Did or do you have student loan debt?
I owed $5000.00 back in 1986. It seemed like small fortune back then.
shareMy undergrad was completely covered, so I had no debt from there. But in professional school, I accrued a debt of about $450,000 which I paid off in about 3 years. I had to move to the states in Detroit, Michigan. It was a private religious school (even though I'm athiest), so I had to pay higher fees compared to if I had gotten in my home country Canada. The school charged everyone (both Americans and Canadians) the same since it was a private school. Also, the fees were way higher compared to public school.
shareUniversity of Toronto Medical School is only $24,000 for Canadian students and $87,000 for international students.
https://md.utoronto.ca/current-fees
I didn't go into med school though. But wow, the international tuition is nuts! That's more than I paid. I had to pay about $65000 to $70,000 per year for 4 years. With interest, the total fees at end of 4 years was about $450,000.
I don't believe in charging different fees for domestic vs international students as I feel that is discrimination. But I did go to a private school so both domestic and international students were charged the same.
They charged you interest while you were studying?
shareYes, I had to take out a line of credit from my bank which charged me interest. All my classmates took out line of credit or student loans since tuition was crazy expensive.
I highly doubt anyone has $70,000 just sitting around every year, so they took out loans.
My point was that student loans don't charge interest until you graduate. A personal line of credit is another matter. It's good you had the earning power to pay it back relatively quickly.
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