Like no other generation before, ours is expected to gain a post-secondary education. It seems that nowadays, a bachelor’s degree has about as much prestige as a high school degree used to have. Whereas a high school degree used to at least be a guarantee of relatively steady employment, obtaining one in the present day doesn’t tend to get you far in the way of the work force. Most jobs now require at least some form of post-secondary education.

That being said, a three-year post-secondary arts or sciences degree from a Canadian university costs anywhere from $15,000 to $28,000 before residence and other fees, depending on where it is you plan to study. For international students, that number almost triples. No matter what you go to school for, it takes a lot of money to gain that seemingly necessary education.

Our generation is also unique because it is starting off with an obscene amount of debt. Student loans and lines of credit abound. I’ll be the first one in line complaining that tuition fees are too high and that it’s unfair to burden us with such a heavy cost so soon in our adult lives, but when you add up the money maybe the cost of school really isn’t the problem.

How many of us live on our own when home is still a perfectly viable option?

How many of us have cars, iPods or laptop computers? All of these items and things are depreciating assets. That means that once you buy them, they’ll only decrease in value. You’ll never get more for these things than you originally paid.

In contrast, can you say the same about your education? Yes, school is expensive, but when you compare the cost of a Canadian degree against the same American one, it takes one-third as much money to receive the same piece of paper and, likely, a similarly-placed job.
When the economic crisis hit last fall, students in the United States started coming up to Canada in huge numbers – particularly to the University of Toronto and Dalhousie University – instead of universities on the eastern seaboard, because they realized how much better we have it up here, even with their own cost of living factored in as well.

Many post-secondary students have been brought up in an age of instant gratification where if you want something, regardless of whether or not you can afford it, you can have it. Credit cards, loans and lines of credit make it possible for students to live well beyond their means. Weighing needs has become irrelevant in an age of want.

I can’t even count the number of students I personally know who have put their BlackBerries and reading week vacations on their student loans and chalked the expense up to being a student.

Now that the credit crunch has tightened up the bursary, loan and credit card strings, it’s getting a little more difficult to secure those “want” items and, in some cases, even the “need” items.

I think that’s actually a good thing.

Maybe it’s time that we all look at our want items for what they really are: things that we desire, but don’t really need.

It’d be awesome if tuition were cheaper – don’t get me wrong, I’m not for making us pay more money for school – but I am in favour of students thinking about what is important to spend money on and what is not. And maybe, just maybe, an iPhone is not one of those important things.

Melanie Murchison is a University of Winnipeg student.

Published in Volume 64, Number 4 of The Uniter (September 24, 2009)