OSAP tips/advice/questions (Old)

[BBQPorkBun]

Oh man I'm all in a fritz right now due to the fact that I applied for OSAP a little late this year. Sort of forgot, I know....

I have RESP funds coming in which is great. I can simply bring that to my registrars office. At the moment, OSAP gave me an estimation on the funding that they will give me. But I'm currently missing information and some income verification problems.

1) Missing info for the Millenium Bursary. Well, I did not apply for it. What do I do now? Apparently there's a package that they're mailing me to fill in the blanks but I am not interested... No package yet. It's been a week.

2) Both mine and my parents declaration and signature pages have been sent to the fin. aid office almost a week and a half ago and no update from OSAP yet. It still under the "checklist".

I will be attending UTSC (2nd year) this coming fall/winter. I have to defer my fees by the 19th of August. To make things worse, I will be out of the country from the 14th to the 24th.

What can I do other than wait? And does it usually take this long for things to be processed? I don't want to submit the estimate that OSAP gave me on the deferral form 'cause that can always change.

1) guess some people just don't want free money
2) call into osap and ask, if they get any document, its under the notes under your profile, its far more updated than the website.

[sassymiss]

Oh man I'm all in a fritz right now due to the fact that I applied for OSAP a little late this year. Sort of forgot, I know....

I have RESP funds coming in which is great. I can simply bring that to my registrars office. At the moment, OSAP gave me an estimation on the funding that they will give me. But I'm currently missing information and some income verification problems.

1) Missing info for the Millenium Bursary. Well, I did not apply for it. What do I do now? Apparently there's a package that they're mailing me to fill in the blanks but I am not interested... No package yet. It's been a week.

2) Both mine and my parents declaration and signature pages have been sent to the fin. aid office almost a week and a half ago and no update from OSAP yet. It still under the "checklist".

I will be attending UTSC (2nd year) this coming fall/winter. I have to defer my fees by the 19th of August. To make things worse, I will be out of the country from the 14th to the 24th.

What can I do other than wait? And does it usually take this long for things to be processed? I don't want to submit the estimate that OSAP gave me on the deferral form 'cause that can always change.

Try making an appointment with a financial aid officer at UTSC. I also had some documentation that I had sent in a couple of weeks ago but it wasn't updated on the OSAP website, so I printed out another copy of them and gave it in to the fin aid office. They also have a more updated system regarding your OSAP file so they may check up on your current status as well.

[DarkReaper]

Noob question about RESP.

I sent the forms to McMaster for them to fill out and they did.

Received a check from USC.

Do I just deposit this check into my bank account or do I give this check to McMaster for them to use for my university tuition?

[BBQPorkBun]

Noob question about RESP.

I sent the forms to McMaster for them to fill out and they did.

Received a check from USC.

Do I just deposit this check into my bank account or do I give this check to McMaster for them to use for my university tuition?

give it to whoever the chk is made out to

[mike_ekim1]

First off, thanks BBQ for two years of answering questions for us RFDers. Your knowledge fantastic.

My situation: My parents are poor rural ontario farmers with two dependents. I am in third year. I got the full amount for the last two years, but got "re-evaluated" to a lesser amount last year as i worked my ass off during the school year (30-40 hrs/ week) to try to get ahead. What ended up happening was that for the extra 4000 I earned, I lost 2000 from my grant money.
Effectively, I worked for half my wage rate!

My question: is there anyway to have my cake and eat it too?
I understand OSAP keeping money for people who need it, but I feel like they are encouraging their clients to take the lazy road rather than prioritize expenditures and save.

Would my personal earnings be reflected on me differently if I was independent of my parents? While my mailing address is still at their house, I have effectively been moved out for just over a year now.

.... I should probably just quit and join the ranks of slack-ass hand to mouth college deadbeats. *sigh*

Insight appreciated!

[DarkReaper]

give it to whoever the chk is made out to

So it's ok to just deposit into the bank account? Because I was wondering how would McMaster know that money would be used for school and not like for anything else.

[JaneSmith]

I don't have an answer for you, but that really sucks! It'll be interesting to hear what BBQ says about it.

First off, thanks BBQ for two years of answering questions for us RFDers. Your knowledge fantastic.

My situation: My parents are poor rural ontario farmers with two dependents. I am in third year. I got the full amount for the last two years, but got "re-evaluated" to a lesser amount last year as i worked my ass off during the school year (30-40 hrs/ week) to try to get ahead. What ended up happening was that for the extra 4000 I earned, I lost 2000 from my grant money.
Effectively, I worked for half my wage rate!

My question: is there anyway to have my cake and eat it too?
I understand OSAP keeping money for people who need it, but I feel like they are encouraging their clients to take the lazy road rather than prioritize expenditures and save.

Would my personal earnings be reflected on me differently if I was independent of my parents? While my mailing address is still at their house, I have effectively been moved out for just over a year now.

.... I should probably just quit and join the ranks of slack-ass hand to mouth college deadbeats. *sigh*

Insight appreciated!

[ilikeegg]

I am having issues with my application.

The reality is I have $15000 of savings and investments. I'm working full-time now, part-time for the next four years. I live by myself but I don't pay rent as my dad owns the place. My mom pays my tuition. And my dad makes too much money.

