How are you financing Irish Medical School?

[snobunny]

RCSI

46,500 Euro Tuition and Fees
x 4 yrs (GEP)
____________
186,000 Euro

add in living expenses of 16,000?? Euro/yr = 64,000 Euro
for a grand total of 250K Euro!!!!

Help! How are you all planning to finance this (or any of the Irish Medical Schools)? Are your parents paying? Private loans?

US Stafford Loans are only $20,500 US/yr @ 6.5% interest and all the GradPLUS loans I saw were at 8.5% interest. Are you taking out all $350K US (or Canadian) with GradPLUS (or equiv) loans?

Any insight is appreciated!

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[alexc]

good start for a new post.
As I answered in the other post I will say, I found that BMO and Scotia Bank have the best terms for line of credit interest rate is Prime (2% at the moment) and you don't pay interest until after you graduate. RBC and TD offer prime + 1% and you pay interest throughout. This is for Canadians obviously. I checked in the US and I was shocked at how high the interest is. I don't think we will use a line of credit in the end but Canadians have it easier on the interest but obviously are big losers on the loonie/Euro front. Our dollar is in the toilet.

 

[Adam M]

Are there really not any students out there with any ideas?

How much can you get from Canada/provincial student loans? Surely more than 5,000-6,0000, as mentioned on the atlantic bridge website is available?

 

[Drwanabe]

i'm very curious as well, any canadians find other avenues besides the 150000 line of credit, because as we all know you probably need 150000 more.

 

[Adam M]

a 150,000 line of credit would only cover a year and a half, maybe 2 if you were living in a box, only eating bread... plus you have to pay interest on it continually, making it not the greatest option to put huge amounts on

are there no options for big loans here in canada?

 

[pattycanuck]

are there no options for big loans here in canada?

Unfortunately, the $150k IS THE BIG LOAN /LOC .... In Canada, this is what most medical students require over 4 years and these LOCs are not geared for the massive costs of tuition (alone) of C$35-70kpa from 4-6 years. The big bank market is geared towards Canadian medical school students and not Canadian IMG student candidates ...

Unless you can secure some of the American Stafford Loans as above to help make a dent, there are really only two other options (self or combination):

1) a) Bank of Mom and Dad
b) inheiritance
c) remortgage something from the Bank of Mom and Dad (their house/buisness, etc.)
2) Work for a few years at a good paying job before starting med school abroad

The above choices are examples what the vast majority of students did around 1998-2003 while going to Ireland: One guy's family took out a LOC AGAINST their family business; one guy worked at his old MBA job during the summers to make some cash, one girl had an inheritance; many had the Bank of M&D help out to some percentage, etc.. ***

Unfortunately since those years, the dynamic shift towards higher fees from EUR20k-ish at the time with the rising exchange rate (then 1.4C$ and now 1.75C$ per EUR) have really limited options for those who want to go to med school at least in Ireland.

At that time, it was cheaper to attend an Irish school than an American med school .... looks like the tables have turned

*** BTW, at that time, we as IMG students were not even given the privilege of accessing these $150k loans so I guess that relatively equals things to now; I only accessed my $150k LOC when I got back and signed on as a resident ... that is how we got proverbially financially "scr*wed".

 

[Adam M]

Ya, I am starting to learn that basically everyone who is in Ireland from Canada is doing it off of inheritance or having their parents pay for it... I would never be stupid enough to go half a million dollars into debt by the time I am 26, I am just trying to wrap my head around how some people do it.

For getting Stafford loans as a Canadian, is all you need an american cosignor? or are there other ways to get them? I'm looking into going to the states a lot more recently, but haven't looked a whole lot into how financing works down there.

pattycanuck - if you don't mind me asking, how did you end up paying? If you didnt have a LOC available, did you use the bank of M&D?

 

[pattycanuck]

pattycanuck - if you don't mind me asking, how did you end up paying? If you didnt have a LOC available, did you use the bank of M&D?

Mom and Dad forecasted money saving for my tertiary education from the day I was born - so I was very fortunate that the amount saved was enough to supplement the loans I received from personal/private and public (provincial and federal) loans.

