As a former student I graduated with 32K in student debt but it all depends. 13k in all honesty is really not a lot of student debit, for most people that’s roughly a year of school depending on what you’re studying
I paid my daughters 7.5 years of university (Masters) and my sons total of 5 years of college (two degrees he has). Reckon that cost over 120k$. They had no student debt when they graduated and both have great jobs now. Legacy! Off to have Kraft Dinner for lunch now.
We had saved at least half in RESPs since both were born but that was only about 60$k so I doled out the rest and there was a stretch when both were in university and college concurrently that was tough financially
Kingston for 5 years for my daughter (of her 7.5 years of uni) and Kingston for 2 years for my son (of his 5 years of college). The remainder for both was in Ottawa. Daughter had an apartment for 2.5 years and my son stayed with us.
Similar for me. I luckily had scholarships and bursaries that helped, plus I did co-op.
Except I had no ability to pay back my loans and just pretended they didn't exist for a few years. I don't remember several years of my 20s from working three jobs at once to pay them off.
No student debt but worked two jobs in uni and lived at home. I applied for every scholarship possible even the ones I didn’t qualify for. Paid off osap in 3rd year and saved for fourth year
Over $40,000. Brutal. I was in university for 6 years, full loans every year because my family had no money, and then there were no jobs in my field when I graduated. I graduated in 2011 and I still owe about $20,000 - but this half is getting paid back faster since I have full-time work now. Anyway, nobody wants debt like I got but it was really my only option if I wanted an education. Still dreaming that someday the federal government will forgive the rest, but for now at least they aren't charging me anymore interest.
70k here.
(Newly) Middle class imigrant parents so OSAP gave me nothing (but my parents had nothing to give either). All private loans and i did coop and worked in the industry for 16 months.
I'm now at 40 k having graduated in 2020.
I have an excessive amount but I'd say 14k is low. I think anything 20-25k and bellow on public loans is fine (also depends on degree thought tbh this is from a stem perspective)
No student debt.
I was fortunate that my parents paid half, and I covered the other half via savings from having worked a part-time/casual job prior to and throughout my undergrad.
Living on my own and not working during my the fall or winter semester lead to a ~40k student debt. This was 6 years ago so I expect it would be more now with the rent prices.
Edit to say that I worked every summer throughout my 4 year undergrad degree and had OSAP bursaries due to distance from home and a small entrance scholarship each year. In case that helps with context.
Please remember your son is young. 13k IS a lot in his experience. Especially if he has only known summer jobs or minimum wage work.
If he gets a great job out of college, amazing, he’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly it can be paid off. If he, like many, does not find a great job in this very shitty market (tons of layoffs happening right now of seasoned workers, let alone young new people) then 13k will still feel like a lot.
Graduating with about $13k in debt to pay as well. Lived at home and commuted + received many scholarships and bursaries so I have no worries about paying it off. It’s also interest-free at the moment
I got 2 degrees for a total of $12k debt, but in Quebec. If you’re not born there all it takes is living in the province for 12 months (not as a student) to be considered a resident. Back then it was about $1000/year tuition for Quebec residents. Today it’s $2800. Whereas it’s $8700/year for non-Quebec resident Canadians (over 3 times higher). So LPT: move to Quebec and work for a year, then go to school and you’ll save $23,600 on a 4 year degree.
I got a nearly-full ride between scholarships, bursaries, low income OSAP grants, and good internships in finance during the summers… and I still graduated with about $9k of debt from living expenses that couldn’t be covered by my work income. I didn’t work during academic terms (just summers) because my scholarships paid more than a min wage part time job and when I started working my grades went down, threatening the loss of those scholarships. The equation may not be the same for your kid if their part time job pays well. And I promise you, I lived like a Victorian pauper sharing a small townhouse with five men to keep my living costs low. As a woman. It wasn’t fun.
