Canada Student Loans

[sirnoodleton]

Hi guys, I just got accepted to UBC med. I have about 20,000 in savings, and I own a 7,000$ car. Last year I made 10K in taxable income (26K including scholarships). I'm worried that I won't qualify for government student loans.

I want to take advantage of bursaries and the zero interest loan. What can I do to maximize the government student loan?

 

Also what's the best Travel Credit card/Line of credit package that I can get?

I've looked at them all, and they all look the same. I'd really like to get a high end travel rewards card and have the annual fees waived, is that possible?

 

Cheers

[oops_letstryagain]

You'll probably be eligible for the maximum amount from BC Student Loans, but it will depend on a few factors. The key considerations are: are you paying for all of your own living expenses during the school year, will you have any additional income during school next year, how much will you have saved by the time you start school, how long will you be in school, and do you have any other assets to include.

 

If you're paying for your own living expenses, your "need" should come out to around $40,000 so you would probably receive ($40,000-your assets) or max student loan for your period of study (something like $16,000), whichever is lower.

 

If you're going to have your housing paid for or if your parents/spouse/etc will be supporting you in anyway, that will all be subtracted from your eligibility.

 

Of the student loan amount you're granted, some of it is grant some of it is loan, so you will not have to pay all of it back.

[sirnoodleton]

my parents will not be supporting me in any way.

[oops_letstryagain]

In that case, it should be reasonably easy to estimate your "need" and from that determine how much you'll get. Calculate your total spending for next year: tuition, $3000 for books, living expenses (they calculated mine at $13,000, so somewhere in that vicinity), and then deduct your assets (your bank account balance at start of school, and some % of your car value (you don't get the whole value deducted). If the remaining need is somewhere around 16000 - 18000 then you'll get max, otherwise you will get whatever your "need" is.

 

As for the line of credit, see my post on the RBC infinite avion and other posts by students in the Med School Orientation 101 subforum and look there for all the info you need. Some people have been able to wrangle the high-end travel rewards credit card with fee waived, some haven't. It seems like a grab bag so I would just go in and say before you sign anything that you know it's possible, so you want to make sure you get it.