kaleidoscope83 said:
Future UTMB students (like me 🙂 ),
This might be a personal question (since it involves money), but what loan amount are you going to accept?
Current UTMB students,
I'd especially like to know how much current UTMB students take out in loans, and what you suggest for people who are going to be financing their medical education through mostly loans. Also, about how much would you say you spend per month (including everything - rent, tuition, bills, car stuff, food, school supplies)? For our first year, should we accept more than we think we might need, and then decrease the amount in later years if it turns out to be too much?
good question. here's my take.
Bottomline: don't be afraid to accept more loan than you think you will need, because at the end of the year, whatever money you have left over, you could just 'pay it back' right away.
For tuition, it's split into 4 installments per year (each being about $2,300) you could sign up for automatic installment/payment, or whatever, and the school will automatically deduct the tuition with your loan money and write you a check for the remainder amount.
For school supplies, the major thing is books. There are 'required' books for courses (talk to upperclassmen about which ones are actually 'required'), suggested books, and also review books that some may find useful to buy early on and use during the course (that way you'll be ahead when it comes to reviewing for boards), depending on your learning style or gunner-ness, this will vary. for the first year, i think i was spending something like $200-500 per course. (sometimes my books from college are the required books, or acceptable substitutes, and so i didn't bother buying some books) so dont be too quick to sell your college bio-related textbooks just yet.
the other major portion of school supplies is, for POM, we need to buy stethoscope(Littman Cardiology III is the recommended, which costs some like $125, you will need this for your POM clinical site visits, so you probably should invest in one) and ophthalmoscope (not everyone bought this, i debated long and hard whether to get this, in retrospect, it was probably not that necessary, and it's a hefty $350-$450+). There will be a sale in the bookstore in the fall, so dont get it yet.
i can't think of any other major school supplies cost, besides highlighters
🙂
oh, some people decide to invest in a laptop, which they could bring to class or PBL room. The classrooms are fitted with wireless internet, so get a laptop with wireless, so you could surf the net when the lectures get boring (jk), and although i dont see the need, i've seen those new nifty laptops that you can flip the screen 180* around and fold and write on the screen like a notepad. (but my pencil and paper cost a lot less)
rent/car stuff/food/bills will vary according to lifestyle, so i can't help you there. some of the cheaper ways to live are frats and UTMB droms. frat housing will provide you with meals for ~$300/month, UTMB dorms/apartment ~300/month, but no meals. If you look for your own condo/apartment, it'll be $500-600/month. if you cook, that'll probably be cheaper than eating out all the time.
(i've moved the bottomline to the top, in case nobody is interested in reading so much rambling)
i hope some of this helped.
