one of the things i had to consider before applying to an offshore medical school is how much more it would cost, compared to canadian schools.

that, and how the heck was i planning to pay for it??

surprisingly, MUA‘s tuition is actually quite reasonable. with a favourable exchange rate, their ~$7000US/semester is pretty close to UBC’s ~$7000CDN/semester. and $500/month (utilities included) for a single occupancy dorm near the campus may seem a bit steep, but i was paying $700/month (utilities not included) for a shoebox bachelor apartment when i lived in vancouver last year.

while every little bit helps, it almost doesn’t matter if caribbean and canadian tuition and accomodation are close. all the travel and extra costs associated with “resort island life” push the balance against MUA over UBC any day. in broad strokes, my overall budget for the 3 years is around $150,000.

holy crap.

yesterday, i decided to test one of the rumours i had heard floating among friends and online forums. word on the street claims that Royal Bank of Canada will give you a $150,000 student line of credit* when presented with an acceptance letter from a foreign medical school. i have been an RBC client since 1997, but have a couple of canceled credit cards from 9+ years ago and virtually NO credit (or assets) since then. i wasn’t sure i would qualify.

but it doesn’t hurt to ask, right?

sure enough, less than 30 minutes later, i’m well on my way to an extremely generous line of credit without a co-signer. what’s more, i was surprised at how differently they treated me as a “medical student” compared to the “regular ol’ unemployed student” i had been for 6 years on-and-off. RBC apparently even has fancy service packages available only to medical and dental students.

all this special treatment reminded me of a conversation i had with a nursing student in fort st. john. i have taken the archives down, but will re-post that part of the entry…

[originally posted to medschoolblues.com on february 15th, 2005]

as a bit of a side note, a nursing student arrived in the residence today. her room is easily half the size of mine. since she is staying two months and i’m only here for two more days, i told her she should move in here.

her response: “oh no. this is a medical student room. us nurses don’t get rooms like this.”

apparently she has done some training all around the north and it has been the same everywhere. medical students get “wooed” and get special treatment. nurses get whatever is left over.

how sad. how very freaking sad. especially after the HUGE role i saw the nurses play in the OR today. doctors couldn’t live without them. they should get more respect.

after four years of what has felt like a steep uphill battle in my personal academic career, i’m extremely thankful for the few things that go smoothly. i’ve only made it to base camp, remember? i’ll need to conserve as much energy as possible along the way if i’m going to plant my flag on the summit.

on that note, i’m off to plan my budget. shopping for textbooks is the best thing EVER. even better than (*gasp*) shoes in my books. weird?

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*at prime +1% interest on the balance used and the ability to defer payments until 12 months after residency.

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