"it would be nice to know if you get paid enough for your effort"

Well, I suppose that depends on your definition of "enough." The 40–50k salaries you are seeing are on the level, so is that enough for you? Keep in mind that this is the salary right out of school, so it's only going to go up over time. This certainly means that you shouldn't go to school somewhere that you're sitting on 200k in loans when you get out, but as long as you're not carrying any excess baggage, it's certainly enough to live on semi-comfortably. But if you feel entitled to start off your career rich, then I'd suggest another field.

To be honest, most of the students who can actually get jobs right now get more along the lines of $32,000 - $36,000. I'm in Houston, so I'm not sure about other parts of the country. You can get $40,000 - $50,000 after you work for a couple of years, and right now everyone's hours are getting cut, so people who used to make 50 are now making 40, etc. I have my masters, and I really don't think it made a difference as far as salary. It may make the difference on whether you get a job or not, but it seems like your years of experience are what get you a higher salary.

ding, if you end up going to Waterloo, you'll have plenty of co-op internships that will make you somewhat more useful in an office environment by the time you graduate. Your Waterloo degree will be pretty inexpensive (compared to US schools). When you graduate you will make no more than $40k, but your salary will grow with your experience. You will make closer to $60k 5-6 years later and into $70-80k range after 10 years or so. It all depends on your ability to learn and be profitable. 

Yes, we tend to bitch a lot about salaries on here, but that's mostly due to stagnation of salaries and overall implosion of our field.

$40k fresh out of school is not that bad unless you're in NYC or SF (or owe $250k in student loans).

Since you're only considering starting an undergrad now, I suspect your concept of money may be poor. But it's important to consider these things before committing to an entire career.

Best of luck!

haha, there is a simpsons episode in which bart finds out that their principal makes something like $25,000 a year an think he must be rich

Thank you very much for your responses,

when I saw the average incomes for Canada 2010 I was quite amazed by the fact that a trained nurse with 2 years of training has better hourly wage than an architect. I was accepted at Waterloo and quite excited to go there, and if I could discover my true passion for architecture in the university I wouldn't want to linger on the financial statistics.

Don't knock on nurses man. It's a shitty, thankless job they do. They deserve all the money they get. Their salaries top out much faster than architecture salaries do, so eventually you'll surpass them greatly. 

Enjoy Waterloo.