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The development of cost-efficient pathways is a topic of increasing political and scholarly interest across many North American jurisdictions. It has been suggested that 'seamless' transfer pathways can provide financial savings to both students and taxpayers. However, such claims are typically based on hypothetical cost calculations, as opposed to empirical analysis. Through this study, we model the relationship between student pathways and borrowing behavior in Ontario, Canada -- the country's most populous province -- using Statistics Canada's novel Education and Labour Market Linkage Platform (ELMLP). Our models produce little evidence that touted transfer pathways systematically reduce either (i) students' propensity to borrow from the Canada Student Loans Program (CSLP), or (ii) the total amount that graduates end up borrowing from the program. We identify the implications of these findings for both policymakers and scholars of social stratification.

Despite several decades of postsecondary expansion, new research finds youth from northern and rural areas in Canada still experience difficulties making the transition to postsecondary education, and those who do attend take longer to do so. Proximity, we argue, may also have a considerable impact on one's field selection, as many of Canada's larger universities and colleges, who offer considerably more program and degree options, tend to be concentrated in large, urban centers, and in the southern regions of Canada's provinces. This study draws on Cycles 1-4 of Statistics Canada's Youth in Transition Survey -- Cohort A to examine regional inequalities in accessing Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-related fields at both the university and non-university levels. Indeed, our findings suggest that location of residence does impact field choices, as students from northern and rural areas were less likely to enter STEM as well as non-STEM, university programs.