BACK-TO-DEBT?
Studies find most university students are so stressed about money they would make big sacrifices, even — gulp — beer,
Ian Gibson didn’t sign up for this: five years for an undergraduate degree, working summers clearing trees and stocking shelves, and an estimated debtload of $45,000, with limited job prospects, when he’s done next year. Even sadder: he’s not alone. “I’ve had conversations with my friends about it and we’re freaking out,” says Gibson, 22, who is heading into his last year of an economics degree at Carleton University.
“We don’t have careers lined up. We just have jobs,” he says.
At the moment, Gibson is working 50-hour weeks at two summer gigs, one in waste management for the city of Kingston and the other at Costco, where for the last four summers he’s done everything from manning the deli to running the cash register.
“I don’t want to be earning $13 an hour as a cashier when I graduate, and I don’t want to be 32 and still paying off OSAP,” notes Gibson.
Although most young Canadians are working hard to prepare for the post-secondary school year, a recent survey by Tangerine bank showed that investing in the future comes at a cost. Sixty-four per cent of students reported that they have student debt, and 27 per cent of these students reported that their debt load is over $10,000.
A new RBC poll shows that the vast majority of students are worried about future job prospects and earning enough money to stay in school and pay off student loans. It also shows that their parents are more worried about the future happiness and earning potential of their college- and university-age children.
The problems for Gibson started when he switched majors after his first year, moving from engineering to economics. He says his parents budgeted for four years of his rent in Ottawa instead of five, so over his final year of studies it will be particularly tough to make ends meet.
Students saddled with debt said in the survey that they are willing to make big sacrifices to clear their balances: 80 per cent reported they would actually give up beer for their entire undergraduate degree if it meant they would graduate debt-free.
“I definitely would agree with that,” said neuroscience major Whitney Martin, 21.
She found it hard just to find a summer job to save up for her last year at Carleton. And she doesn’t know where she’ll get the coin for her planned graduate degree from the University of Toronto or McGill University.
“I applied to 40 full-time jobs in Ottawa this summer and I didn’t get one of them,” she says.
Martin works part-time as a receptionist at Royal Lepage and makes money as a teaching assistant through the summer months. She worked two parttime jobs during the last school year, too.
A new CIBC poll found that 51 per cent of post- secondary students tapped their parents for additional financial support last year because they ran out of money.
And according to the bank, there wasn’t much difference between students from higher- or lower-income families.
The CIBC poll found that 73 per cent of students say they will need to work during the upcoming year to cover their school expenses. It also found that among students working this summer, nearly half (45 per cent) are making $11 an hour or less, and 60 per cent are working parttime hours.
As for the debt Martin faces from OSAP at the end of her studies, she says: “I realize it’s not going to go away for a while.”