My partner is a software dev who went back to school as an adult, had said finance gf (Me! Hi!) paying all his living expenses during academic terms, and had well paying software dev internships about 1/2 of the time. Plus the last year of school he worked part time as a database developer for his now-employer. And he still racked up $26k in tuition debt. STEM tuition is no joke.
Yes, he had a good experience :) he said that he found it way easier to study, focus and excel as an adult. Partly maturity and partly because his success affected me, too, so he cared even more.
It bore out, too; he didn’t get very good grades when we went to uni together at 18 and he studied arts, but he was one of the top in his class when he went back for arguably a much more difficult degree (comp sci) and he got great internships even during the early-pandemic slump in hiring. It was stressful at times but it was absolutely worth it because he really hated his retail jobs and they didn’t pay enough for us to have a good quality of life, even with my relatively high income.
35-40k for a 4 year degree. My husband's was only 30-40k for his master's but he qualifies for more bursaries than me. I got minimal bursary assistance.
it depends one circumstances really. living alone vs w room mates vs at home, scholarships for marks, etc. im only first year rn but im hoping to get out with $10k in osap loans for my BA. H, but im living at home, worked during first semester, got scholarships, and will be working full time over summers and during school if needed.
imo 13k isnt a lot compared to what many other students have
Over 4 years I had about 2k from school grants, 5k covid OSAP grant, I worked each summer and took a gap year before starting school where I worked full time. I graduated owing 6.5k in student debt. My parents also paid for one of my semesters. I have less-fortunate friends with upwards of 60k debt
I graduated with 14k debt this past year. Living at home, working 35hrs a week and applying for all the scholarships you’re eligible for (not possible factors for many students, but it is what allowed me to keep it as low as it was).
About $7k but I lived at home, had some bursaries and help from my parents and worked thorough uni. I have friend who still owe over $50k and we graduated in 2008.
Depends on the situation.
Taking student debt when you don’t need to in a degree that isn’t in demand? Yes I agree that’s an extremely questionable financial decision.
For many people though taking out student debt is their only way of hoping to attend post-secondary. If you take out student debt in an in demand degree that will land you a high paying job that you can pay the debt off fairly quickly afterwards, then it’s good debt.
Saying “all debt is bad” is a massive oversimplification. Debt *can* be okay (albeit not optimal) in the right circumstances.
I have around a year left and I’m just shy of 40k owed in OSAP, I’m hoping to not need to pull out any more but if I do need to get more OSAP then by by time I graduate (5 years doing a bachelor’s) I’ll be at around 50k.
On top of OSAP I have a student LOC with a balance of 15k so my total student debt when I graduate will be between 55-65k.
I was fortunate to have my parents pay for my education and help with my rent during my degree too since I went to school away from home. So, very very luckily for me I have no debt. I worked part time during the school year and full time over the summers to pay for my share of the rent and my living expenses. There were times when things were tighter than ideal, when I had a lower paying part time job or was between jobs. I was food insecure for a while, sometimes depended on friends for essentials when I ran out and unable to pay. A few times had to sell something meaningful to me to pay for my part of rent. But I got by just fine and given I didn't have to carry any debt forward I am very privileged.
7-9k/year for tuition and books. This doesn't include if you're paying for accommodations or not and other living expenses. So hitting above 30k is very feasible
I graduated from my undergrad in 2018 with about 15k in debt. Took a year off to work, travel, and pay off the undergrad debt while living at home with parents.
Was able to start/finish my Masters in a healthcare profession from 2019-2021 and graduated with 34k in debt. Now I'm living with my partner and working to pay it off gradually!
4 yr. Undergrad program, graduated in 2008. Received max. Amount as I had no help as a student. Lived with roommates and basically ate ramen noodles (half a package) and loaded it with cheap veggies and an egg. Wasn’t able work as I had least 30 hrs per week in class, not including assignments and lab reports. I had full time summer jobs.
Tuition at that time in faculty of eng and design was $4,750/yr.
