Thread: Total cost per year(US currency) for basic sciences

To all students attending SC,

Just wanted to know how much per year is it to study at SC for basic sciences(in US currency). I know there is an amount on the website but wanted to know the grand total per year(school fees, textbooks, REASONABLE living, transportation costs). When I say per year, I mean from Jan-Dec which I believe is three semesters.

Thanks guys!

Tuition - $8000 USD/semester (it's more later on for clinicals I think, but I'm not there yet)

Textbooks - If you get every book on the list, new...it'll cost you anywhere from $600-$800 USD/semester. It's smarter to get used books and only if you NEED them...sometimes the books on the list can be replaced with better ones (get opinions) and class notes (you can buy them at school after a week of class or so) are sufficient along with handouts, lecture material, etc.

Transportation - We spend about $10 USD/week to get to anatomy lab by train (in London)... (5 pounds, 60 pence or so for round trip ticket)...this is a group rate (4 people), so cheaper... Everything in Luton itself is walking distance. I've taken a cab home a couple times to avoid walking home alone at 3-4 AM and it never cost more than 6 pounds to get 6 people home (up to 3, 4 diff. locations)

Living expenses - Maybe $20/week on groceries (10 pounds/week), my rent is 550 pounds/month...for a one bedroom (1 minute from school, on Park St.), utilities included and furniture (altho it's crappy furniture) included as well. If you share a house, you can pay anywhere from 200-300 Pounds for a room (I think this includes utilities and furniture and often internet and everything is already set up when you move in). There are studios and smaller 1 bedrooms than mine for 400 pounds and up...expect to pay that much if you want a decent place to live alone. I was desperate and in a hurry...so I ended up paying more. Maybe ~ 40 pounds/month for internet/tv/phone combo... and I have a pay-as-you-go SIM card, so I pay about 10 pounds every couple weeks to top up my account (otherwise I just text message a lot or use e-mail :P)

Basically...when you get here, you have to get out of the habit of converting pounds back to dollars. If you do that, you'll never want to spend any money because you'll always be thinking how broke and poor you are... the exchange rate sucks, but you have to get over it. At least you won't be stuck here forever :P

The main thing I dissagree with is food, we spent about 40 to 50 pounds a week per person and if you eat out it will be more than that.
Also going to London costs more out of a group, cheapest is 14 pounds return (28 USD) If you borrow most will need 24,000 for tuition, 1500 for books,
and about 20,500 to live there maybe less depending on what you spend, so you would need to borrow about $45,000 + or - but I think no less than 40,000 a year.

Wow..I've never spent more than 20 pounds a week on food :-P Maybe 40 the first time to buy all the essentials... Going out costs more, yes...but I try to keep that to a minimum. Boys eat a ton, so maybe that's why you spent more :-P And that was the train price per person to get to St. Pancras station (4 people group). The individual rate was around 11 pounds from what I remember. I was just there today!

ever heard of iceland (the store)

Originally Posted by smoohead

Wow..I've never spent more than 20 pounds a week on food :-P Maybe 40 the first time to buy all the essentials... Going out costs more, yes...but I try to keep that to a minimum. Boys eat a ton, so maybe that's why you spent more :-P And that was the train price per person to get to St. Pancras station (4 people group). The individual rate was around 11 pounds from what I remember. I was just there today!

11 pounds is one way to Luton not round trip, I just did several trips in Dec 05 and they had posters that said the fair was going up.
As far as 20 pounds, well if you eat ramen noodles and rice all the time sure but put in meat and coke, soft drinks, if you like to go out well come on even a McDonalds value meal is around 4 pounds (7.50 USD) so how do you live on 40 usd a week? I'd say more like 60 to 75 USD a week for that to be real. 275 to 300 a month is not that much money for all food including eating out.
BTW I shopped at TESCO and Iceland, they had the best quality prices, It's just not cheap to live in the UK, but bread, fresh bread was the cheapest I have ever seen, 0.45 to 0.80 pence a loaf.

Yeah but the bread lasts about 2 days here... no wonder it's cheap! :-P Living expenses just vary from person to person. I eat out 1-2 times a week at most and opt for places where I can get stuff that'll last me a couple days (like Indian food), so not Mcdonalds. And I still swear that it's ~ 6 pounds round trip (group rate) to get our bums to St. Pancras (I guess the prices haven't gone up just yet)...but we can agree to disagree ...Iceland is down the street from me. I think their prices are better than Tesco but Tesco has better stuff overall.

Wow...so no less than 40,000 a year. Yikes, I better talk to my loan's officer. Still need to pay off my undergraduate loan..hehe....

Thanks Whud and smoohead. Anyone else that wants to add to this?

Originally Posted by smoohead

Yeah but the bread lasts about 2 days here... no wonder it's cheap! :-P Living expenses just vary from person to person. I eat out 1-2 times a week at most and opt for places where I can get stuff that'll last me a couple days (like Indian food), so not Mcdonalds. And I still swear that it's ~ 6 pounds round trip (group rate) to get our bums to St. Pancras (I guess the prices haven't gone up just yet)...but we can agree to disagree ...Iceland is down the street from me. I think their prices are better than Tesco but Tesco has better stuff overall.

Just to be clear, Yep group is good deal, I'm older and over 25 do not get student passes for the tube an train, Also I was there with a family if you share a house with someone it is cheaper some cause you can split the internet costs and the rent/utilities. Still I think you need about 40k a year cause of the travel and other expenses. IMO