Sink or Swim: Get Your Degree Without Drowning in Debt

Emily Walters Gregor is a graduate student in 20th-century American
literature and an ESL writing tutor at the University of Minnesota.

Sink or Swim is a well-written, cheerful, and realistic look at the
challenging decisions a university student must make in order to emerge
from an undergraduate degree program with a manageable amount of debt.
The author writes from her own experience (she graduated from the
University of Calgary with just over $6000 in student loans) while
drawing on the experiences of a variety of students across Canada.

Deveau debunks two important myths about the costs of university: that
tuition is unmanageably high, and that being a university student is a
licence to live and spend irresponsibly. She demands that her readers
take responsibility for their own financial well-being without falling
prey to the false sense of freedom a student loan check can
provide—money that, she points out, all too often pays for a new car
or a trip to Mexico instead of tuition. In addition to requiring that
her readers redefine their perceptions of debt in order to save money,
Deveau offers advice on where to find funds, from scholarships to jobs.
Finally, she provides an extensive collection of tips and suggestions on
living a frugal but full and rewarding life as a student trying to stay
out of debt.

Deveau’s advice is firm but reasonable. Students who follow it may
have to eat Kraft Dinner and look at the stars instead of a movie
screen, but doing so will enable them to graduate from university with a
manageable debt load and the ability to explore all the opportunities
opened to them by their education.