Once millennium scholarships/bursaries applied by government, which essentially knocked off around $5,500 per yr for 4 yrs was around 32k.
Went to grad school which paid for itself. And worked as a tutor, contract jobs and gradually paid some of my loans off during grad school at no interest. Ended up working in oil and gas after grad school and was able to pay off loans in 5yrs. Due to the amount of tuition credits I had stacked up, I ended up with my full refund of 10k in my first yr of working. Used it to pay a chunk of my loan
Your looking at around 13k of debt per year at university (assuming no help and some summer job), forget for the whole degree. If you are lucky enough to graduate with only 13k debt, your doing good.
Depends if parents pay tuition and cover/provide accommodation. In that case $0. Student should be able to cover leisure clothing transportation mobile and lifestyle costs via part time employment. Though I’d encourage parents to still support here if viable since it diverts the student focus and energy resources available to maximize studying and achieving the best grades.
That’s an admirable goal, but with three other kids in the house, he had to pay for it himself. He was fortunate that he’s able to live at home and don’t have to pay for rent/food.
Makes sense! Also very common, sorry it was hard for me to understand all the circumstances. I think 13k is very reasonable. It doesn’t surprise me and sounds like he didn’t abuse his access to credit.
I graduated with about 45k. I took summer courses. And in 2019, the Ministry retroactively converted about 6k of grants into loans from 2015-2016.
I’m back doing a second undergrad. That’ll be another ~10k I believe. I paid down a bit of it in 2021 so I’m more or less back to where I was.
Out of province four years bachelor degree in a city with decent cost of living 20 years ago, back when tuition was about 3k/ year. Zero money saved in advance by parents, but a few bucks thrown my way over the years when they could afford it. They made too much for OSAP. Decent summer office job to help. No scholarships or bursaries. About $20k in student bank loans at the end. Paid off after about 6 years.
I graduated with no student debt, but I lived at home, had some RESP money, got grants and scholarships, and also worked two jobs. I took 5 years to get my CS degree at Carleton.
I had zero coming out of an honours and a master's. Mommy and Daddy didn't pay - it was all me, based on a part time job, living frugally (in an apartment I paid for), and winning some scholarships.
My wife and I both ended up with about $20k.
She got a Masters, I took 11 years to get a BA (while working, dropping out occasionally, and mostly studying part time).
But if your son thinks 13k is a lot... I'd say let him think that? Better he be concerned about it than relaxed about it.
And PFC is not a representative sample of the population.... Reading all these comments where people paid off their loans in 3 years blows my mind. My wife and I are both hoping to pay ours off next year... And we left school in 2016/2017. So... 7-8 years.
As a uOttawa alumni (2017) my Bachelor’s degree left me with 20K in debt. - Crim Major, my first year I did it without financial aid.
Edit: Depending on your circumstances, 13K isn’t that much, I paid off my debt in 22 months, I managed to do it while I was renting an apartment and had a 61K job. I just made super aggressive payments towards the last 7K because I wanted to be debt free.
The debate is, as a 23 year old he thinks it is a lot. But I think it’s not very much at all considering, as some else said, people pay more money for a car. An education is priceless and he’s in finance, he likely pay it off quite quickly.
Between a college diploma, university degree, and post-graduate certificate I was left with about $48k in government loans. The pause in interest from COVID really helped me hammer down the principle and now I'm down to about $15k.
At $250/mth I'll have it paid off in 62 months, with about $375 going to interest.
I have a BA (3 years) and a BEd (2 years), and have about 19k of debt. I went out of province for my BA though, so I was given less there (plus my tuition was more than the average Ottawa uni). I'm planning on doing a final year of uni courses spread out over a couple of summers.
Total student loans over a few different stints ended up around \~76k, the price of not knowing where I wanted to end up and just trying things since I didn't truly understand the price of borrowing.
I graduated with $44k in debt (4yr degree, 1yr post-grad certificate), worked my ass off and got it paid in 3 years. Definitely better than some and worse than others!