Not sure of the Canadian - American co-signor Stafford loan scenario. Never thought of it myself as I have uncles and aunts in the US, but wouldn't consider them close enough to co-sign for such a large loan.

Guess this is the new added weeder-out for Canadians who want to be doctors - brains AND money.

 

[JPR22]

Hmm, If I had half a mil at my disposal, Im not sure Id want to blow it all on med school. With that kinda money you could buy your way into a canadian/US school. On the other hand maybe all the canadians in Ireland are millionares.

 

[pattycanuck]

Hmm, If I had half a mil at my disposal, Im not sure Id want to blow it all on med school. With that kinda money you could buy your way into a canadian/US school. On the other hand maybe all the canadians in Ireland are millionares.

Ohhh far from all of us being millionaires ...

 

[pattycanuck]

Of note, there was one guy from the US who was a few years ahead of me - came in 1996. His parent had a small amount of money and they bought a small place in Ireland for him - if you've done your homework, those years were boom years in the housing market.

In short upon selling the house, he not only made up what he paid for the house, he also made enough for 1) to recuperate his tuition AND living expenses and 2) he made a small profit to boot.

Some are just more fortunate than most of us on this board.

 

[sowmy]

Financing RCSI, is the one thing that is keeping me from sending in that deposit. It is an exorbent amount of money.
However, i am getting a BSC/MD degree is 5 years, a very shrot time
and mathametically calculated, I am making money 3 years earlier, which kind of compensates for the half a million dollar debt I will be in.
As for financing
150K loan from the bank
and the rest, from the bank of mom and dad.

 

[JPR22]

Financing RCSI, is the one thing that is keeping me from sending in that deposit. It is an exorbent amount of money.
However, i am getting a BSC/MD degree is 5 years, a very shrot time
and mathametically calculated, I am making money 3 years earlier, which kind of compensates for the half a million dollar debt I will be in.
As for financing
150K loan from the bank
and the rest, from the bank of mom and dad.

So you have 350K in cash. Why not just donate it to a Canadian schools, under the condition that you get accepted. Net savings 150k + interest.

 

[jenl]

You want a guarantee that you will spend the rest of your life as a physician? RCSI looks good. A new GP opened near me in Ontario and billed fee for service $350,000 in his first year. RSCI is a lot of money but in the end will you be poorer than your Canadian counter-part? And you will have had a great opportunity living in a European capital, making international connections.

 

[sowmy]

So you have 350K in cash. Why not just donate it to a Canadian schools, under the condition that you get accepted. Net savings 150k + interest.

What do you mean? I dont get it?
Canada wont give me the certainty of getting in. I wish.

 

[jenl]

What I mean is that RCSI IS a guaranteed thing. Grab life by the horns.

 

[sowmy]

Yes, but RCSI will still be there four years later,
but a chance at undergrad, and potentially getting into a CAD med school wont be.
When weighing it out, all that money and not even giving it a shot in Canada doesnt seem right to me.

Any other suggestions? I'd love to hear from people

 

[JPR22]

I like the philosophy of grab life by the horns. But this is really risky. If you work hard in undergrad, volunteer,make a large donation to the med school do research, and ace the MCATs, you stand a very good chance of being admitted to a canadian school.
Spending 500k+ going to Ireland is risky! Where will you go after graduation? Compete with hundreds of other Irish grads, and thousands of IMGs for the relatively few carms spots for IMGs? Will you try to stay in Ireland where they currently have a glut of physicians, and give preference to EU citizens? Or try going to the US and get in line behind the ever increasing # of US grads,as well as US citizen IMGs, plus dealing with the whole visa issue? And if none of those work, how will you pay back your loans?
You've been warned.

 

[sowmy]

Exactly!
My problem with RCSI is that it's too much money for something that's not even that amazing. I mean, in the end, Im still an IMG.
Atleast if I do undergrad here, I can recognize how much potential I have. worse to worse, i bomb the mcat and suck at life. But I think its a risk im willing to take, because in the long run, if I can get into a CAD med school, it'll all be worth it.
I'd be willing to pay 100,000 every year at a CAD school any day.