I started my four year degree thinking that I would owe $25,000, today I owe $50,000. 

From the time I started university, 09/01, to the time I finished, 04/05, tuition tripled, BC grants disappeared, gas went up by 35%, rent went up by 20%, house values have increased 20%, and food has increased by about 15-20%.  Most of these increases happened in two years.

Student loans didn't increase with the tuition levels so I reduced my course load and worked a part time job to cover the increased expenses.   This affected my studies and my grades dipped but I soldiered on.  I took summer courses because I wanted to get the degree finished in four years thinking that I still had a chance for loan remission.  Loan remission is no longer available.

Today I'm totally confused.  I want to buy a house, have children and help out in the local community but this seems to be a privileged dream now.  My minimum payments will eat up any idea of a mortgage and my community interests will no doubt be taken up with overtime and a possible second job. 

I went to see a bankruptcy trustee and he told me to “get a well paying job.”  I asked him where the well paying jobs are and when do I start.  He snarled and looked me with red in his eyes.  He followed up by saying that it’s difficult to get a well paying job.  He then told me to get a job in construction and pay off the loan that way.  Ummm, 15 years of paying of the loan working in a job unrelated to my education to have nothing to show for it at the end except an education and good credit.  I’ll pass. 

My other option is to flee the country for 10 years and volunteer my skills to a third world country and live in villages without phones so that the collection agencies can’t phone me.  After 10 years is up, return to Canada and claim bankruptcy and then spend the next 5 years rebuilding my credit.  I’d be to be at the same point in 15 years except I’ll have 5 years of savings to put towards a house and children. 

I was told by school teachers, friends and family that an education is paramount.  If I knew that I would owe $50,000 at the start of the degree I would never have contemplated pursuing an education; however, once I started I was locked in because I was already in debt from the first year and a half.  Damned if I carried on and damned if I didn’t, I decided to complete what I had started gritting my teeth and working part time jobs. 

After finishing the degree I feel let down by our government.  I feel that I was set up for failure.  I feel lied to and I’m bitter.  No wonder so many of our educated people are fleeing the country in droves with little desire to return to a country that has economically discriminated against them. 

I’m not looking for sympathy or advice because I know that I won’t get any; however, if you are a potential student contemplating an education think twice before taking the plunge.   If you are not from an affluent background you will feel the elite pinch from a government that regards you as an indentured slave. 

The revolution will not be televised,
Spartacus

Nago,

It would seem that your last comment would just serve to perpetuate your current circumstances.  It has got to get better soon.... sounds like you have been through so much.... you don't really want to be in that position again.... do you?

 Are you overseas, Val?

 Are you a promoter of overseas ESL positioning?

 If so, that is cool. Write to me. I have a bunch of people who are looking for help in that area.

 Johnny

Hi SPARTACUS .......

In a great many ways your story sounds very familiar to mine. For example, I have had to take a reduced course load due to not having enough funding to take a full course load and many times I could not do a full course load due to course availability. But below is my story which I had in another different posting which shares many parallels with your story and I find myself 14 years later trying to keep plugging away at finding better times ...........

I graduated from high school in 1991 and immediately that September I enrolled in university. I graduated in 1997 from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a general Bachelor of Science degree. The powers that be, despite good grades, would not allow me to go and do an Honours Degree which is prerequisite for Grad School. When that happened, I jumped on the Information Technology bandwagon and graduated from a private college with a 2-year IT diploma in 1999.

I got shafted on my work-term placement because I was never informed that was ineligible for the IT positions that were coming up. The work-term was with the Newfoundland Public Service Commission with the Public Libraries Board. I was never told at all about the hiring procedure and got told half ways through my work-term that I was not eligible to apply for INTERNAL competitions. The only way I could get the position of Computer Support Specialist (which was what my work-term duties were) was if the position became a Public Competition. The work-term placements are supposed to be an opportunity to get your foot in the door and not to give some cheap-ass government department or agency to get free labour out of you.

Despite the work-term placement, I was unable to get an interview with any Public Competition I applied for because I did not have enough qualifications and/or experience. From that point onwards, the greatest of all achilles heels reared it's ugly head: The No Experience Syndrome.

I took full advantage of Interest Relief for my Canada and Newfoundland Student Loans until they were exhausted by trying to get a good paying job as soon as I possibly could. Despite my best efforts and hundreds of jobs applied for pertaining to my education from coast to coast, all I kept getting were rejection letters saying I don't have enough experience and/or qualifications/certifications.

