's/Childrens. The most crucial time to have a car in Med 1 is during your Family Practice afternoon (which is 1x per week). You and a fellow classmate need to get to your preceptor's office (which might be in Vancouver, but also might be in Burnaby, or Coquitlam, or Steveston). The time between when you last class of the morning ends, and when your afternoon Family Practice starts might only be 1-1.5 hours, so if your classmate partner also doesn't have a car, timing can be an issue.

 

If you can afford a car, it's ultimately quite useful. You will definitely need one by third year. On the other hand, as an incoming UBC student, you'll get a UPass, which gives you "free" bus transportation. It might be worth seeing if you can go without a car for the first two years; you can save some big bucks on auto insurance, parking, and gas (!) if you can manage using public transit.

 

Ian

[Guest physiology]

You and a fellow classmate need to get to your preceptor's office (which might be in Vancouver, but also might be in Burnaby, or Coquitlam, or Steveston).

 

Hey Ian,

 

Did you like Steveston? It'd be awesome if I could do a family practice rotation there! So close to home! Anyway, did you find that experience there useful? And was the attending physician good?

[Guest sehender]

Hey Ian,

 

Medical students can use the shuttle buses??? I work at the BC Cancer Reaserch Centre and I never knew that there were med students on the buses. Do you need some sort of pass as a med student? It would be convenient for me to use those buses as transport, however, I don't know that they will get out to UBC by 8am...

[Guest Ian Wong]

One of the columns in that clipboard they give you to tick off is for "Undergrad Medical", in other words, it's how they log the med students taking the free shuttle. One potential issue that that if you get there late, or else one of the other healthcare staff needs it more, you might get bumped until the next shuttle, seeing as med students are usually at the bottom of the hierarchy.

 

I don't know when the earliest shuttle to UBC arrives at in the am. It would probably be around 8 am, though. Talk to one of the drivers next time you're around the shuttles.

 

Ian

[Guest stevetilley]

St.John's is mostly a suburban type of city; unless you live AND work downtown, a car is practically a necessity. The bus system here sucks and takes convoluted routes that are a big waste of time. (i.e. a 10 min car ride could easily be 45 mins by bus) .

 

MUN Medical School (and the main hospital), are both away from downtown. Most (about 95%) of med students that live on their own have cars (some live w/ parents and get rides etc.). Even if you live right next to the hospital (which is possible), you're still gonna need a car to get groceries/run errands/or go to the occaisional clinical skills class that is held at the old-age home across town!

 

MUN is the cheapest med school outside of quebec ($6k tuition/year), so the added expense of car/insurance/gas/etc. is easily doable w/ student loans/plc.

 

-Steve

[Guest Chieka]

6K Tuition a year?!?!? Grr, U of T. Grr.

>:

C.

[Guest 1Smiley]

Would there be a problem if I used a LOC to get a car? What I mean is would the bank frown upon that or would the choice be up to me? Unfortunately my 17 year old car just isn't as reliable as it was 17 years ago:)

 

Thanks

[Guest Ian Wong]

Floating back to the top.

 

Ian