[Report] Brace Yourselves for This. Most BC Students Graduate Universities and Colleges DEBT FREE....

[Violator]

GF graduated university with no debt and her parents didn't pay anything towards it all she did was work part time no vacations and she took the bus.

[Down by the River]

Paying off graduate tuition seems to be a matter of applying at the right time for all available grants with a proposal that's potentially lucrative enough for people to care. Being in a reputable lab, and being a visible minority woman helps a lot too. Overall, I've been told it's rare to have to pay out of pocket for more than just a fraction of the cost. It could just be my field though

Edit: I would prefer graduate tuition to stay unreasonably high without competitive outside funding. Weeds out the mediocrity and prevents inflation of the value of a PhD.

This is especially true for grad programs in the social sciences. A bunch of overachieving undergrads who didn't know what to do with their life after, so they decided to do an MA just for 'kicks'. They then get to the program and flop.

[TOMapleLaughs]

I love the spin going on in this province right now.

We're the healthiest province? Yup.

Most of the students here are debt free? Yup.

Okay, cut healthcare and education spending. Again.

[drummer4now]

This is especially true for grad programs in the social sciences. A bunch of overachieving undergrads who didn't know what to do with their life after, so they decided to do an MA just for 'kicks'. They then get to the program and flop.

It happens in the undergrad level too..

[Buddhas Hand]

i am just finishing a graduate program, and i think only two or three people that i spoke to went into (more) debt, and that was probably only by about 5k, 10k at most. even me being a white male in the arts, i was able to find scholarships and have the school take off most of my tuition costs.

if you aren't a white male, there are loads and loads of scholarship opportunities to be grabbed. of course not everyone will get the big awards (like SHHRC), but there's still plenty to go around

[FramingDragon]

It happens in the undergrad level too..

For pretty much every single Bachelor's degree available. Arts gets a lot of flack but I think the sciences are most guilty of this. They've toned down the material so that it fast tracks the labourers to med school and the rest apply for MSc with one foot out the door waiting every year for an acceptance letter from dental or med.

The result is that all life sciences undergraduate courses then begin to revolve around medical school pre requisites and very little resources are spent preening the students looking to get deep into academia. When these same idiots apply for MSc they don't plan to stay around, publish mediocre theses and the value of the degree plummets

I recently applied to do a project in a lab, and I was competing with someone with a 4.0 GPA. This person made the mistake of saying he wants to go to med school and the PI dismissed him as a candidate right away.

[Warhippy]

I am sorry

I understand what he's trying to say.

But by and large there is no way and I do mean no feasible or possible way 70% of the college and university crowd in BC is getting out of school debt free.

If you're taking some namby pamby thing like arts or communications sure whatever. But any real degree or program is going to cost and I just cannot see how anyone going to school or who has family/children in school can believe these numbers.

I agree with a previous psoter who said this just smells like an excuse to raise tuition to crazy levels.

All while building a foreigners only building in one of the more prestigious campuses in the province.

[Down by the River]

I wonder if Fraser International College counts as post secondary. Its basically 100% foreign nationals who, from what I understand, are not going to be eligible for student loans to begin with.

Of students eligible for student loans, how many are in debt? That is what I would like to know. By debt, I mean any student who has borrowed money to pay tuition or deal with cost of living.

[Offensive Threat]

bout half my friends gradded debt free. I had 15K that I paid off in less than 2 years. I just lived like I did when I was a student for those first 2 years after grad.

[ckamo]

Paying off graduate tuition seems to be a matter of applying at the right time for all available grants with a proposal that's potentially lucrative enough for people to care. Being in a reputable lab, and being a visible minority woman helps a lot too. Overall, I've been told it's rare to have to pay out of pocket for more than just a fraction of the cost. It could just be my field though

Or go to a school that pays you to do research

Might be different for you since I remember you mentioning you'd like to go to the US for your PhD, but most research based degrees in Canada will pay you enough to cover tuition. If you TA on top of that, it's enough to live on (and save up if you're careful).

For the record, my parents set up an RESP for me that managed to cover roughly 4 years of my undergrad tuition (I took an extra year to study abroad), I paid the rest off working part-time during school, full-time in the summers and applying to scholarships. I guess I'll consider myself lucky I don't have student debt, I know lots of people who are knee-deep in it.

BTW, as someone who teaches undergraduate labs, I'm always a little tempted to mark a bit harsher on "pre-med" students when they try to grade grub with me. If you're going to be a future doctor, learn the material instead of begging your way into medical school.

[ilduce39]

Certainly didn't get out debt free, and I had my tuition and most of my rent paid via athletic scholarships and some other bursaries and side jobs... I never thought about it before but my student loan is pretty much one big bar tab.

Good times.

[taxi]

The reality is that many students are no longer getting that experience of living on your own in a different city. Fairly easy to graduate debt free if you have free rent and food from your parents.

