Cost of living in Cork

[j_belle]

Hi everyone, I'm pretty new at posting here. Seems like everyone is very friendly and helpful. I'm a Canadian applicant and I have recently received an offer from Cork. I'm just wondering how much the living cost will be per year. Also does anyone know whether us Canadians will be able to work either on campus or off campus in Ireland?
I am looking into student loans from various sources right now so any advice in regarding to where I should get loans would be greatly appreciated! I'm not sure if most people survive there by loans alone or are they relying on their parents for some support and if so how much should I ask from parents.

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[Jocks]

Hi everyone, I'm pretty new at posting here. Seems like everyone is very friendly and helpful. I'm a Canadian applicant and I have recently received an offer from Cork. I'm just wondering how much the living cost will be per year. Also does anyone know whether us Canadians will be able to work either on campus or off campus in Ireland?
I am looking into student loans from various sources right now so any advice in regarding to where I should get loans would be greatly appreciated! I'm not sure if most people survive there by loans alone or are they relying on their parents for some support and if so how much should I ask from parents.

Hi J_belle,

I'm a canadian heading to dublin next year and I'll be funding using mostly loans with a little bit of help from my parents. I just signed for a Medical Student Line of Credit from RBC. It really is an amazing product and I couldn't find any other bank that matched RBC's terms. As for how much you should ask from your parents? Well you'll have to talk to them...lay out the costs and see how much they are willing to help.
Oh, and where are you from? I'm kind of curious where everyone will be coming from next year.

Cheers,
Jocks

 

[j_belle]

Hey Jocks, thanks for your post. I'm from Ontario. I was at RBC this morning and your are right they do seem to have a good product but it is definitely not going to be enough. Are you applying to other loans because the RBC guy I talked to said that if I was applying additional loans from other private institutions (ie. not from government) there might be a chance that I might not get the 150000 from them.
Has anyone got both CanHelp and RBC loans and if so did you still received 150000 from RBC? Oh and still need an approximation on the cost of living in Cork. Thanks guys!

 

[Unch]

Congratulations. Maybe we'll see you at a/the Canadian house party next fall?!

Cost of living is pretty high in general in Ireland though a little less in Cork than in Dublin. If you choose to live in the University-owned student residences, I think it's in the ballpark of 400E per month for the room plus some for utilities. If you share a house, you might pay a similar amount. Food costs really depend on your tastes but average a bit more than at home (assuming exchange rates stay somewhat constant). You'll be getting info from the International Student Office and their materials include details about many specific costs (better than I could here). I guess a rough estimate might be something like a minimum of $50,000 Cdn per year including tuition (which will run about $35,000 this coming year) but then that's a pretty modest budget for fun stuff, pubs, travel etc.

As for working, international students are allowed to work up to 20 hours/week and many do. There are a number of jobs (like the morgue attendant) that get passed from med student to med student! Watch and pray that the Canadian dollar continues to improve on the Euro (up at least 10% since last fall).

 

[Unch]

Oh yeah...
Text books are actually cheaper over here!

 

[Arb]

Can you get both the CanHelp Loan and a private RBC loan for medical students?

 

[j_belle]

Congratulations. Maybe we'll see you at a/the Canadian house party next fall?!

Cost of living is pretty high in general in Ireland though a little less in Cork than in Dublin. If you choose to live in the University-owned student residences, I think it's in the ballpark of 400E per month for the room plus some for utilities. If you share a house, you might pay a similar amount. Food costs really depend on your tastes but average a bit more than at home (assuming exchange rates stay somewhat constant). You'll be getting info from the International Student Office and their materials include details about many specific costs (better than I could here). I guess a rough estimate might be something like a minimum of $50,000 Cdn per year including tuition (which will run about $35,000 this coming year) but then that's a pretty modest budget for fun stuff, pubs, travel etc.

As for working, international students are allowed to work up to 20 hours/week and many do. There are a number of jobs (like the morgue attendant) that get passed from med student to med student! Watch and pray that the Canadian dollar continues to improve on the Euro (up at least 10% since last fall).

