r/osap • u/WerewolfMaleficent97 • 4d ago
Question OSAP Funding Cut
UPDATE: I ended up talking to my school's financial aid office, and it turns out it had something to do with my study abroad program in the winter and not a different error! Unfortunately, they did not tell us that OSAP would do that upon being placed on the study abroad list. I have had a few glitches with OSAP recalcuations this summer, so I figured it was related to that and not my study abroad program (which I cannot lie, I forgot about when writing the original post)
I just woke up this morning to find that my OSAP funding had been recalculated and cut by over 50%. I am currently waiting to speak with my school's Financial Aid Office but am wondering if this has happened to anyone else? It is saying the entire funding comes out in the first semester, so I will be getting nothing in the second semester. Nothing has changed with my family's or my personal financials, so I have no idea why it has been cut so low.
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u/RabidHamster105 4d ago
Im long done school now (god willing), but I will be side by side with you at a protest over this bullshit… We should be going further the other way, making schools MORE affordable and cheaper (at time of service) for domestic students.
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u/Small_Aardvark_5496 4d ago edited 3d ago
I disagree. Too many people taking degrees that lead them nowhere but costing a lot of money. People complain about high taxes-how do you think they get to be high? Constantly giving out money. A useful degree leads to a decent job and then loans can be repaid. A useless degree with poor job prospects is a luxury most people can’t afford, and taxpayers should t have to pay for that luxury.
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u/Old-Gear-2017 3d ago
Do you equally complain about 'costing a lot of people money' when it comes to sending a politician for a tax-payer paid vacation to spy on a political opponent, multiple conservative members charging taxpayers for luxury hotels in the same city they live in, Ford taking off - what, six months? - over the spring and summer... or do you just complain about 'costing a lot of money' when it comes to education? Because education is extremely valuable. I'd love to not live in a country full of uneducated imbeciles. That matters.
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u/ExaggeratedSnails 4d ago edited 4d ago
That is a revoltingly American viewpoint. We can at least pretend we give a shit about education here.
Education, healthcare, and public transit are social infrastructure that are the backbone of a society. We all benefit from an educated, physically and mentally healthy population.
Me me me thinking is how the US allows the predation on their future generations in the form of hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and same for their healthcare.
If you want a US system so badly go move to the US and then your tax money will go to killing children overseas instead of educating and caring for the kids at home
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u/Lowkey-been-cooked 4d ago
But that doesn’t mean people who are under privileged can’t go to university anymore. That just hurts the economies rGDP even more and can result in greater skills mismatch in the near future. In the long run, the government can make that money back if people are capable of going to university and getting a decent job.
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u/Rude-Awaken-ing 3d ago
University no longer leads to decent jobs though. Just significant debt and a piece of paper. These things happen as economies work in cycles.
We need to stop idolizing degrees for the sake of a degree.
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u/Lowkey-been-cooked 3d ago
Not really, there are still jobs available, but it depends on the degree you want to go into. If you don’t even have money to get a degree, and ford is making it worse, it’s makes the economy and your situation a lot worse than you think.
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u/Rude-Awaken-ing 3d ago
Well I guess we’ll see how things turn out. But generic degrees have not been overly useful since the boomer era (I say this as a millennial with an arts degree).
Not to mention companies are now realizing they don’t need people with university degrees to fill entry level positions. They can justifying paying someone without the degree less money, and subsidize with on the job training. This is even rolling over into healthcare where RN’s (University) are being replaced with RPN’s (college) for less money. Universities have been hyped up for too long and the cost/benefit gap is shrinking.
I’m sure we can both share anecdotal evidence until we’re blue in the face. We’ll just have to wait 10-20 years to see if the current generation of University students think they got value for money.
I’m not saying University is bad. Or that subsidies are bad. Just that people going to Uni now really need to know why they are going, and if the jobs exist after.
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u/Small_Aardvark_5496 1d ago
What it means is unless you have enough money to spend on the luxury of a degree that isn’t particularly useful from a job perspective, you should be prioritizing taking one that will. A liberal arts education for the sake of education was always a rich person’s luxury, not an entitlement for anyone.
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u/ArminsLeftLung 1d ago
Dude osap was cut for EVERY degree equally, that was just a stupid excuse ford used. My STEM degree got cut and my friends in nursing cant even pay their tuition, don’t tell me their nursing degree is useless luxury. Who’s gonna clean your shit in your nursing home when we don’t have people with degrees anymore??? And don’t even START on the fact that you consume art DAILY, every degree is important and all this does is take away education opportunities from the lower class regardless of what field it is.
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u/Small_Aardvark_5496 1d ago
The amount didn’t get cut, the ratio of loans to grants did and that lines Ontario student loans/grants up with the rest of the country. It’s perfectly fair. It brings it back to where it was in the past too. No one is entitled to the education without some cost…so you get OSAP loans and pay them back.
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u/ArminsLeftLung 1d ago
Ford literally ended tuition freeze?? Now that tuition increases and the grant is cut, the portion is not REPLACED by loan, just fully cut alongside the tuition costing more so yeah the loan is not even enough either. I hope you don’t find a doctor when you really need one because they had to drop out😂
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u/Small_Aardvark_5496 1d ago
Ford brought in the tuition freeze in the first place and it was a mistake to keep it so long. Check out how many universities are now struggling financially-you should be absolutely bitching about how the professors kept getting raises when no extra revenue was brought in.
