Financing Us Med School For Canadians

[JohnGrisham]

Yes, and that's a good point. A house that is completely paid off is a very nice thing to have! And that's why it's such a big deal to lose.

 

Did you know that UCLA has a full scholarship that is open to international students?

 

http://geffenscholarship.medschool.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=35

 

I mean, it's obviously a long shot. It is merit-based and there are about 33 of them. But, it's interesting to note that this sort of thing exists. 

 

They provide some pretty conflicting statements on a different page:

 

"International Applicants: In order to be considered for admission, applicants who are not U.S. citizens and who reside in this country on a student visa will have to provide sufficient guarantee of financial support for their educational needs. Due to rapidly diminishing sources of financial assistance, we must exclude students who are neither citizens of the U.S.A. or permanent residents from consideration for scholarship funds and other financial aid in the form of loans."

 

But yeah, can't hurt to apply! Never know if you have what a school is looking for, especially if you match their mission.

[rmorelan]

True, but i meant that not everyone is in a position where their family outright owns a house. Needless to say, if there's already a mortgage on it, you aren't going to be able to do that.

 

or hasn't used the LOC already in some way. Canadian household debit is at an all time high in part precisely because of these equity loans.

[uncharted1114]

UCLA claims that internationals are eligible for the David Geffen Scholarship, but if you look at the MSAR it shows data that UCLA hasn't interviewed any internationals for at least the last two cycles, so I wouldn't even bother applying. However, there are a few handful of schools that do have a record of interviewing international students and offer merit scholarships and/or need-based aid to them, so I would do some research beforehand.

 

I highly recommend that people purchase the MSAR from the AAMC website if they want to go down the US MD route. I saved some money by eliminating schools from my list that claimed to accept internationals but didn't actually interview any.

 

Also, as a data point, I will be attending a US MD program this coming fall, and I tried to apply for a student line of credit from TD Canada Trust with my parents as cosigners but we were denied. My parents then applied for a home equity line of credit from the same branch and they were approved, so I don't really understand why my student line of credit was denied. Just be aware that even though Canadian banks are pretty willing to extend these massive lines of credit to medical students studying in Canada, they seem to be more hesitant when it comes to students studying medicine elsewhere.

[JohnGrisham]

UCLA claims that internationals are eligible for the David Geffen Scholarship, but if you look at the MSAR it shows data that UCLA hasn't interviewed any internationals for at least the last two cycles, so I wouldn't even bother applying. However, there are a few handful of schools that do have a record of interviewing international students and offer merit scholarships and/or need-based aid to them, so I would do some research beforehand.

 

I highly recommend that people purchase the MSAR from the AAMC website if they want to go down the US MD route. I saved some money by eliminating schools from my list that claimed to accept internationals but didn't actually interview any.

 

Also, as a data point, I will be attending a US MD program this coming fall, and I tried to apply for a student line of credit from TD Canada Trust with my parents as cosigners but we were denied. My parents then applied for a home equity line of credit from the same branch and they were approved, so I don't really understand why my student line of credit was denied. Just be aware that even though Canadian banks are pretty willing to extend these massive lines of credit to medical students studying in Canada, they seem to be more hesitant when it comes to students studying medicine elsewhere.

That's odd! Really depends on what banker you get though too.

 

One was under the impression going to the US was on par with carribean/australia/ireland etc because those are the clients they are so used to extending loans on. Lectured me about how much risk it is to put on the bank, and that he would be "doing me a favour" blah blah. 

 

I obviously didn't continue the conversation with him further past the initial talk, just kept saying "oh okay..makes sense " "yes" "yes" until his sales pitch was over.

[uncharted1114]

Yeah, as far as I know, each individual branch decides whether your application gets approved or not, so maybe whoever was reviewing my application was having an off day or something.

 

My advice is to start planning and talking to banks early if you're thinking about studying medicine outside of Canada. Most of this information is not on their websites and a lot of banks won't offer the same LOCs to students studying outside of Canada. It wasn't until we walked into banks with my US acceptance letter and academic calendar in hand that we learned about how much each bank is willing to offer at what interest rate and whether or not there's a yearly withdrawal limit (spoiler: every bank we talked to had a yearly withdraw limit for students studying outside of Canada).

[makingfetchhappen]

UCLA claims that internationals are eligible for the David Geffen Scholarship, but if you look at the MSAR it shows data that UCLA hasn't interviewed any internationals for at least the last two cycles, so I wouldn't even bother applying. However, there are a few handful of schools that do have a record of interviewing international students and offer merit scholarships and/or need-based aid to them, so I would do some research beforehand.

 

I highly recommend that people purchase the MSAR from the AAMC website if they want to go down the US MD route. I saved some money by eliminating schools from my list that claimed to accept internationals but didn't actually interview any.

 

Also, as a data point, I will be attending a US MD program this coming fall, and I tried to apply for a student line of credit from TD Canada Trust with my parents as cosigners but we were denied. My parents then applied for a home equity line of credit from the same branch and they were approved, so I don't really understand why my student line of credit was denied. Just be aware that even though Canadian banks are pretty willing to extend these massive lines of credit to medical students studying in Canada, they seem to be more hesitant when it comes to students studying medicine elsewhere.

Well I am not surprised that the branch approved the home equity line of credit and not the student line of credit.

Having your parents as cosigners helps, but the bank still has no security. There is theoretically nothing preventing you and your parents  from liquidating any assets you have and leaving the country and never coming back . 

 

Of course most people wouldn't do this, but when you get into large sums of money, it actually does become a risk, lol. 

[rmorelan]

Well I am not surprised that the branch approved the home equity line of credit and not the student line of credit.

Having your parents as cosigners helps, but the bank still has no security. There is theoretically nothing preventing you and your parents  from liquidating any assets you have and leaving the country and never coming back . 

 

Of course most people wouldn't do this, but when you get into large sums of money, it actually does become a risk, lol. 

 

the only way I would expect the LOC to be approved is if they actually used the house anyway as collateral (or something else, or have extremely good incomes). Effectively then it would be a home equity loan anyway at that point.

 

and yeah that DOES happen, or they go bankrupt, or some other tragedy strikes. There are real risks here.