I'm wanting to attend queens this fall for general science. My goal is to eventually get into med school. I live in Peterborough, Ontario. I had stayed for a victory lap of highschool this past year for only the first semester and ended up with a final average of 93.6. During my second semester I will have saved just above $6000 for work. I got a scholarship through school valued at $1600 and am guaranteed $2000 from Queens. My parents just recently started making a combined income of a little over $90,000. I refuse to get a bank loan, but if I do not, will I be covered financially? Or should I go to Trent where Im guaranteed free tuition for the first year? I am not sure about their biochem program but would anyone recommend it?

From what I calculated, queens is just over $19,000. Say if I chose to go to queens but did not have the funds. Would Queens have to provide me with a Bursary under the Ontario Student Access Guarantee? Or could the guarantee be interpreted through the dispersal of a loan (which ideally I dont want)?

Well thanks for the info anyway :/ ...

Education is NOT priceless, I couldn't agree less with the above poster. Money should absolutely factor in. Having $80000 in debt is not so easy and not necessarily worth it. Having completed my undergraduate degree, I don't think my experience would have been any better if I had gone elsewhere and gone into debt (or more likely had my parents foot the bill). When choosing the school for my Master's money was even more important. I was not going to go into debt for my second degree either.

I never said my school wasn't my first choice. I only applied to 2 schools for undergrad, I did choose my first choice. And for grad school the school that offered the most money definitely was the best choice, but that's how it goes at this level. The better schools will offer more for the better students. That being said, I think everyone will have a similarly good experience at any university unless they really hate the atmosphere for some reason (don't like res, don't like living at home, something like that). There's really no school that will truly provide THAT much better of an education. Looking at the schools you applied to, your attitude seems really typical of a lot of the students I've met in Toronto. There's a different outlook here on the supposed "quality" of schools when a true difference doesn't really exist.

I will agree that taking on some debt for university is fine. It's typically thought of as good debt. But say you did go to Queens and had no scholarships, no savings, no help from anyone else, and incurred $80,000 in debt. And given that OSAP only gives a maximum of $12,240 a year of which $7300 is loans, a portion of that would be a bank loan. It's unlikely the OP would get the full amount based on their parents' income. So lets assume $7500 a year from OSAP for easy calculation. That's $30,000 OSAP and $50,000 from the bank. For just the OSAP loan alone it would take 5 years at $586 a month to pay back. To pay back the bank loan at 5% interest would take 5 years at $944 a month. That's $1530 a month, or $18360 a year. Let's ignore the fact that this person wants to go med school and will incur even more debt. Say they don't get into med school and just get a job paying about $50,000 a year before tax. Just about half of their after tax income would be going to pay off their debts. For some people that might be worth it. For me it wouldn't be. Just trying to offer some rational perspective.

What I presented is a worst case scenario, but it's definitely worth thinking about. Hopefully you could get a summer job and make up to $10,000 for the year. That would cut your loan significantly.

The reputation of your institution might make the smallest difference for getting your foot in the door for your first job. But the extent of that is unclear. It's difficult to know what on your resume will stick out and get you an interview. After your first job, experience is everything.

Larger, more research intensive universities have drawbacks as far as research opportunities go. I recently witnessed a situation at U of T where there were over 60 applications for 2 summer spots in a robotics lab. I think this is especially due to the Eng Sci program, where so many students want to do research. I went to the U of A which is still fairly large and research intensive, yet most engineers aren't interested in grad school. I easily obtained multiple research opportunities. It varies from school to school and program to program.

Wow this is messy lol.

Its really hard to say bio... a lot of it depends on your own personal circumstances, how risk aversive you are, etc. Will your parents be helping you financially? You said you want to go to med school.. but then you said finding work? That makes a big difference.. if med school then no one cares too much about undergrad prestige.. if work then its going to make a huge difference in my opinion for most of the careers I am aware of (not sure if applicable to the sciences?). Do you know anyone in any of those programs?

Ill give my own personal experience.. in university I never worried about finance once. I did whatever.. and used up the money. I am on the opposite end of the spectrum and not aversive to debt at all. I love debt! Especially osap.. interest free woot! I lined up a job and will be able to pay off all of my loans in one year. Sounds stupid I know but keep in mind I spent all this money because I knew I would be making money from internships and that I (arrogantly) was pretty sure I would land at least a decent paying job! A few scholarships and bursaries on the way helped too!

So again take things into perspective.. work every summer.. get some help from parents if you can.. apply for bursaries.. and get those scholarships.. and things arent so bad. If your not comfortable with the above then depending on how risk aversive you are trent might be the best bet. Hope that helps!