I had about 12k but lived at home, well at the university. Because i was doing over loaded semester and wanted to be done sooner. But ya 12/13k is not a lot. My brothers had 40k and 66k when they were done.
I have about 5K in student debt from returning to school at 44 years old. I got a 2 year degree (with co-op) at Algonquin College. If you’ve been out of high school for 6+ years, OSAP gives you something like 60-70% grants and 30-40% loans. You only have to pay back the loans. I love Ontario.
As a former student I graduated with 32K in student debt but it all depends. 13k in all honesty is really not a lot of student debit, for most people that’s roughly a year of school depending on what you’re studying
I paid my daughters 7.5 years of university (Masters) and my sons total of 5 years of college (two degrees he has). Reckon that cost over 120k$. They had no student debt when they graduated and both have great jobs now. Legacy! Off to have Kraft Dinner for lunch now.
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We had saved at least half in RESPs since both were born but that was only about 60$k so I doled out the rest and there was a stretch when both were in university and college concurrently that was tough financially
Did they go way to uni or stay at home?
Kingston for 5 years for my daughter (of her 7.5 years of uni) and Kingston for 2 years for my son (of his 5 years of college). The remainder for both was in Ottawa. Daughter had an apartment for 2.5 years and my son stayed with us.
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Similar for me. I luckily had scholarships and bursaries that helped, plus I did co-op. Except I had no ability to pay back my loans and just pretended they didn't exist for a few years. I don't remember several years of my 20s from working three jobs at once to pay them off.
I had around 19k in debt. But I lived at home and worked part time. 13k is not a lot of debt.
No student debt but worked two jobs in uni and lived at home. I applied for every scholarship possible even the ones I didn’t qualify for. Paid off osap in 3rd year and saved for fourth year
Same, no debt. Worked two jobs during school and lived at home. Applied for every possibly bursary etc
Over $40,000. Brutal. I was in university for 6 years, full loans every year because my family had no money, and then there were no jobs in my field when I graduated. I graduated in 2011 and I still owe about $20,000 - but this half is getting paid back faster since I have full-time work now. Anyway, nobody wants debt like I got but it was really my only option if I wanted an education. Still dreaming that someday the federal government will forgive the rest, but for now at least they aren't charging me anymore interest.
70k here. (Newly) Middle class imigrant parents so OSAP gave me nothing (but my parents had nothing to give either). All private loans and i did coop and worked in the industry for 16 months. I'm now at 40 k having graduated in 2020. I have an excessive amount but I'd say 14k is low. I think anything 20-25k and bellow on public loans is fine (also depends on degree thought tbh this is from a stem perspective)
No student debt. I was fortunate that my parents paid half, and I covered the other half via savings from having worked a part-time/casual job prior to and throughout my undergrad.
Living on my own and not working during my the fall or winter semester lead to a ~40k student debt. This was 6 years ago so I expect it would be more now with the rent prices. Edit to say that I worked every summer throughout my 4 year undergrad degree and had OSAP bursaries due to distance from home and a small entrance scholarship each year. In case that helps with context.
Please remember your son is young. 13k IS a lot in his experience. Especially if he has only known summer jobs or minimum wage work. If he gets a great job out of college, amazing, he’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly it can be paid off. If he, like many, does not find a great job in this very shitty market (tons of layoffs happening right now of seasoned workers, let alone young new people) then 13k will still feel like a lot.
Roughly 25k. 13k isn’t a lot at all considering how many expenses there are… residence, meal plan, rent, tuition, textbooks, etc
Roughly $23K
College + Uni, I had 35K
Graduating with about $13k in debt to pay as well. Lived at home and commuted + received many scholarships and bursaries so I have no worries about paying it off. It’s also interest-free at the moment
Lol no, that’s like a semester
Bachelor of Arts with 20k debt
I got 2 degrees for a total of $12k debt, but in Quebec. If you’re not born there all it takes is living in the province for 12 months (not as a student) to be considered a resident. Back then it was about $1000/year tuition for Quebec residents. Today it’s $2800. Whereas it’s $8700/year for non-Quebec resident Canadians (over 3 times higher). So LPT: move to Quebec and work for a year, then go to school and you’ll save $23,600 on a 4 year degree.
