Cost of an MD Student

When thinking about medical school, you must take into account the expenses you will incur:

Educational Expenses – these are for the most part, set costs associated with your education. They will include more than just your tuition, books, and supplies, but also your student fees, health & dental fees, accident/disability insurance fees, annual CPR course. Please see the chart below for estimated amounts of educational expenses for each medical year.

First and second year expenses are very similar to your first undergraduate degree costs because you will be mainly attending classes at The Life Sciences Centre at UBC and then at The Diamond Health Care Centre.

In third and fourth year there will be unanticipated costs & expenses that are involved with your rotations, clerkships, and CaRMS interviews. Please contact the Student Financial Assistance Officer for these details.

NOTE: Don’t forget about the time in between each medical year, a lot of students are working, participating in research, or volunteering either at their distributed sites, across Canada, or overseas and it is very important to budget for these situations.

1. The Faculty expects tuition to remain close to $16,081for 2012/2013. However, further increases may be implemented by the UBC Board of Governors. Any increase is likely to be much less than that which has occurred over the period of 2002 to 2005.
2. Textbook costs can be reduced through the purchase of used books and the use of library reserve holdings.
3. Student fees are quoted for students remaining at the VFMP site for the 4 years of their education but can be considered an estimate of fees for those students in the IMP or NMP. Students in the IMP and NMP programs will be charged the respective UVic and UNBC student fees and will either be exempt from or compensated for the UBC student fees that they will not benefit from. IMP and NMP students will have affiliated student status at UVic and UNBC respectively, and will have access to student representation and services (i.e. UVic/UNBC student society, health services, athletics) at their respective sites. All student fees will be collected by UBC.
4. Although enrolment in the AMS extended health and dental plan (or equivalent) is not required past 2nd year it is strongly recommended that this coverage is continued.
5. Travel costs can be substantially different depending on where electives and CaRMS interviews take place.

Living Expenses

Are based on the StudentAid BC Moderate Standard of Living Allowances (MSOL); these may or may not reflect your actual level of spending. (Remember, these numbers are based on living costs across the province, not just Vancouver.) Please see the chart below for BC living costs.

There are numerous living expenses that a student can have depending on their situation. I highly suggest developing a budget to prepare for yourself for the next 4 years of medical school. Budgeting can be a complicated and cumbersome task, if you need advice or information on any budgeting strategies, please don’t hesitate to contact the Student Financial Assistance Officer.

StudentAid BC Moderate Standard of Living Costs

**can be found on pg 303 of the 2011/2012 SABC Policy Manual