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Medical school in Canada: debt of 100k?


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I didn't get that $9K. That's OSAP, right? I didn't qualify.

 

I was referring to the Ontario bursary. If you are here we all get that OSAP or not (?) It is suppose to roughly cover electives/interviews - probably depending on if you are flying all over the place or staying more local.

 

At Western that starts in July for us.

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I was referring to the Ontario bursary. If you are here we all get that OSAP or not (?) It is suppose to roughly cover electives/interviews - probably depending on if you are flying all over the place or staying more local.

 

At Western that starts in July for us.

 

Duh! Sorry - jet lagged brain :) I think it's more or less doing the trick for most of my class - certainly it's good for me. But start collecting those Airmiles anyways!

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Duh! Sorry - jet lagged brain :) I think it's more or less doing the trick for most of my class - certainly it's good for me. But start collecting those Airmiles anyways!

 

Ha! no worries - that is what I thought. The two should for the most part cancel each other out if my math was right. Still it is good to get some confirmation.

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I know in Ontario you can but was curious if there was some sort of exemption for residents prevrnting them from doing so?

 

No there isn't :)

 

Although I thought the OP was referring to the Nov - June period (starting CaRMS and finishing your move to residency )? Which includes the vastly expense interview period and prep - major $$$ flying around then :)

 

The OP is right as well in another way - when I moved to a new job it was standard for the new employer to throw in a moving expense to help out. Not in the case of residency though. Moving across the country of course isn't cheap for those who do travel to their new school.

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You can carry them but only certain things can be claimed so it's not a magic expense eraser. For example, you cannot claim expenses incurred for a trip to look for a new home where you are moving. Plus there are loads of little Knicks and knacks that all add up and aren't tax exempt.

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I know many people who graduated in my year (2010) who have less debt than that. I would say average is closer to 50-60k honestly.

 

I had parental help, so I finished with about 35k debt (had no debt entering med school however).

 

You get about 24k/year for osap as a med student (at Mac at least, full year program); and the government only makes you pay back about 11k of that. You do need a car IMO, so with 30k from tuition, car and rent, I really think 100k should be the MAX debt even with no parental help if you are spending reasonably.

 

That would only be true if everyone had parental help but it isn't true. I'd be ecstatic with 60k debt. I think government relief comes if you have taken out more than 100k at the end, unless Ontario is very generous.

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I supported myself through medical school and have easily surpassed 100K. Toronto is expensive (18-20K tuition) so automatically you are at aprox 70-80K in tuition expenses after four years. Rent alone in Toronto is +12K a year... Then you have other daily expenses, elective traveling, CaRMS traveling, MCCQE expenses, and you are not going to hermit during medical school, so for your sanity toss in a vacation or two and you are easily over 100K. You get some support here in there in grants but it really is not enough to off set debt accumulation.

 

Just to re-emphasize CaRMS is so expensive. I applied across Canada and the travel expenses alone are obscene. This past week on the CaRMS tour has easily been the one of the most expensive single weeks ever and next week will be the same. I feel like I spent as much time in the air as I did on the ground in hotels, both experiences which cost $$$.

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I supported myself through medical school and have easily surpassed 100K. Toronto is expensive (18-20K tuition) so automatically you are at aprox 70-80K in tuition expenses after four years. Rent alone in Toronto is +12K a year... Then you have other daily expenses, elective traveling, CaRMS traveling, MCCQE expenses, and you are not going to hermit during medical school, so for your sanity toss in a vacation or two and you are easily over 100K. You get some support here in there in grants but it really is not enough to off set debt accumulation.

 

Just to re-emphasize CaRMS is so expensive. I applied across Canada and the travel expenses alone are obscene. This past week on the CaRMS tour has easily been the one of the most expensive single weeks ever and next week will be the same. I feel like I spent as much time in the air as I did on the ground in hotels, both experiences which cost $$$.

 

Good luck by the way! Sounds expensive and yet also fun - we will see if I feel the same next year :)

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Tuition at $15K/year x 4 years is $60K. For the last few years I've lived on a stipend of $17-19K/year. I don't think I'm being frivolous to hope to maintain that lifestyle, and even buy myself nicer groceries now and then (cheese weakness).

 

If I keep my debt to $140K it'd be great, but $160K seems more reasonable. I've come to accept that. When I look at my accumulated education tax credits from 10 years of university before even starting med school ($61K federal, $41K provincial) I feel significantly better about knocking out a significant chunk of my debt in residency.

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That would only be true if everyone had parental help but it isn't true. I'd be ecstatic with 60k debt. I think government relief comes if you have taken out more than 100k at the end, unless Ontario is very generous.

 

The only thing Ontario is generous about is a good supply of lube to make it easier to continually cram more and more garbage up our arses. the phrase a mile wide and a mile deep seems fitting...

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  • 2 weeks later...
I thought that $100K was a little low, so I googled and I found that for BC the average debt for graduating residents was apparently a little over $158K back in 2006.

 

I thought I'd share. The link is:

http://www.bcma.org%2Ffiles%2FMedical_Student_Debt_Relief.pdf

 

For RESIDENTS? Damn! I wonder if it includes mortgage, etc. I guess the cost of living in Vancouver is so high and the resident salaries might not be enough for those who do residency in the city to cover all their expenses. Otherwise, your debt should be decreasing through residency.

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For RESIDENTS? Damn! I wonder if it includes mortgage, etc. I guess the cost of living in Vancouver is so high and the resident salaries might not be enough for those who do residency in the city to cover all their expenses. Otherwise, your debt should be decreasing through residency.

 

if you have any desire to live in a decent 1 bedroom apartment by yourself in vancouver you're looking at around 1300-1700/month... If you own, you have to tack on utilities, strata fees and hydro which could add on approximately 300/month on average.

 

so just your living expenses for the year would be 19k-24k per year. couple groceries and any other sort of misc expenses and you've got yourself around 30k per year... not including tuition, books, car, christmas presents, dog food, new clothes...

 

yay vancouver.

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if you have any desire to live in a decent 1 bedroom apartment by yourself in vancouver you're looking at around 1300-1700/month... If you own, you have to tack on utilities, strata fees and hydro which could add on approximately 300/month on average.

 

so just your living expenses for the year would be 19k-24k per year. couple groceries and any other sort of misc expenses and you've got yourself around 30k per year... not including tuition, books, car, christmas presents, dog food, new clothes...

 

yay vancouver.

 

Don't forget interest payments on your loans from the bank and full payments on your government loans.

 

Those numbers, by the way, are pretty standard expenses for Toronto and Ottawa too.

 

Your residency salary isn't very much when you start adding up expenses.

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