Canadian student feeling doomed

[FYeyedoctor]

I am a Canadian student who recently got accepted to Salus. I have worked in the optometry industry for 8+ years, absolutely love it, and can't see myself in any other career. I knew tuition and living expenses in the US would be much greater than studying at Waterloo (but unfortunately I wasn't accepted there). My issue is that Salus just sent me tuition/living expense budget and its upward of $420,000 CAD for the 4 years.. Even if I was able to come up with that money through loans/scholarships etc.. at that point is it even worth it? I'm so crushed thinking that I will have to give up my dream after all my hard work but I feel I have no other choice. I love optometry so much but I don't know if paying off student debt and living on ramen until I'm 80 is worth it (I'm 28 right now for reference). Help please!

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[FYeyedoctor]

Is re-applying to Canadian schools an option?

There's just the one school and I feel my GPA wouldn't be good enough as it's extremely competitive. I'm sitting at a 3.4 and that just won't cut it unfortunately lol.

 

[LaLaDeDo]

Did you apply to Waterloo? Have you considered doing a master's program to increase your academics? How was your OAT score?

 

[kylie_optom]

I am a Canadian student who recently got accepted to Salus. I have worked in the optometry industry for 8+ years, absolutely love it, and can't see myself in any other career. I knew tuition and living expenses in the US would be much greater than studying at Waterloo (but unfortunately I wasn't accepted there). My issue is that Salus just sent me tuition/living expense budget and its upward of $420,000 CAD for the 4 years.. Even if I was able to come up with that money through loans/scholarships etc.. at that point is it even worth it? I'm so crushed thinking that I will have to give up my dream after all my hard work but I feel I have no other choice. I love optometry so much but I don't know if paying off student debt and living on ramen until I'm 80 is worth it (I'm 28 right now for reference). Help please!

Hi there! I am in the same boat as you, Canadian student that did not get accepted to Waterloo (and probably won't in the future). I have had multiple conversations with the doctors I work with, and it is very common for Canadian students to get their education in the U.S. due to Waterloo being so extremely competitive. If all of them can do it so can you! Honestly, if it is your dream you can make it happen, even if that means having to be in debt for a few extra years. There are lots of scholarships and loans that are available as well so take advantage of that! You got this

 

[FinnMac]

I am a Canadian student who recently got accepted to Salus. I have worked in the optometry industry for 8+ years, absolutely love it, and can't see myself in any other career. I knew tuition and living expenses in the US would be much greater than studying at Waterloo (but unfortunately I wasn't accepted there). My issue is that Salus just sent me tuition/living expense budget and its upward of $420,000 CAD for the 4 years.. Even if I was able to come up with that money through loans/scholarships etc.. at that point is it even worth it? I'm so crushed thinking that I will have to give up my dream after all my hard work but I feel I have no other choice. I love optometry so much but I don't know if paying off student debt and living on ramen until I'm 80 is worth it (I'm 28 right now for reference). Help please!

There's other schools in the USA that are much cheaper than that. Have you looked at I.U, NSUOCO, and others?

 

[FYeyedoctor]

Hi there! I am in the same boat as you, Canadian student that did not get accepted to Waterloo (and probably won't in the future). I have had multiple conversations with the doctors I work with, and it is very common for Canadian students to get their education in the U.S. due to Waterloo being so extremely competitive. If all of them can do it so can you! Honestly, if it is your dream you can make it happen, even if that means having to be in debt for a few extra years. There are lots of scholarships and loans that are available as well so take advantage of that! You got this

Thanks for the reply! I know I can go through my province for loans and grants but do you have any other suggestions for where to look for more funding? Thanks!

 

[FYeyedoctor]

There's other schools in the USA that are much cheaper than that. Have you looked at I.U, NSUOCO, and others?

No I didn't apply to either of those schools and I think it's too late now for this cycle? Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[kylie_optom]

Thanks for the reply! I know I can go through my province for loans and grants but do you have any other suggestions for where to look for more funding? Thanks!

a lot of banks offer student lines of credit, or loans for optometry and med students! I know for instance CIBC has a student line of credit for Optometry students and you can get up to $125,000. You can also apply for federal grants alongside provincial

 

[E_wen]

Your feelings are valid and the tuition costs are worse than dystopian. Many are in the same boat, it's up to you to decide if it's ultimately worth it.
Many rural places are able to pay much more (200k+) so that's something you can look into in the future.

 

[carrotcake24]

I am a Canadian student who recently got accepted to Salus. I have worked in the optometry industry for 8+ years, absolutely love it, and can't see myself in any other career. I knew tuition and living expenses in the US would be much greater than studying at Waterloo (but unfortunately I wasn't accepted there). My issue is that Salus just sent me tuition/living expense budget and its upward of $420,000 CAD for the 4 years.. Even if I was able to come up with that money through loans/scholarships etc.. at that point is it even worth it? I'm so crushed thinking that I will have to give up my dream after all my hard work but I feel I have no other choice. I love optometry so much but I don't know if paying off student debt and living on ramen until I'm 80 is worth it (I'm 28 right now for reference). Help please!

Hi!

Reaching out as a fellow Canadian student in a similar situation - I've been working in the optometry industry for 4+ years and I'm 27 right now. What did you end up deciding for funding? I'm in the process of applying for a student LOC as well as waiting for June so that I can apply for provincial funding. Have you looked into MCPHS? They have scholarships for Canadian students that are ~$12,000+ per year renewable for 4 years based on your GPA.


and a huge congratulations on your acceptance to SALUS - hoping the best for you and your future endeavours!

(oops - edited since your original post was from 2022 so my MCPHS comment is definitely not relevant to you!)

 

[CalicoJack1131]

There's just the one school and I feel my GPA wouldn't be good enough as it's extremely competitive. I'm sitting at a 3.4 and that just won't cut it unfortunately lol.

GPA is not the only thing they consider, and people have gotten in with as low as 79% in recent years. I got an interview this cycle with a 79-80% GPA.

How is the rest of your application? Can you retake the OAT and CASPer to get more competitive scores? What about work and volunteer experience?

If you racked up 400k in debt to go to a US school, I think you would basically have no choice but to run to very rural and remote areas to try and pay it off as quickly as possible. I've seen job postings in Canada that offer minimum annual pay of $200k, but they're in places like Halifax and Saskatchewan.