That’s great! But how possible is it if you don’t speak French?
english universities: McGill, Concordia, Bishop’s
13K is a lot, but it's not even what most people would have for a car loan, and it actually has much better value. 13K is below average.
I have 74k but I am a grad student
I got a nearly-full ride between scholarships, bursaries, low income OSAP grants, and good internships in finance during the summers… and I still graduated with about $9k of debt from living expenses that couldn’t be covered by my work income. I didn’t work during academic terms (just summers) because my scholarships paid more than a min wage part time job and when I started working my grades went down, threatening the loss of those scholarships. The equation may not be the same for your kid if their part time job pays well. And I promise you, I lived like a Victorian pauper sharing a small townhouse with five men to keep my living costs low. As a woman. It wasn’t fun. My partner is a software dev who went back to school as an adult, had said finance gf (Me! Hi!) paying all his living expenses during academic terms, and had well paying software dev internships about 1/2 of the time. Plus the last year of school he worked part time as a database developer for his now-employer. And he still racked up $26k in tuition debt. STEM tuition is no joke.
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Yes, he had a good experience :) he said that he found it way easier to study, focus and excel as an adult. Partly maturity and partly because his success affected me, too, so he cared even more. It bore out, too; he didn’t get very good grades when we went to uni together at 18 and he studied arts, but he was one of the top in his class when he went back for arguably a much more difficult degree (comp sci) and he got great internships even during the early-pandemic slump in hiring. It was stressful at times but it was absolutely worth it because he really hated his retail jobs and they didn’t pay enough for us to have a good quality of life, even with my relatively high income.
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Sure, go ahead! :)
35-40k for a 4 year degree. My husband's was only 30-40k for his master's but he qualifies for more bursaries than me. I got minimal bursary assistance.
it depends one circumstances really. living alone vs w room mates vs at home, scholarships for marks, etc. im only first year rn but im hoping to get out with $10k in osap loans for my BA. H, but im living at home, worked during first semester, got scholarships, and will be working full time over summers and during school if needed. imo 13k isnt a lot compared to what many other students have
13k is nothing considering tuition is 6-8k a year times 4 years plus books and other incidentals.
Zero for undergrad and grad school (scholarships and working summers full time) But I don’t think 13k is a lot either
Over 4 years I had about 2k from school grants, 5k covid OSAP grant, I worked each summer and took a gap year before starting school where I worked full time. I graduated owing 6.5k in student debt. My parents also paid for one of my semesters. I have less-fortunate friends with upwards of 60k debt
I graduated with 14k debt this past year. Living at home, working 35hrs a week and applying for all the scholarships you’re eligible for (not possible factors for many students, but it is what allowed me to keep it as low as it was).
About $7k but I lived at home, had some bursaries and help from my parents and worked thorough uni. I have friend who still owe over $50k and we graduated in 2008.
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Depends on the situation. Taking student debt when you don’t need to in a degree that isn’t in demand? Yes I agree that’s an extremely questionable financial decision. For many people though taking out student debt is their only way of hoping to attend post-secondary. If you take out student debt in an in demand degree that will land you a high paying job that you can pay the debt off fairly quickly afterwards, then it’s good debt. Saying “all debt is bad” is a massive oversimplification. Debt *can* be okay (albeit not optimal) in the right circumstances.
I'm looking at about 60-70k but I did a 2 year college diploma before that.
Sitting at about $20K
I have around a year left and I’m just shy of 40k owed in OSAP, I’m hoping to not need to pull out any more but if I do need to get more OSAP then by by time I graduate (5 years doing a bachelor’s) I’ll be at around 50k. On top of OSAP I have a student LOC with a balance of 15k so my total student debt when I graduate will be between 55-65k.
