Battling that student-loan monster

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By Lauren Kennedy

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So now what? Within the next six months you are about to graduate high school and delve into the university or collage world.

First there comes the decision of whether to even choose to continue your education. Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing not to continue your education.

To be honest, it's probably a good idea to figure that out before you pay for something that might not be suited for you. It could be that university or community collage may not be the lifestyle for you, and that is okay.

Then comes the long process (if you do choose to continue post secondary education) of which school to attend and that requires hours of filling out application after application and scholarship after scholarship, bursary after bursary.

Finally comes the acceptance part and suddenly you are dumped into the life of a post-secondary scholar. After parties, late nights of studying, drinking bottomless amounts of coffee just to stay awake for a killer midterm, and making endless amounts of friends, you graduate and receive your degree or diploma.

Now what?

Do you accept that you are educated to your full extent and go out into the vast world and find work? Or do you carry on with education and pursue a Master's degree or even a PhD. According to Stats Canada most Masters degrees are said to take about two years and a PhD program four years but many students are taking longer than that.

Now, that is a simplified version of what happens, but for the most part, that is what it's like, with one key conflict: how are you going to pay for this education?

Those who choose to continue have some options. You rely on scholarships to help fund your education, use your hard-earned summer job money to put toward it, request some serious help from the family or sign your life away to student loans.

According to the Web site canlearn.ca a student attending CEGEP, trade school, college or university full-time today can expect to pay between $2,500 and $8,000 per year or more in tuition alone – and books, supplies, student fees, transportation, housing and other expenses will add to the total.

In fact, according to the federal government, full-time students in Canada paid $14,500 on average to cover a year of post-secondary expenses in 2003-2004. That's roughly $58,000 for a four-year program. Ouch.

I am one of those students who chose to go the student loans route, and while it financed me all through my four-year university bachelors' degree, it's what comes after that, that really hits you hard.

Student loans aren't necessarily a bad thing, there are even perks. Such as, if after graduation you stay in New Brunswick and work and pay income tax, you're eligible for a non-taxable rebate of 50 per cent of your tuition costs with a maximum lifetime rebate of $10,000.

That's a good thing.

A bad thing is that no matter where you are or at what point you are at in your life, they will find you and track you down once it comes time to repay, and that my friends is a scary but true reality.

May this serve as a warning for those owing the government loan repayments. If you are like me and decided to take some intersession classes, and thought that it didn't matter that you didn't let the federal and provincial governments know that you were taking these courses, and consequently you changed your scheduled graduation date, you are wrong! It does matter and I wasn't aware of that fact.

While it's sad to think that you need to let "the man" know about your life, it needs to be done because otherwise your loan repayments will come early and you'll be scrambling to pay that burdensome amount every month.

While I don't regret taking student loans I do regret the lack of information and guidance that comes along with them. Just make sure that you read the fine print carefully and know what you're getting yourself into before you jump on the post secondary bandwagon.