Part 1: Average student graduates university $37,000 in debt
With ever-increasing tuition fees, textbook costs and rent expenses, some students are starting to question whether a degree is an affordable option.
According to the Canadian Federation of Students, the average student in Canada graduates university with a debt load of $37,000.
Tyler Valiquette is already above that mark.
The University of Guelph student is $42,000 in debt and plans to graduate this spring.
To stop that number from climbing even higher, he’s taken a part-time job – even though it means less time to study.
“Either my schooling has to suffer or my bank account has to suffer,” he explains.
But Valiquette may be one of the lucky ones.
Dominica McPherson of Guelph’s Central Student Association says some students ultimately have no choice but to give in to financial pressures and leave the school entirely.
“We have students that can’t complete their degrees and are dropping out,” she says.
Others follow the path of Roisin Lyder, who worked every summer and most semesters to keep earning money for tuition and other expenses.
Lyder was able to complete her degree, but it took her six years to finish a four-year program.
“I changed my major, I dropped a course here and there, and so at that point I really started increasing the amount of hours I was working in order to try to make ends meet,” she says.
Ontario’s tuition fees are the highest in the country, having risen at three times the rate of inflation over the past 20 years.
The province has responded by capping annual tuition increases at three per cent.
Speaking to reporters after introducing the measure in March, Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Brad Duguid said the goal was to strike a balance between making tuition affordable for students and affordable for schools.
“We want to make sure that while we’re reducing the future burden for students, we also have to balance that off with ensuring we continue to have a globally competitive post-secondary education system,” he said.
It’s a measure that may help future students, but graduating students like Lyder will be paying off their tuition bills for years to come.
“Hopefully I can pay off my debt in less than 10 years,” she says.
Part 2: Repaying student debt can take over a decade
Six years ago, Karyn Shantz signed up for an 18-month course in massge therapy.
It was a return to school after a long time away for the Wellesley woman.
As it turns out, ‘a long time away’ is also how she’d feel about when she could pay off the student loans she took out to afford tuition.
“I knew I would have to go through OSAP,” she tells CTV.
“Being married, a couple of kids, a mortgage – there’s not a lot of spare money.”
Shantz’s $15,000 loan falls well short of the $37,000 in debt the average student graduates with, according to the Canadian Federation of Students, but it won’t be until this fall – six years after she started the program – that it’s all paid off.
That loan doesn’t come without interest.
For a $20,000 student loan at three per cent interest and monthly payments of $200 per month – which are not Shantz’s terms – the loan would be paid off in about 10 years, but with more than $3,000 charged in interest fees.
Financial expert Pattie Lovett-Reid suggests configuring loans to shorter terms, as long as the higher payments are affordable.
“If you could reduce that to five years and you do that by doubling up the payment, go from $200 to $400 a month, you’re actually reducing your costs of interest down to about $1,300,” she says.
Despite the long repayment period and interest costs, Shantz says her loan was well worth it, because it enabled her to go back to school and ultimately help support her family.
“I didn’t regret it,” she says.
“I’m able to help with my family. I have my own business. I think, if it really is something you want to do, do it.”
Part 3: Awards, bursaries not just for students with top grades
After losing her job, Stacy Kraemer decided she wanted to try her hand at nursing school.
But unable to afford tuition on her own and not qualifying for students loans, she had to seek out alternative ways to fund her education.
“I was relying on OSAP, but when I realized I wasn’t going to get it, I just went from there and went with bursaries,” she says.
Applying for awards and bursaries was a last-ditch effort for Kraemer.
She figured her B+ average wouldn’t give her a great shot at two of the three she applied for, while the third gave preference to single mothers – and though Kraemer did have small children, she was happily married.
Instead, she netted all three awards, and $4,500 to put toward her tuition.
“I almost covered my tuition for the year with my scholarships, which is amazing,” she says.
It’s a result she never expected, and she says it may be due to most students not even bothering to apply.
“I think people are discouraged to apply because they think they’re not going to get it anyway,” she says.
Conestoga College financial aid and awards manager Patrick Bennett agrees that many students don’t realize how many awards are out there and how good their chances are of coming up successful.
“If you meet the eligibility criteria, it does not hurt to apply,” he says.
“The more you apply for them, the better chance there is that you’ll get something.”
Part 4: Waterloo students create company to help peers make ends meet
For most students, years spent in university or college aren’t about making money.
Tuition is the biggest financial commitment for students, but rent, textbooks and other expenses all add up as well.
Part-time jobs, summer employment, student loans and scholarship all help students afford the post-secondary life, but sometimes it’s still not enough.
That’s why a group of University of Waterloo students decided finding jobs for themselves was one thing, but finding jobs for other students could be just as rewarding.
They created uIntuition, a service which matches students looking for work with employers looking for help in certain specialized fields.
“The whole intention with uIntuition is to help students … so that they can work during their terms to help pay off their student debt,” says Nicole Papp, the company’s chief operating officer.
Papp and her co-workers benefit themselves from every student they’re able to find work for, though a sort of finder’s fee.
“It’s commission basis, we take 15 per cent before $150 for the job and then 20 per cent when it’s over $150,” she explains.
Students like Chandan Vitish say they don’t mind handing over that cash in exchange for jobs they’d have never found on their own.
“If it wasn’t for this I would be looking for similar opportunities myself, but they wouldn’t be so easy to come by as they are with uIntuition,” he says.
“(The pay) can be more than any co-op job that I can currently get can give.”
But it’s not just about money. Papp is quick to point out that students get plenty of other advantages in exchange for a portion of their pay.
“It’s essentially not only making the money, but building their resume and making sure they’re getting professional development at the same time,” she says.
Vitish is quick to agree, rhyming off networking, future job prospects and relationship-building as three other advantages of the service.
Tutoring, design and photography – the last of which is Vitish’s specialty – are just a few of the areas where uIntuition matches temporary employees and employers.
The company says it hopes to expand to other parts of Ontario before long.