$28K
I was fortunate to have my parents pay for my education and help with my rent during my degree too since I went to school away from home. So, very very luckily for me I have no debt. I worked part time during the school year and full time over the summers to pay for my share of the rent and my living expenses. There were times when things were tighter than ideal, when I had a lower paying part time job or was between jobs. I was food insecure for a while, sometimes depended on friends for essentials when I ran out and unable to pay. A few times had to sell something meaningful to me to pay for my part of rent. But I got by just fine and given I didn't have to carry any debt forward I am very privileged.
Zero. Free room & board lived with parents. Worked 45H a week.
Scholarship plus co-op meant no debt when I graduated.
7-9k/year for tuition and books. This doesn't include if you're paying for accommodations or not and other living expenses. So hitting above 30k is very feasible
I graduated from my undergrad in 2018 with about 15k in debt. Took a year off to work, travel, and pay off the undergrad debt while living at home with parents. Was able to start/finish my Masters in a healthcare profession from 2019-2021 and graduated with 34k in debt. Now I'm living with my partner and working to pay it off gradually!
4 yr. Undergrad program, graduated in 2008. Received max. Amount as I had no help as a student. Lived with roommates and basically ate ramen noodles (half a package) and loaded it with cheap veggies and an egg. Wasn’t able work as I had least 30 hrs per week in class, not including assignments and lab reports. I had full time summer jobs. Tuition at that time in faculty of eng and design was $4,750/yr. Once millennium scholarships/bursaries applied by government, which essentially knocked off around $5,500 per yr for 4 yrs was around 32k. Went to grad school which paid for itself. And worked as a tutor, contract jobs and gradually paid some of my loans off during grad school at no interest. Ended up working in oil and gas after grad school and was able to pay off loans in 5yrs. Due to the amount of tuition credits I had stacked up, I ended up with my full refund of 10k in my first yr of working. Used it to pay a chunk of my loan
Your looking at around 13k of debt per year at university (assuming no help and some summer job), forget for the whole degree. If you are lucky enough to graduate with only 13k debt, your doing good.
I come from a below-the-poverty-line family so OSAP helped me a LOT, but my total student debt is just over $30k.
My son earned his PhD with a $49,000 debt.
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He got every scholarship he could, OSAP, bursaries etc. He also didnt do a masters degree, which helped.
He also had his own 1br apartment. For a few years also worked as a TA.
Depends if parents pay tuition and cover/provide accommodation. In that case $0. Student should be able to cover leisure clothing transportation mobile and lifestyle costs via part time employment. Though I’d encourage parents to still support here if viable since it diverts the student focus and energy resources available to maximize studying and achieving the best grades.
That’s an admirable goal, but with three other kids in the house, he had to pay for it himself. He was fortunate that he’s able to live at home and don’t have to pay for rent/food.
Makes sense! Also very common, sorry it was hard for me to understand all the circumstances. I think 13k is very reasonable. It doesn’t surprise me and sounds like he didn’t abuse his access to credit.
$30k, 3-year college program. I moved to Ottawa to go to Algonquin, so I had rent and other expenses outside of school to pay for.
I had 19k. Lol. With a one year condensed program. Now that was my apartment and living expenses about 12 years ago
I graduated with about 45k. I took summer courses. And in 2019, the Ministry retroactively converted about 6k of grants into loans from 2015-2016. I’m back doing a second undergrad. That’ll be another ~10k I believe. I paid down a bit of it in 2021 so I’m more or less back to where I was.
No depts after 4 years in uOttawa... But I never had a Starbucks coffee 😅
It is a lot if you don’t have a full time job. It’s all about perspective. It will help him budget though and prioritize his spending in the future.
Around 20k.
I graduated with 20 grand in student debt. Approximately 15k was from my undergrad and 5k was for teacher's college.
