| Student Debt: Balancing the Books and Bucks |
|
|
by Rebecca McEachren, B.A.( Mt. Allison, 2002), 1st Year B.Ed. post degree programe (B.U.)
I used to think of student debt as a curse to be avoided at all costs. But for increasing numbers of students, it is becoming stark reality. I have only had one year where I was fortunate enough to avoid student loans, and that was my first year of university after working close to full-time while finishing my year of university preparation courses. Not an easy task to go to work for four hours each evening, eat supper on a 15 minute coffee break and then go home at night and do homework for three or four hours. This was all while trying to maintain a social life. This was something I was doing it for purely selfish reasons, it was something I could have gotten out of but I didn't because I knew it would help me out a lot down the road.
Then came the fateful day when I finally had to get a loan. My parents have been on and off disability benefits for pretty much my entire adolescence and since they didn't have a high school diploma, so until very recently, they have only held menial labour jobs. Providing a roof over our heads plus medical needs became the top priority and they were unable to save much for our education. I quickly learned ways to creatively fill out loan forms and because my parents had a farm for many years, there were quite a few loopholes to be taken advantage of. Filling out loan papers has got to be one of the best lessons in bureaucracy ever known to humankind. The best part of dealing with the student loan people has to be waiting for over an hour on hold long-distance and then the operator on the other end wondering why you are so cranky. I learned very quickly to be my own advocate because if I didn't stand up for my own needs, there was no one else to do that for me.
One of the stark realities of putting yourself through school is that you have to take whatever summer job pays the best, instead of doing what you wanted to with your summer. While my classmates were able to take summer language courses in Spain and France, I absolutely had to work sometimes from the Monday after I came home for the summer to the last day possible before I had to go back to school. This was all just to be able to continue the next year. Did that compromise my education? Most definitely. I wasn't able to have the enrichment experiences that my counterparts had and they were able to continue their studies through the summer not losing their momentum. I was also very frustrated throughout my university experience because I couldn't spend the degree of time that I would have liked to on my studies. Language courses require constant drilling and revision. Not something that I could very easily do when I only had a couple of hours to do my work before jetting off to work for an evening. However, I did my best and even though my degree wasn't honours, it was still a degree of which I am very proud.
I must admit that I brought a lot of my student debt upon myself. I chose to begin my education at what is considered to be a top school on the East Coast with hefty tuition fees. I am choosing not to think of it right now. Student debt is an investment in my future and obviously, it is not a major worry as I am currently at BU working on a second degree and incurring even more debt. I would love to be able to be debt free but I think I have learned a lot about myself the hard way. You take a lot more ownership for your education when you are paying for it yourself and you work twice as hard to stay organized and fit everything important to you in the 24 hours you have in a day. This works very much to your advantage in job interviews as employers are looking for people with a strong sense of time management, willingness to multi-task as well as a keen sense of initiative. All characteristics that will help me greatly when I finally finish my education and go into my first classroom which is the end goal. Student loans may be very difficult to manage however they give the chance for a higher education to people that might not otherwise have one. It is unfortunate that debt is still seen as an obstacle to some people when they are considering post-secondary education. For better or for worse, it is just a fact of life and a means to an end.