[Brick Tamland]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/no-debt-for-most-b-c-post-secondary-students-says-andrew-wilkinson-1.2967311

Seriously. I spit my drink all over my monitor reading this. What a load of pure unadulterated BS this is. Seriously...are they literally only speaking of students from Asia who by and large have their tuition paid in full?

Here's the story

===================================================================

Very few students in B.C. graduate from post-secondary school with debt according to B.C.'s Minister of Advanced Education.

"We see that 70 per cent of students go through their higher education with no debt whatsoever," Wilkinson told The Early Edition's Rick Cluff.

"That's either through family means or from working part time. That's a very healthy figure."

He said those who do end school with debt have on average $10,000 debt for a college education, and about $20,000 debt for a university education.

Wilkinson was touting a new report from B.C.'s Ministry of Advanced Education that shows a post-secondary degree increases a person's earnings by an average of $827,000 over their lifetime.

• POINT OF VIEW Would free tuition work in B.C.?
• University tuition rising to record levels in Canada

Zachary Crispin with the Canadian Federation of Students' BC Branch said many people in B.C. still never have access to some of the programs with higher return.

"The fact of the matter is that the programs that have the highest return the medicine programs, the law programs, those sorts of things the tuition fees for those programs are significantly higher than most families can afford in this province," he said.

"There's no financial aid that truly assists people in going through these programs without incurring an immense amount of debt."

Wilkinson said the anecdotes about students going deep into debt don't match his numbers.

"We have this thesis out there that students are going $100,000 in debt to get an education. It's extremely rare that that happens."

To hear the full interview with B.C.'s Advanced Education Minister Andrew Wilkinson, click the audio labelled: Andrew Wilkinson says 70 per cent of post-secondary students graduate debt-free.

Impossible

[mpt]

I did 8 years of university, no help from anyone financially and I graduated without debt

[Down by the River]

I did 8 years of university, no help from anyone financially and I graduated without debt

What's your point?

[Caboose]

What's your point?

That it's possible.

I'm graduating high school this year and have about $7000 that I earned working the past 3 years part time saved already.

If you work while studying, take the bus, and live with your parents there is no reason for you to graduate with debt.

It becomes a lot harder if you're having to pay rent.

[etsen3]

The reality is that many students are no longer getting that experience of living on your own in a different city. Fairly easy to graduate debt free if you have free rent and food from your parents.

Was lucky enough to have this experience, and it is a valuable one. I think if I had just lived with my parents, took the bus to class, came back right afterwards, continued to have everything provided for me, and hung out with the same people I did in high school, I would be a completely different person and most likely a bigger loser. I'd be less confident, less responsible, less open-minded, less free, less smart, less cool, etc. Obviously it's not realistic in this day and age for everyone to do this, but if you can, I think the life skills gained from this type of experience is almost as valuable as the classes themselves.

[vavoom]

I graduated with only a small amount of debt. Did so by having worked 4 co-op terms and part-time. It is possible, but it was tough. My go to meal was a day old muffin and a small slurpee, $1.75 at the school convenience store. Sure, tuition has gone up since then, but the average student now carries smart phones, the latest Mac laptop, a tablet of some sort and $300 headphones. So there is also a bit of a spending issue as well.

[vavoom]

I graduated with only a small amount of debt. Did so by having worked 4 co-op terms and part-time. It is possible, but it was tough. My go to meal was a day old muffin and a small slurpee, $1.75 at the school convenience store. Sure, tuition has gone up since then, but the average student now carries smart phones, the latest Mac laptop, a tablet of some sort and $300 headphones. So there is also a bit of a spending issue as well.

[FramingDragon]

That it's possible.

I'm graduating high school this year and have about $7000 that I earned working the past 3 years part time saved already.

If you work while studying, take the bus, and live with your parents there is no reason for you to graduate with debt.

It becomes a lot harder if you're having to pay rent.

Baby Caboose is getting older :') Where have you applied/hoping to get into?

Was lucky enough to have this experience, and it is a valuable one. I think if I had just lived with my parents, took the bus to class, came back right afterwards, continued to have everything provided for me, and hung out with the same people I did in high school, I would be a completely different person and most likely a bigger loser. I'd be less confident, less responsible, less open-minded, less free, less smart, less cool, etc. Obviously it's not realistic in this day and age for everyone to do this, but if you can, I think the life skills gained from this type of experience is almost as valuable as the classes themselves.

I live with my parents and commute to UBC daily, work part time as well. If you go to a university that isn't Kwantlen (no offence to my Kwantlen bruvs), how is it possible to just be hanging out with the same people since high school? Forget high school, I don't even see the same people year to year as the degree gets more specialized (and with that, peoples' schedules).

I don't know what kind of social life you are prone to (some prefer to stick with tight knit groups), but I've had large dispersed circles that barely overlap since my first day.

This idyllic "live on your own, find yourself, find new friends" thing only makes sense if you go to another community college an area code over.

For what its worth, I would much rather accept parental assistance if they can afford it so that academic excellence pays off in the long run. I don't believe this makes socializing and experiencing "life" any more difficult unless by experience you mean frat parties and pub crawls.