Guest tantastic Posted May 9, 2003 Report Share Posted May 9, 2003 Hey I'm mildly freaking out about the undergrad debt. I was wondering if poeple could share how much they have borrowed over the years of undergrad. I'll start: Upon graduation I'll have $25,000 :eek If I don't get into a professional school I don't know how I'll pay that off!! Yikes. Anyone else want to share their figure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sil Posted May 9, 2003 Report Share Posted May 9, 2003 Undergrad $47000 (yes 7 years of undergrad is not a good idea), med school so far $25000. Don't worry too much about it. I try to ignore it as much as I can, or else I can always try to sell one of my kidneys :b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fox Posted May 9, 2003 Report Share Posted May 9, 2003 I just set up my line of credit for $30 000 a year. I think this is what most people end up doing and spending, unless you happen to live at home.... It kind of freaks me out, too, but after talking to several physicians, they all paid it off and managed to get through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted May 9, 2003 Report Share Posted May 9, 2003 Undergrad: $0 End of 2nd year medicine: $60,000 MD Management has set-up a new credit line with $120,000 LOC through Citibank Canada NOT INCLUDING ANY OSAP DEBTS. I'll post more on it when I have time. The situation right now is ridiculous, but you should be able to make it through med school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Biochem10 Posted May 9, 2003 Report Share Posted May 9, 2003 My undergrad debt is $18,000 (Yay for McGill's cheap tuition) Starting MD/PhD next year, so I'll be looking at debt of 2 years of medical school at U of T + living expenses. I'd imagine it'll be around $50,000. I know it scares me too especially since I'll be around 30 years old when I begin my residency and I would eventually like kids. Like Sil, I'm going to try not to think about it, you can only live in the present! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Blackbird15 Posted May 9, 2003 Report Share Posted May 9, 2003 Fox, Sil and UWOMED2005, through which bank did you get those lines of credit? Is the interest at prime? I talked to a rep at CIBC who said they only give $15 000/year to med students, so I'm looking at other options and would appreciate any information you (or anyone else on the forum) has to give. thanks! Blackbird Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chieka Posted May 9, 2003 Report Share Posted May 9, 2003 Tantastic, you'd be surprised at the number of students with loans equal to or greater than yours. Many students take financial aid. Even at the UWO, the so called "rich students' school," 40% of students were on financial aid. Far from ALL of these students go into professional schools, yet they still manage to survive somehow. Remember that you will not be expected to pay off your entire loan as soon as you start working. They take a portion of it regularly, over time. Plus, the Ontario government offers loan forgiveness if your loan is over a certain amount ($7K, I believe), and gives out Millenium bursaries to reduce the debt load. You can find more info on their website. Lastly, you are likely eligible for need based awards and bursaries at your university. UWO was pretty good with this, but you have to show financial need (ie have applied for OSAP). In short, relax, there are loads of students in your situation (myself included). I'm sure you'll survive. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fox Posted May 9, 2003 Report Share Posted May 9, 2003 Hi Blackbird15 I got my line of credit at the Royal Bank. I applied for 35/year, but the max you can get is $125 000 over four years, so I am getting $31,250 each year. They have a line of credit designed especially for med students. But I am pretty sure every bank has this, because I have friends who had a line of credit through CIBC and got about the same as I got. Maybe the person you spoke to didn't realize they had one for med students. There is a LOC for professsional students (education etc) and the max for that is $15 000. Lucky for this line of credit because OSAP is estimating I will get only $3000. That won't even cover one semester of tuition! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted May 10, 2003 Report Share Posted May 10, 2003 CIBC isn't very good for lines of credit. Neither is TD-Canada Trust. Royal Bank, Bank of Montreal and Scotiabank are all worth a look at. The Royal plan, though, is misleading as the $125,000 they lend includes ALL debts, including OSAP. If you run up even a moderate amount of OSAP throughout your medical degree and undergrad, you're better off with the $100k ($25k/year) Scotiabank and Bank of Montreal offer. I think they are all at prime. But there's a new kid on the block. MD Management, a subsidiary of the CMA has just set up a new line of credit for CMA student members (membership is about $20 to both the CMA and OMA, giving you sweet deals on insurance, free CMAJ and a bunch of other perks.) This line of credit is worth $30,000/year for all 4 years PLUS doesn't include OSAP PLUS you can borrow an extra $40k ($10k/year for four years) in residency. And it's all at prime, including during residency. . . which is NOT true of the other banks (as far as I know) and you don't make principal payments until after you graduate. The downsides of the MD Management plan is that you need CMA membership (which you don't get until Sept 1st year meds) and the plan is through citibank which means if you use this as your only banking option you don't really have any access to bank machines that don't charge fees. What I'm planning to do is keep my preexisting Royal package intact, but borrow all my money from citibank. What I'd recommend is signing up with your favourite of RBC/BMO/Scotiabank and then exploring the MD Management plan when you get to med school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fox Posted May 10, 2003 Report Share Posted May 10, 2003 I don't understand what you meant by the $125 000 from Royal Bank including OSAP.... I applied for OSAP and the Royal Bank didn't say anything about OSAP counting towards the LOC. Are you talking about later when you want to consolidate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted May 10, 2003 Report Share Posted May 10, 2003 No - trust me, if you borrow OSAP, you won't be eligible for that full $125,000 they said you would be. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't overly enthusiastic in trying to get that message across. When I first signed up with Royal, they said I could get $125,000. They even gave me $23,000 in first year and then $30,000 for second year. The problem came at the end of second year when I tried to line up my finances for third year. . . all of a sudden I could borrow up to about $92,000 on the Royal Bank LOC, as the rest of the $125,000 would be OSAP. On another note, do you know what your interest rate will be in residency on the Royal Bank LOC? It surprises me how few of my classmates are aware of this, probably because RBC isn't extremely eager to advertise their LOC. Last I checked Royal Bank bumps the interest rates up once you hit residency. I'm not sure how much, but I've heard it's prime +2%. That's why I'm so impressed (at the moment) with this MD Management package. . . $30,000 per year NOT INCLUDING OSAP and the interest rate doesn't increase once you hit residency. Apologies if I sound like a salesman for MD Management. . . maybe it was that charity golf tournament I just attended that was sponsored by them. Thanks crackers! But seriously, I think the MD Management package is at least worth checking out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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