Strategies For Controlling Student Debt
Jarett Lopez - 6385761

Dr. E. Bailey

ENG 1100F

October 5, 2011

Strategies for controlling student debt For those who attend college or university in Canada today, debt is inevitable. Many factors can contribute to this fact; the consistent rising of tuition costs, the marginal average income increase of middle-class families, perpetually rising interest rates, but most importantly, the lack of student debt relief knowledge. The Canadian Federation of Students has an ongoing debt clock which reflects the Canadian student loan debt of over 13.9 billion dollars, with an average debt per student upon graduation of approximately 25,000 dollars. This shouldn’t be surprising, knowing that since 1990, the average net income of middle-class families in Ontario has risen only 12.5 percent, all the while, tuition costs have risen from 2,500 dollars per year, to 6,500 dollars, an increase of an astounding 260 percent. This trend of rising tuition costs is consistent throughout the majority of Canadian provinces. Today’s Canadian post-secondary students are capable of controlling their debts, provided, they decrease their loans by minimizing their school fees and costs of living through being resourceful and staying informed.

By being accepted to a post secondary institution, students have demonstrated that they have the intelligence and knowledge to succeed in their studies. Staying at university or college, however, takes more than just smarts, it takes resourcefulness. Knowing how to reduce student debt on a grand scale is important for the years after graduation. There are still plenty of ways to save money and reduce the size of student loans during the four to five years students spend in university or college. Starting with the first year, the most common costs are as follows: tuition and incidental