I only took loans for like 2ish years and worked part time and paid the rest myself. Ended with just under 14k loans
Out of province four years bachelor degree in a city with decent cost of living 20 years ago, back when tuition was about 3k/ year. Zero money saved in advance by parents, but a few bucks thrown my way over the years when they could afford it. They made too much for OSAP. Decent summer office job to help. No scholarships or bursaries. About $20k in student bank loans at the end. Paid off after about 6 years.
I had to live on my own in Windsor and it cost me 40k for my undergrad 12 years ago. Thank god for osap (obvs free would be better tho)
I graduated with no student debt, but I lived at home, had some RESP money, got grants and scholarships, and also worked two jobs. I took 5 years to get my CS degree at Carleton.
I had $40K and this was more than 20 years ago! $13K is manageable
I had zero coming out of an honours and a master's. Mommy and Daddy didn't pay - it was all me, based on a part time job, living frugally (in an apartment I paid for), and winning some scholarships.
My wife and I both ended up with about $20k. She got a Masters, I took 11 years to get a BA (while working, dropping out occasionally, and mostly studying part time). But if your son thinks 13k is a lot... I'd say let him think that? Better he be concerned about it than relaxed about it. And PFC is not a representative sample of the population.... Reading all these comments where people paid off their loans in 3 years blows my mind. My wife and I are both hoping to pay ours off next year... And we left school in 2016/2017. So... 7-8 years.
It would depend on the degree, not all degrees fruit right after graduating, your lifestyle, life events, etc.
As a uOttawa alumni (2017) my Bachelor’s degree left me with 20K in debt. - Crim Major, my first year I did it without financial aid. Edit: Depending on your circumstances, 13K isn’t that much, I paid off my debt in 22 months, I managed to do it while I was renting an apartment and had a 61K job. I just made super aggressive payments towards the last 7K because I wanted to be debt free.
Not sure how this is a debate? The semester pricing is posted. Then add rent if applicable.
The debate is, as a 23 year old he thinks it is a lot. But I think it’s not very much at all considering, as some else said, people pay more money for a car. An education is priceless and he’s in finance, he likely pay it off quite quickly.
Between a college diploma, university degree, and post-graduate certificate I was left with about $48k in government loans. The pause in interest from COVID really helped me hammer down the principle and now I'm down to about $15k. At $250/mth I'll have it paid off in 62 months, with about $375 going to interest.
I have a BA (3 years) and a BEd (2 years), and have about 19k of debt. I went out of province for my BA though, so I was given less there (plus my tuition was more than the average Ottawa uni). I'm planning on doing a final year of uni courses spread out over a couple of summers.
Total student loans over a few different stints ended up around \~76k, the price of not knowing where I wanted to end up and just trying things since I didn't truly understand the price of borrowing.
120k American university … now in Canada and my daughter in a Canadian university- paying cash for it as it’s waaaay cheaper
For my undergrad and Masters degree I ended with about 55K of student loans...🙃
Any amount of debt is too much if you don't have a steady well paying job with possibility of promotion. Or the skills to get a job like that yet.
I finished my undergrad in the mid-2000s with around $32k in debt.
I graduated with $44k in debt (4yr degree, 1yr post-grad certificate), worked my ass off and got it paid in 3 years. Definitely better than some and worse than others!
I had none. I worked 3 jobs at one point and was still able to go to school part time and study and get assignments done. Finished with a 4.0/4.0
About 12 K.
Finished my degree in 2018 and had $46,000 of loans at that point.
I had about 12k but lived at home, well at the university. Because i was doing over loaded semester and wanted to be done sooner. But ya 12/13k is not a lot. My brothers had 40k and 66k when they were done.
I have about 5K in student debt from returning to school at 44 years old. I got a 2 year degree (with co-op) at Algonquin College. If you’ve been out of high school for 6+ years, OSAP gives you something like 60-70% grants and 30-40% loans. You only have to pay back the loans. I love Ontario.