In an effort to try to grab life by the horns, I attempted to move to Toronto in 2001 to try to change my fortunes. I could have moved to Alberta, but I have no family or friends there but I had family in Toronto. First, the No Experience Syndrome followed me up there and Second, I was not going to work for $9.00 an hour where everything is so darn expensive. After a couple of months in Toronto, I was back in Newfoundland again and that summer I started a job that lasted 14 months until I got doctor's orders to resign from it. It was a telemarketing job and it is the only bit of work on my resume that is actually longer than 4 months. The other jobs I ever had were during the summers I had been in school, etc.

In 2001, the Newfoundland Student Loans went to collections as I could not afford to make the requested payments and in 2004 the Canada Student Loans were split up and went to two different agencies. Recently, I had my set-off appealed successfully and was able to get my GST/HST credits back.

The last 6 years since completing my last course successfully, I have had only two jobs: telemarketer and most recently a dishwasher. What is the common denominator here? Paltry paying jobs with high rates of turnover. I am not enthused by the fact that the only jobs I have been able to get are of this nature. Up to this present day, I have not been able to get any jobs whether it is minimum wage or career high paying type jobs that are not considered to have high turnover.

Today I sit here now drawing EI from this dishwasher job and I am frantically trying to get work so I can get financially independent and in the meantime I get badgered by ***holes from collection agencies trying to play one trick in the book after another. If I had the money from a good job, I would be wiping these loans out as fast as I possibly can.

In a nutshell, people like me can't get good jobs because they all demand years of work experience. That's one problem that Generation X people are routinely dealing with: the No Experience Syndrome. The mentality of employers, who are most likely baby boomers, is a very negative one. Combine the NES with employers downsizing and all the other nasty effects created by both of the Free Trade Agreements, and it has became a mix for disaster.

Also, the kids who do get good jobs is either through pure luck that the occupation in question was in high demand or because those from elite families were able to get good jobs because their parents had a lot of connections. That's a painful lesson I have learned a long time ago that if you don't have enough experience, then having connections is paramount and unfortunately I have no such connections. That's generally how it works: people from elite families who have little or no money borrowed out are the ones who do have the right circumstances to get the good job.

The goal of the student aid system was supposed to bridge the gap allowing more than the kids of the social elites to be able to get a post-secondary education. But unfortunately the gap has grown larger because those that do get good jobs often have their salaries (versus lower paying jobs) off-set by having to spend so much money paying back the loans. What does someone have to gain? It is still a system that caters to the elite of society and those that are stuck paying these loans regardless of salary are relegated to either living in poverty or making a rich income, but being forced to live a very modest living as we work not only to live but to work for the government.

If I had my time back, I would have worked first after high school and saved up my money and then went to school and perhaps got funding through HRSDC Sponsorship by being EI Eligible. Borrowing like I did to get my credentials is the biggest mistake I ever made and the system is so poorly executed and so ruthless will not allow me to have a fair chance at erasing that mistake.

Hey Blue Thunder,

Now that you�fre on EI maybe you could go back to school for a while and get the government to pick up the tab.  It might give you the experience you need in an area of employment that suites your career goals.  Plus going back to school, providing it�fs paid for, will help dam the bills for a bit longer and might give you clearer insight into what you can do with your situation.  I�fm in the process of trying to find out what I want out of life, not out of debt. 

Keep rolling Blue Thunder,
Spartacus

Hey SPARTACUS .....

I tried that in 2003 when I attended a three year Civil Engineering Technology programme. I got through the first two semesters with straight A's and was well on my way, but when I entered Technical Intersession I experienced what is called severe mental fatigue. I was just completely burned out and ran out of steam so I had to abandon that idea. Being in my early 30's and having spent 8 years after high school may have had something to do with it. Also, this kind of course takes up so much of your time because you were doing 6 or 7 university calibre courses in a high school like schedule.

In the end, I just want to be out working than being in school and I intend to use my EI eligibility to try to get into employment programmes such as the Job Creation Partnership and the Targeted Wage Subsidy as means to try to get my foot in the door. Also, I had a hard time trying to compete with the phone ringing for Student Loan payments from collection agencies while I was in school in 2003 - 2004 when I had to focus on other more important matters.

Anyhow, thanks for sharing that with me and if there is any valuable information you would like to share with me regarding stuff I can pursue where I have EI Eligible status. My only wish was that when I was just out of high school that I had EI eligible status, I would have pounced on that programme in a heartbeat.

Thanks!