My parents aren't married so it's easy to fix the last problem (say mom is single with dependants) but do I need to launder or lie about my bank account and if I say I pay rent and tuition back to my parents or something should my mom just set-up an account under her name and I put my money in there and pretend its payment?

[BBQPorkBun]

First off, thanks BBQ for two years of answering questions for us RFDers. Your knowledge fantastic.

My situation: My parents are poor rural ontario farmers with two dependents. I am in third year. I got the full amount for the last two years, but got "re-evaluated" to a lesser amount last year as i worked my ass off during the school year (30-40 hrs/ week) to try to get ahead. What ended up happening was that for the extra 4000 I earned, I lost 2000 from my grant money.
Effectively, I worked for half my wage rate!

My question: is there anyway to have my cake and eat it too?
I understand OSAP keeping money for people who need it, but I feel like they are encouraging their clients to take the lazy road rather than prioritize expenditures and save.

Would my personal earnings be reflected on me differently if I was independent of my parents? While my mailing address is still at their house, I have effectively been moved out for just over a year now.

.... I should probably just quit and join the ranks of slack-ass hand to mouth college deadbeats. *sigh*

Insight appreciated!

You are welcome.

Yes I agree with what you've said here, it does encourage that kind of behavior. My advice is to make less in this case, OSAP by default does assume you would make 1k-1.5k so that amount would probably have no affect on your osap. 4k needless to say would have an impact. Another way is to work for cash, I did some tutoring during my schooling days, all cash based.

Unless the work has more than just financial value for you, like it helps you with your future career or you are learning something, make less, get better marks and enjoy your schooling days more.

You can't be an independent from moving out, you have to be out of highschool for 4 years. good luck with everything.

[BBQPorkBun]

So it's ok to just deposit into the bank account? Because I was wondering how would McMaster know that money would be used for school and not like for anything else.

even when you get osap, if they don't pay the school directly, wouldn't stop you from blowing it all on something either.

all mac knows is u owe them tuition

[BBQPorkBun]

I am having issues with my application.

The reality is I have $15000 of savings and investments. I'm working full-time now, part-time for the next four years. I live by myself but I don't pay rent as my dad owns the place. My mom pays my tuition. And my dad makes too much money.

My parents aren't married so it's easy to fix the last problem (say mom is single with dependants) but do I need to launder or lie about my bank account and if I say I pay rent and tuition back to my parents or something should my mom just set-up an account under her name and I put my money in there and pretend its payment?

why are you even applying?

[mike_ekim1]

You are welcome.

Yes I agree with what you've said here, it does encourage that kind of behavior. My advice is to make less in this case, OSAP by default does assume you would make 1k-1.5k so that amount would probably have no affect on your osap. 4k needless to say would have an impact. Another way is to work for cash, I did some tutoring during my schooling days, all cash based.

Unless the work has more than just financial value for you, like it helps you with your future career or you are learning something, make less, get better marks and enjoy your schooling days more.

You can't be an independent from moving out, you have to be out of highschool for 4 years. good luck with everything.

I like my job, but is probably isn't worth keeping without being paid cash.
Thanks for the advice!

[Cquence]

Okay i applied for osap like last month and im gettin like 4900 dollars
and im commuting to school but my tuition fee is around 6000 dollars (not including text books)
Can i call osap and request more funding?? or should i just apply to UTAPS since im a uoft student??
ALSO does anybody have the OSAP contact number if i want to request more money?

O and i might actually think about moving onto rez or an apartment, can i call them up and tell them that im not commuting anymore? or do i have to fill out another application and change the option to "im not living with my parents"?

if u only have to pay 7000 back of what you get, i dont think i mind XD

[Professor Iris]

Okay i applied for osap like last month and im gettin like 4900 dollars
and im commuting to school but my tuition fee is around 6000 dollars (not including text books)
Can i call osap and request more funding?? or should i just apply to UTAPS since im a uoft student??
ALSO does anybody have the OSAP contact number if i want to request more money?

O and i might actually think about moving onto rez or an apartment, can i call them up and tell them that im not commuting anymore? or do i have to fill out another application and change the option to "im not living with my parents"?

if u only have to pay 7000 back of what you get, i dont think i mind XD

You can't just request more money, otherwise everyone would get max osap, use what they need and not pay back almost $4000, invest and end up making money on the deal.

[licious]

Okay i applied for osap like last month and im gettin like 4900 dollars
and im commuting to school but my tuition fee is around 6000 dollars (not including text books)
Can i call osap and request more funding?? or should i just apply to UTAPS since im a uoft student??
ALSO does anybody have the OSAP contact number if i want to request more money?

O and i might actually think about moving onto rez or an apartment, can i call them up and tell them that im not commuting anymore? or do i have to fill out another application and change the option to "im not living with my parents"?

if u only have to pay 7000 back of what you get, i dont think i mind XD

A few things:
1) Like someone already mentioned, you can't simply request more funding.
2) You will be automatically be considered for a UTAPs grant as long as you've applied for OSAP, thus, no need to apply.
3) Even if you do move out, you will only get additional funding from OSAP if U of T is >40km away from your home or you are an independent student, I believe.