Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for October 17th, 2007

As my oldest daughter gets closer to University, I am learning more and more about the relatively high cost of post secondary education in Ontario. Last night was an open house for the Ontario Universities and I attended with my daughter, and came away with a few interesting thoughts:

• There are a lot of Universities in Ontario, 21 were at this open house, and this does not include the community colleges.
• University of Western Ontario “Pitch Kid” was the best of the night, he was quick on his feet, polite, but funny and really hit the high points for the kids and the parents. This kid should go into sales, or should get a bonus for the job he is doing. Most of the other presenters were very bland and you could tell reading from a script.
• This is going to be EXPENSIVE, but the Universities are not trying to hide this fact they all mention the price of an education along with their minimum mark requirements, so it is useful for the parents to hear the actual numbers!

How expensive you might ask, well let’s go to my old Alma Mater and have them tell us how much a year at the University of Waterloo might be (Read Here for actual Waterloo Web Site):

• The cheapest first year that you can expect would be in Mathematics with a total cost of Academic costs (books, tuition) adding up to $5,700.00
• The most expensive degree program would be Optometry at $15,200 in Academic fees and books.

How much to actually live there if you don’t live in Kitchener/Waterloo?

• Somewhere from $5,900 to $8700 for the year depending on if you live on or off campus and what kind of meal plan you purchase.

Total costs estimated over 8 months?

• Domestic students : $14,300 to $26,600
• International students: $24,800 to $45,500

Every school talked about financial assistance and bursaries too, but for those of you reading this who have 2 year olds, start thinking about this NOW, NOW, NOW.

• Start an RESP today, and put something in it, anything, to get started (not one of those silly ones from the doctor’s office, go to a bank or an investment house and get a REAL RESP).
• Remember your child is going to be going to school at age 18, maybe do your savings calculations based on that. If your son is 3, you have 15 years or so to get to having somewhere near the $60K you might need to put them through school. No, wait, remember inflation, you are going to need more than that, so think about it.

Some parents out there saying, “My parents didn’t help me get through University”, ok, that is a a valid point, but, how much did University cost back then? Do you want your kids graduating with a student loan load of over $70K?

Other University Related Posts

• Should Parents Pay for University?
• The Costs of University
• University is Going to Cost How MUCH?