Paying for medical school

[ikillreid]

^ I think it's indeed dollar for dollar at a certain point, once past a certain threshold. Play around with the OSAP aid estimator.

[rmorelan]

In most cases (certain exceptions): OSAP will give you up to $12 240 depending on your financial information for a 2 term study period BUT the maximum that you will ever have to pay back is $7300. (Both of these amounts are higher for Mac students since they are in school year-round.)

 

The income you get from working a summer job might reduce your OSAP funding in such a way that they give you less than the maximum but you still have to pay back the $7300; however, I don't think it would be a dollar for dollar decrease. Just as a quick note: other scholarships and bursaries have the same effect on your funding.

 

I think the best way to approach the job quandary is to look for something to do--paid or volunteer--that is applicable to your future career. (i.e. maybe don't go back to your barista job but if there's a research project you could help out with it might be worthwhile).

 

side note - at med school we have more than the standard number of weeks so get more than 2 terms etc worth. Technically osap is given out on a per week basis rather than term

 

OSAP calculator by the way really helps with all this sort of math.

[rmorelan]

^ I think it's indeed dollar for dollar at a certain point, once past a certain threshold. Play around with the OSAP aid estimator.

 

it is worse than just osap - the dollar for dollar reduction often extends also to bursaries at the school. You can end up in a situation where it is is one dollar of income (potentially there is a tax burden that - even if it is covered by your tax credits somewhere down the line you get less money as you just used up some credits. Can happen if you are still getting money from an RESP for instance pushing your income up) and then TWO dollars of bursary and osap grant money lost.

 

All the while you are losing potentially also valuable research or clinical time (which is often non paid of course - particularly with the sort of short term research projects we get involved with)

[rmorelan]

Considering that most, if not all, med students have similar financial situations once they're considered independent (read: broke, in debt, and not much time in the summer to work ) does this mean that most people get around the same grant/loan amounts? If so, could someone from previous years tell me roughly how much this is?

 

Someone on the western boards apparently did the math and concluded that working can actually be to your disadvantage though i haven't checked his math tbh

 

One other factor - broke, in debt, not much time AND have a great need to make sure they get into the residency field they want to. Something to stress I think - the entire point of medical school is to get into residency. That is it. That is why you are there.

 

You have to keep your eye on the ball as it were. It does not serve you at all to go off and earn a couple thousand in the summer, only to lose out on what you want to do with your life because others did the research, clinical electives, or otherwise got interesting experiences.

[Starfish31415]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'm 3 years out of high school as well, so it's a relieve to know that OSAP will improve next year.

 

The $1 earned : $2 OSAP lost ratio is ridiculous though. I understand that it's really a source of help/income for students who otherwise can't put themselves through medical school, so the math won't be perfect. But 1:2 ratio... really?

 

Regarding having to spend extra time to place into residency, is this just a factor for the more competitive fields? It's just that I've heard from a lot of students that med school is less stress due to P/F, and a lot of people I know spend their summers taking vacations/travelling, etc.

[rmorelan]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'm 3 years out of high school as well, so it's a relieve to know that OSAP will improve next year.

 

The $1 earned : $2 OSAP lost ratio is ridiculous though. I understand that it's really a source of help/income for students who otherwise can't put themselves through medical school, so the math won't be perfect. But 1:2 ratio... really?

 

Regarding having to spend extra time to place into residency, is this just a factor for the more competitive fields? It's just that I've heard from a lot of students that med school is less stress due to P/F, and a lot of people I know spend their summers taking vacations/travelling, etc.

 

It is a balance - I mean mean competitive people aren't working all the time usually during the summers. Trips/vacations are done and important. Doesn't mean everyone is doing 12 weeks of vacation though.

 

One thing to consider if you very likely don't really know what specialty you want - the majority don't really settle until actually clerkship as that is the first time you actually do the field. You cannot be completely sure you want a non-competitive field, and even non-competitive fields are often competitive for location (anything for instance is very competitive for TO and Vancouver and there is of course competition many other locations). People flip all the time from one field to another.

 

Anyway not to panic about it of course but keeping your eye on the ball is important