Wooo... Canadian house party sounds great!
"Morgue attendant" .... eeeehhhh... Me sitting in a quiet and dark hall of the morgue at night..... the thought of it alone is making me shiver...

Thanks for the info! I was thinking of maybe bring books for Steps, I guess that is not needed right?

 

[Unch]

Many (including me) like to have Step 1 books early-on so you can follow along with how the material will later reappear when you see it in the Step1 exam. Also a good way to increase the variety of perspectives from which to look at the same material.

 

[Sage880]

You can work as much as you want in Cork - I worked longer weeks and no one ever said anything. Working in first or second year is definetly do-able. One word of advice, if you're looking at loans, I'd stick to OSAP (free money!!) and the rbc line of credit (prime - just have to pay off the interest) and stay the heck away from CanHelp. More like CanScrewU. It's quoted as prime+1 but there's fees for EVERYTHING so the effective interest rate is horrible. Actually really horrible. RBC says they max their line of credit at 150,000 (I think) but I have been told that if you need some more and are doing well (ie. have made it to 4th or 5th year) then it won't be a problem.

Just some advice! See ya around Cork.

 

[jay026]

Hi, I know this thread is kinda old...but I'm in the same boat this year with Cork. Is there anyone graduated or close to graduating from Cork, who'd care to put up roughly what the total cost of all 4 years was (everything included)? I'm estimating the costs to be roughly $300,000 CDN after all 4 years are done! My parents can't help much , cause my sister is also starting university (undergrad this fall) in Canada. So, with the RBC LC ($150,000) and OSAP with a few grand per year, its all coming up well short of the amount. I would need at least another $100,000 CDN, I doubt I could make that amount working part-time?? Any other avenues besides the above and CanHelp for money?

 

[Badkarma25]

canhelp (teri) loans are pretty brutal but if you need them, you need them. i've heard several people say that RBC will up the 150K a bit if you need it but they basically laughed me out of the bank when i suggested it. maybe i'm not in as tight with my banker as i should be. i know that if you get your parents to cosign they'll give you more

 

[med2UCC]

Hi, I know this thread is kinda old...but I'm in the same boat this year with Cork. Is there anyone graduated or close to graduating from Cork, who'd care to put up roughly what the total cost of all 4 years was (everything included)? I'm estimating the costs to be roughly $300,000 CDN after all 4 years are done! My parents can't help much , cause my sister is also starting university (undergrad this fall) in Canada. So, with the RBC LC ($150,000) and OSAP with a few grand per year, its all coming up well short of the amount. I would need at least another $100,000 CDN, I doubt I could make that amount working part-time?? Any other avenues besides the above and CanHelp for money?

Well, I'm at the end of the 5 year program and I currently owe $320,000.00 for the 5 years (but my tuition would have been less than yours is going to be in the graduate entry program). My sources of funding are: a) One CanHelp loan for $25,000.00 in 1st year - they turned me down after that b) the RBC line of credit to the tune of $150,000.00 c) CSL's (OSAP to you Ontario-centric people) to the tune of $30,000.00 d) a non-repayable-as-long-as-I-honour-my-contract loan of $45,000.00 and finally another RBC line of credit co-signed by my now very white haired parents for $70,000.00, necessary as RBC laughed long and hard when I asked for more money after 3rd year despite the fact that two separate loan officers had assured me on at least 2 separate occasions that more money was not a problem once I burned through the initial $150,000.00 (and despite the fact that I was in the top 10% of the class). I worked for one year as a warden and earned about $10,000.00 that year but it wasn't much fun.
Really though, you can get through. If I had known what financial hurdles I would be confronting before I came here I probably would have stayed home, but I am going to graduate in a couple of months and am going home for residency. I don't know anyone who has had to bail because of the money, you just have to be creative and willing to work and willing to work the system. If you are wiling to work in an underserviced community start approaching them now to see if someone will sponsor you after the first couple of years. I had an offer of $70,000.00 from a place in Northern Alberta in exchange for 2 years Return of Service and only turned that one down as the deal in Nova Scotia came along and was more appealing (less money but also no Northern Alberta, closer to family). Good luck,
M