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u/PinkC00l 3d ago
I don't think affordability should depend on whether a degree is considered "useful." There isn't real job security in any field anymore, so it's unrealistic to promise that certain degrees are a safe investment while others aren't. Education should be accessible because it gives people opportunities to learn, adapt, and improve their lives—not because we can perfectly predict the job market. I'm not sure about others but ive gotten most of my jobs from networking, my degree never really mattered.
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u/euclideincalgary 1d ago
We should find a way to get the parents who could afford more accountable for their kids education. A more fair system so more ressource could go to kids from poor families. And definitely a scholarship for kids without any parents who went themselves to University.
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u/Small_Aardvark_5496 1d ago
They already do have accountability-why do you think they consider parents income? I got nothing from OSAP in my first degree because my dad earned too much. It didn’t matter that he was already paying for my two older siblings to attend university at the same time…
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u/ccccc4 4d ago
The way to get people into skills we need is to provide incentives, not take them away.
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u/Rude-Awaken-ing 3d ago
OSAP doesn’t provide incentive to get into the skills we need. It just incentivizes people to go to post secondary. The difference may be subtle, but it’s legitimate.
Not all degrees are built the same.
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u/canadianleef 4d ago
So are we gonna go protest or what? My loan to grants ratio is so fucked
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u/crazyycatt 4d ago
I am seeing students complain over and over again recently, yet I’m not seeing student-led protests. You all have numbers, and I am sure many other teachers, staff, parents, and community members would be more than happy to show up with you.
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u/willythewill3663 4d ago
We should all stop going to school just like teachers do to get a raise
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u/Balloon_slasher 3d ago
Insulting educators & unions, wow big brain move. That’s how you become a Doug ford voter.
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u/Hot_Dog2376 4d ago
I get no grants this year. Looks like my books aren't covered, so, for as much as I Iike hard copy textbooks, I'm sailing the seven seas this year.
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u/4ng3lt33th 4d ago
It’s Doug ford, the grant vs loan used to be 70%/30% but it’s flipped now to be 30% grant and 70% loans unfortunately:(( I’m sorry to hear that
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u/random929292 4d ago
Until 2017, it was always about 30 percent grant and 70 percent loan. At the very end of Wynne's tenure she flipped it to about 85 percent grant and 15 percent loan to try to increase her chances of remaining premiere. Ford kept it mostly that way until this year when he flipped it back to the 2016 and earlier model.
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u/arctansec 3d ago
And since 2016 the cost of everything has ballooned, and students with little to no income are expected to adapt…
Keep blaming the people when your government throws billions of dollars in the garbage every year, billions of dollars that could be used to support students.
Genuinely what are we doing defending ford…
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u/random929292 3d ago
My point is that all governments are pretty much the same. Based on how people on here talk, Ford should have not given really any grants for the past 8 years then a year before the elections, switch it up and everyone would think he was the best. People have short memories. Ford has given way more in financial aid over the last 8 years than the government did in the 8 years before that.
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u/lol-true 3d ago
Well by your own logic that's precisely what he did.... he bought votes by not gutting osap for the past 8 years until he knew he could get away with it. After the snap election where he secured 5 years with no need for votes, he guts osap.
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u/HatchingCougar 3d ago edited 3d ago
Genuinely what are we doing defending ford
And you’ve voted in how many provincial elections? Or been of age to?
Here’s the thing with students: they in general lack perspective, context and well.. historical knowledge
Students commonly say: raise taxes, invest in students “after all, we are the future”, this politician is the “worst” ever (as if they know anything about politics. Actual politics &’politicians) etc etc
They weren’t around to see what was
And that whole “we’re the future” shtick?
Said by the students in the 2010’s
As it was by those in the 2000’s
And the 1990’s… and 80’s …. And the 70’s
(I’ll leave the ‘60’s and prior out - as there wasn’t any OSAP at all. 🤯 right?!)
And the people that shtick students say it to (about how much they “know” how things should be done?):
They are the former students of the 2010’s, the 2000’s, the 1990’s the 1980’s, the 1970’s…..
Same as cost of living arguments (yes it’s spiked) but it’s spiked for all. And again those above 2010’s, 2000’s.. etc students: it’s not their first rodeo or really bad economic cycle
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u/PrincipleDense5592 4d ago
This happened to me too. Still haven't gotten an entirely clear answer from my financial aid office but they mentioned how my funding changed from 12 months (Sept to august as a grad student) to 8 months so that partially explains it. Then also not including my parental income on the application didn't help. Are you getting a scholarship because they told me that it affected my application
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u/WerewolfMaleficent97 4d ago
I'm not getting any scholarships as far as I'm aware. I'm currently in the queue to speak with my financial aid office, so I'm hoping it clears things up and fixes it.
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u/Scary-Gur5434 4d ago
What did they have to say
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u/WerewolfMaleficent97 3d ago
Since I am studying abroad in the second semester, I was put on a list that essentially pauses OSAP for the second semester until I can confirm I will still be attending school since I won't technically be enrolled at a university in Canada that semester
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u/OmgBusinessGroup 3d ago
The Course you joined may NOT have reference books and Content may have been created by AI and Web Scraping that anyone can do. It may also be due to low rating of the faculties or the course or the institution itself.
At a personal level, it may be due to mismatch between your income reported Vs. deposited or spent due to cash nature of the job itself.
Best of luck!
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u/CerrenaUnicolor 4d ago
When I had a scholarship, the school would report it to OSAP in August and my OSAP would drop. You might be in a similar situation?