Financing Med. School 2008

[Dr Spike Hilton]

Hi,
If anyone has any info on what institutions offer the best deals for medical students please post. I have only looked at the packages from rcsi-aib and UL-Ulster bank and UL students get the better deal it seems. I'm hoping for rcsi or ucd but Ill need to borrow fees+rent+living expenses so if I'm lucky and get a place, I will have a mountain to climb to get financed.

Spike.

[Echani]

One of my classmates went about arranging a better deal for funding in RCSI, considering the one initially offered in comparison with UL's was fairly crap. I'll see if I can get her to post up the details.

[kjskathryn]

Typed out the whole thing, then lost it, so if it reappears on the board, sorry for 2 replies!!

Long story short: next year RCSI and AIB will be matching the package offered by Limerick. However, I would very much encourage anyone applying to RCSI to contact them and ask them why, with the comparatively higher costs of living, they aren't offering a better package. We're also trying to push for getting repayments deferred a year a graduation to let people get financially stable. The GEPs were able to get the €25k package offered relatively easy (with threats of a 30% dropout rate if it wasn't offered) and if new applicants start expressing to the college the feeling that if they can only match Limerick, it is a more viable choice, the college WILL get the bank to improve the deal.

Full details of the package haven't been worked out yet, but the bank has agreed to put together a competitive deal as good as Limerick's.

[Dr Spike Hilton]

wow, thanks for that.

When you say next year, do you mean this coming September?

I was just about to type that I will write to them when the package is announced but then I googled rent in Limerick city and see there is not -too- much between rent in Limerick and Dublin . Anyway, it will probably be announced after we accept any offers, so we can only threaten to drop out rather than go to Limerick.

Thanks again for that.

Spike.

[kjskathryn]

It will definitely be in place by september, and this is what my email from the college stated

Mr Sheehy assured us that the bank would respond on the two issues of
(1) interest rate to be competitive with the Ulster Bank offer
(2) size of the loan to be increased to €25,000

[CatherineT]

hi guys - here to pester you further - know that i have the Limerick "money info" somewhere, but moving house at the min, and can't quite put my finger on it - can any of you get the link from the Limerick web - it used to be there as far as I can remember - I'm going to be totally self funding, nightmare!

Cheers
Cat

[Dr Spike Hilton]

Hi,
I found that link:
Ulster Bank Financial Package - Medical School - University of Limerick

That suggests the loan is a lot less than 25k pa for UL so if rcsi can get us the 25k pa at the same rate then that should be okay:
12k fees and 6.5k rent leaves just over 120 euro a week for food and whatever you're into; workable I guess.

Spike

[CatherineT]

you know hsbc offer personal "Professional" loans of £25,000 total - know it's not ideal to be taking out more money - but the option's there if need be - again, might not be allowed to borrow from one if you have from the other - but possible. You folks in the South eligible to borrow from the Students Loan Co - cos that's an option too (scuse my ignorance) - know that if you're from the North you can

[superdoc1]

The GEPs were able to get the €25k package offered relatively easy (with threats of a 30% dropout rate if it wasn't offered) and if new applicants start expressing to the college the feeling that if they can only match Limerick, it is a more viable choice, the college WILL get the bank to improve the deal.

When you say 25k package do you mean that they got 25k per year for the four years of the course? It seems UB offer around 18.5k in comparison. Are the interest rates similar?

The 25k package certianly sounds better than the ''fees only'' loan on the RCSI website.

Deferring payments for a year is a good idea too I think. Thanks for the info

[kjskathryn]

Yes, it's €25000 per year, which divides pretty equally into fees and living (ie, utilising low cost airlines to escape at every given opportunity!)