UBC Clerkship and Transportation

[mistah_g]

Hello everyone,

 

Haven't posted here for quite some time, but I'm having a bit of a dilemma at the moment. I'm about the enter third year (clerkship) at UBC and I've heard from many people that a car is a necessity. However, I'm really not sure that I can afford to buy a car as I am running entirely on student loans and LOC. I calculated an average cost and over the next two years it'll cost me over $22k to buy and own a used car. This doesn't even include interest...

 

I'm wondering if I could get some feedback from people at UBC who have done clerkship and who could provide some insight into whether a car really is a necessity. I live near a Skytrain station in Burnaby, so I'm not that far from RCH and Burnaby Hospital, a decent distance to SPH and VGH, but quite a ways from Surrey and Richmond.

 

Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!

[mistah_g]

Can anyone comment on this? Please?

[Ollie]

Maybe try posting in the UBC forum

[leviathan]

You can't afford a car with a $150,000 LOC (assuming you got the standard LOC), and possibly up to 40k extra in student loans over the 4 years? UBC is what..15k/year? So that's 60k. I'm sure you can afford to spend 5k of your other 130k on a cheap car, and that still leaves you with over 30k/year for living expenses and the cost of gas/insurance/repairs on a car. I'm not trying to be offensive, I'm just genuinely curious why it is unaffordable? Or do you have other extenuating circumstances?

 

To answer your question, I think it's doable if your rotations are on a skytrain route. But if you are doing odd hours or you are going out to Surrey or even further, it might be tiring to go that far and have to wait around to transfer between several buses/skytrains every day. I think you could do it, but it would be tough on you, and unless you have a family to support or some other costs I wasn't aware of, I think you might find it's worth it to just get a vehicle? Just my $0.02.

[igotacookie]

Dude I say its about time to grow up and get a car.

 

I'm not seeing how it can be 22k...

 

5k will get you a nice reliable used car (think 06+ American/korean econo car)

I'm paying about 1200/year insurance as an under 25 male.

I drive a gas guzzling 310HP car and pay about 120/month on gas.

 

2 years of clerkship = 5k+2*1200+24*120 = 10280

Spend that money, and enjoy your new found freedom, you won't regret it.