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Thousands of students across Ontario are facing a future full of debt.

At the back of many students' minds is a number. It's a number that increases every time they use their debit card, every time they make a credit card payment, every time tuition fees are due. Experts say that by the time a student graduates from college or university, that number could be in the tens of thousands.

That number is the amount of dollars a student is in debt. According to Statistics Canada, the average cost of one semester of tuition is around $5,300. Research from the Canadian government shows the total cost for one year of post-secondary education (including tuition, housing, school supplies and other expenses), is approximately $14,500.

Tuition costs are slightly lower for many programs at Fanshawe. The list of fees for each program shows most cost between $1,500 and $2,500 per semester (with some programs costing far more, such as Dental Hygiene and Anesthesia Assistant), but that doesn't necessarily mean Fanshawe grads have an easier time paying their debt back.

Many students turn to the Ontario Student Assistance Program (OSAP) to help with school funding. Though the amount of money a student receives depends on whether they're in school full- or part-time, as well as a number of other criteria, single students with no dependents can receive up to $12,240 for each year they're in school. Ontario caps this loan, so the maximum a student must pay back per year of school is $7,300. Even with the loan cap, a two-year program could leave a student nearly $15,000 in debt — or more, if the student must turn to bank loans or other sources to supplement their income.

The number in Robin Lavery's mind is in the thousands. She graduated from the two-year Horticulture diploma program at Fanshawe in 2007, and after graduation, she owed OSAP around $12,000. As she accumulated more debt from other loans, such as her Visa card and her line of credit, that number just kept growing.

Lavery, like many students, expected to pay her debt back within a few years of graduating from college. "I think they (OSAP) give you something like 10 years to pay it (your debt) back... I was hoping I could have it paid off in five. But here I am, I'm in the sixth year now, and I'm just halfway through it."

According to Emma Newman, the Vice President of Finance for the Fanshawe Student Union, it's not all that reasonable for students to expect to pay their debt within a few years of graduating. "I'm sure a lot of people do it, especially depending on the program they graduate from. Some people will walk straight into well-paying jobs in high-demand areas, so it's a little bit easier for them to pay it back in a shorter period of time. But for the most part, I think that people take a lot longer than that. People sort of underestimate the expenses they'll have once they're not in school that prevent you from paying as much down on your debt as you would think."

Lavery's monthly minimum payments are $137, but she pays $150 to try to reduce the debt as quickly as possible. But, she said, she knows people who aren't handling their debt that well. "I have friends who went to school and their minimum payments are around $200, and they can't even make it." She mentioned a friend who is a graphic designer who has let his OSAP go into collections. "It means that (he) can't get any more money from them, and the interest that is occurring on it is much more significant than it was when you would have been paying it. His debt is just accumulating very quickly. But for people like that who just don't have the money, he just doesn't care. In seven years, it disappears."

Though "disappearing debt" doesn't sound so bad, Lavery's friend's credit will be ruined, meaning he'll have trouble getting loans for a car, a house, further education and more.

Lavery's debt is in good standing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't cause her problems. "I'm renting a house right now, and my landlord just told me yesterday that he's selling it. He's giving us the option to buy it, but, because I'm carrying debt from school and whatnot, and I don't have any money saved because I've been trying to pay off my debt, I can't afford to buy the house."

Newman carries the number $30,000 in the back of her mind. She graduated from the Music Industry Arts program in June, and she is currently in the Corporate Communications and Public relations post-grad program at Fanshawe.

Debt has a huge impact on your life after school, she said, and can even change the types of jobs you search for after graduations. "People are looking for jobs that will pay down their debt and they're not necessarily looking for jobs that interest them or are in their area." This results in people working in industries they didn't go to school for, she said, "and it also leaves people thinking that they didn't get anything from college except all this debt because they're not working in the area that they thought they would be."

That's definitely true in Lavery's case. In addition to dealing with her debt, she has had a difficult time finding a job in her field. Though the job market is tough almost everywhere for young grads, Lavery said it's especially tough for job seekers in London. "I actually moved away for a couple years — I was living in Toronto. There's all kinds of jobs there." Since moving back to London to be with her boyfriend, she's tried her hand at starting her own business. "It's a slow process. I have to spend most of my time working full-time somewhere else trying to make ends meet." She currently manages a garden centre, but since that's closing for the season, she will have to switch to a bartending position to continue to pay down her debt.

When asked if debt is a problem for grads, Lavery responded "definitely," but added that she's not sure what the solution is. "I don't know if there's anything anyone can do. I mean, they have programs where they help with interest payments, but that doesn't really do anything. It's postponing it — I don't have to pay for a year, but eventually I'm going to have to start paying it again anyway. Maybe there should be more tools for us, like aids for finding jobs. That's, ideally, the ultimate goal: to have that good job to pay back the money, right?"

Newman said the most important thing to do is to keep track of the debt from day one. "There are a lot of people who graduate from college or university and they ... have no idea what their actual accumulated debt is." She said it's a good idea to make sacrifices while in college in order to graduate with money left over, leaving some money to start paying loans back as quickly as possible.

As VP Finance, part of Newman's job is to help students navigate through the sometimes murky waters of finances in college. She can help students apply for bursaries and scholarships — free money that never needs to be paid back. She can also work with students to figure out their total debt, and she even has sheets to help students track where their money is coming from and what they will owe by graduation.

Another resource that students can turn to is Fanshawe's Financial Aid office, located in E2020. Kelly Armstrong, who works in Financial Aid, suggested tackling that number in the back of your mind before graduation. "We encourage students to look at the resources they have available; talk to their parents; look at their savings, their part-time earnings; start putting away as soon as you can."

"Do not come (to school) just solely relying on OSAP; it will not be enough," she stressed. "The intent of OSAP is to supplement your contributions as a student as well as your family's contributions (if that's applicable). We really, really encourage people to come up with those resources from a variety of sources."

She mentioned the importance of applying for scholarships and bursaries, telling the story of one high-school student who made it her part-time job to apply for free money to pay for school. She began her first year with $17,000 she didn't have to pay back, Armstrong said.

Students can look to studentawards.com, scholarshipscanada.com and fanshawebursaries.com to apply for a variety of scholarships and bursaries. For more information about OSAP, head to osap.gov.on.ca.