What’s the cost for university?

We get lots of questions from parents and grandparents about the cost of sending a student to college or university. We all know it’s expensive-but it’s difficult to determine in advance exactly how expensive.

I recently came across a terrific on-line calculator that allows you to work out an estimate for the cost of attending any college or university in Canada. The site is called The Debt Free Grad. It’s run by a Vancouver-based gentleman named Murray Baker who has written several books on the cost of college. He’s a former classmate of my son’s at the University of Western Ontario.

The calculator enables you to personalize an estimate for any student. You enter in such specifics as the year the student will start college, province of residence, college or university to be attended, the degree program, number of years to complete, whether the student will live on or
off campus, etc. The program digests all the data and comes up with annual and total cost estimates.

Cost of a B.A.
I tried it out, using a Toronto-based student attending Western (where two of our children went), starting study in the fall of 2002 in a three-year arts prram and living on campus. The result was a total cost estimate of $46,251.61 to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree! No wonder many college graduates end up deeply in debt.

If anyone in your family will be attending college in the next few years, you or they should check out this web site. It is packed with valuable information.