How are you guys paying?

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graham_cracker

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Hey guys! New to SDN here.

I see there are quite a few Canadians studying or going to study at an Australian medical school. Anyhow, I want to know how are you guys paying for this? OSAP only gives $14,000 a year so I will have to take out a bank loan... Are some of you on bank loans as well? How much did you manage to get? I lived in Sydney for 2 years (2012-2014) on a working holiday, actually just down the street from Sydney uni lol, on Wilson Street, but back in Canada now finishing my degree and going to apply for Sydney uni med. I really want to spend my life there, plus my friends over there are more family than my family here... I have a couple of friends who are willing to do de-facto with me (be in a relationship for visa/PR). Should I try and apply for this before I apply for Sydney Uni? Maybe I'll have a chance to get commonwealth support place... I hope this give me an advantage when applying because I lived in Sydney and want to spend my life there, and also my flatmates are making sure I can have my room back when I move back, which is a 5 minute walk to the Darlington campus lol!

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Hey guys! New to SDN here.

I see there are quite a few Canadians studying or going to study at an Australian medical school. Anyhow, I want to know how are you guys paying for this? OSAP only gives $14,000 a year so I will have to take out a bank loan... Are some of you on bank loans as well? How much did you manage to get? I lived in Sydney for 2 years (2012-2014) on a working holiday, actually just down the street from Sydney uni lol, on Wilson Street, but back in Canada now finishing my degree and going to apply for Sydney uni med. I really want to spend my life there, plus my friends over there are more family than my family here... I have a couple of friends who are willing to do de-facto with me (be in a relationship for visa/PR). Should I try and apply for this before I apply for Sydney Uni? Maybe I'll have a chance to get commonwealth support place... I hope this give me an advantage when applying because I lived in Sydney and want to spend my life there, and also my flatmates are making sure I can have my room back when I move back, which is a 5 minute walk to the Darlington campus lol!

I lived with two Canadian guys my first year at UQ.

The first guy had tens of millions of dollars, flew seat 1A on every flight, and went through a Chivas blue label every week.

The second guy was a from a standard family was only able to get a maximum of ~$80,000 from the Canadian government for his four years here, I believe. He and his family paid the rest of the tuition out of pocket. I remember this was tough on him (whereas I, as an American, was fortunate to receive ample loans every year), but yet again, he won't have a ridiculous sum to pay back with interest.

If you go anywhere overseas you're likely going to end up paying quite a few things out of pocket.
 
Hey, I'm also a Canadian looking at going to Australia! Sucks that OSAP gives us so little... Looks like if I end up going I'll have to take out a bank loan as well... I've briefly looked at a couple banks websites and I've seen a few threads on here before and it seems like you can get like $200k in a line of credit. I know that I won't be needing quite that large of a loan, but it would be nice to see how long its taken others to pay off theirs.
 
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I will be getting a student line of credit from either CIBC or TD bank. Usually, Canadian students are able to secure a loan of up to 250 K with a co-signer. My parents will not be supporting me financially. My spouse and I will most likely rent a place during the course of my education.
 
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I shopped around at a few banks. National Bank had a pretty good rate and they don't require you to pay interest while in school, it just accumulates and you start paying once residency starts. TD has the worst rates of them all. RBC had a fantastic rate as well, if I remember correctly it was 2.5-2.8% prime, and medical loans will only pay prime, rather than prime + percent like TD. I haven't checked with BMO yet, but I think it'll be pretty good as well. My parents are separated and aren't paying either, though my mom will co-sign with me and try and help as much as she can, and my dad doesn't really give a **** about my life lol. I'm just scared if I don't get enough to cover the 4 years of tuition... I'm sure I'll still have to work like a dog on top of the billion hours a night of study so I can put food in my always hungry stomach...
 
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A friend of a friend from BC is studying at Queensland Uni, and he says it'll probably take him about 5 years to pay back $250k (working residency in aus)... I guess just keep renting cheap, take public transit to work and we can pay it off fast!
 
could you guys consider working whilst over here, to reduce how much you have to borrow? student visas allow you to work i believe
tutoring is a common job, as is reguluar old grocery store and other crappy jobs
cost of living is pretty high here, but thats cause we pay people more

also sharing an apartment or flat is a great way to save money, in sydney a three bedroom might be around $1000 per week for a cheapish one so splitting it three or more ways is good if you dont mind sharing a room,

also if you are in a major city you could always share a costco membership amongst people and buy cheaper stuff that way, you can deffs feed a human on less than $100 a week even $50 if super frugal

and once you hit intern year you earn $60,000 ish and then it goes up each year as you train

if you have other degrees you might be able to part time in that field, i know a guy with a science degree that has a lab job whilst doing med
 
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