I know loads of students with more debt, but indeed, it’s less than the USA. Not an acceptable amount regardless.

Really? That seems something that could be paid off pretty easily. Not like US student debt which is the size of house in value.

The median income in NL is barely 30k, and savings are very low. An average loan of 15k is quite expensive for most.

I think the worst part is that most of the loan is used to pay rent - so it’s essentially tax-payer funded wealth transfer to real estate.