Originally Posted by Kathy2

Unless you live in a room in a house (ie. an apartment), you'll probably pay at least $500 per month for rent. My friends all live in crappy rooms in crappy houses and they still pay $430-$450 anyway.

You have not looked very hard for housing then. I have friends paying as low as 345. And if youre paying 500 PLUS utilities, then damn your house better be beautiful. Or on forsyth

Sure OSAP limits are low but really it is not that hard to get by. It isn't very hard to make 4kto 5k in a summer. Plus you should have saved up money by working during high school. Alot of people just don't bother to put that half decent saving before high school. There really is no reason for a middle class student entering university to have alot of debt after 1st year. (2 years =104 weeks at current minium wage with avg work load of 16hrs a week=$15808)

Alot of younger people also tend to have bad money habits. (big one is cell phone bills) OSAP will not help fund reckless spending.


However with the negative side done with I do have to agree with some osap changes. one big one is looking at parents income. They are making the assumption that your parents will pay a significant amount for your education. This is not the case all the time.

Oh more thing. Do realize the government is already subdizing your education (through taxes). University would be ALOT more without that help. (just look at the USA)

While the argument for people whose parents make money but don't contribute is compelling, it would be very difficult for the government to determine who is and isn't contributing to their children's education. This would likely end up with a lot of students getting OSAP to pay for their drinking while their parents pay their tuition and rent.

I agree that it would be hard for OSAP to figure out the parent income stuff, but I really think something needs to be done. It's ridiculous how little some people receive from OSAP, and they are in so much more need than the people who let it sit in a high interest rate bank account, gathering money. It's not fair that some people are able to make money off OSAP while others get royally fuc*ed with bank loans.

Originally Posted by Pat S.

You have not looked very hard for housing then. I have friends paying as low as 345. And if youre paying 500 PLUS utilities, then damn your house better be beautiful. Or on forsyth

This isn't about me. I pay a decent amount of rent, since it's split with my boyfriend. But it's not that my friends don't look, sometimes it's just difficult to find cheaper places, especially when you consider things like pets, etc.

The whole arguement of OSAP being not enough to fund an education is true. The government puts these stipulations on loans as if we won't ever pay it back? From what if heard even if you declare bankruptcy you will still be required to pay back your loan at some point or another throughout your life. The amount we receive should be increased as I could careless about the amount I pay back, if the money is used to help me get a career that will pay more than minimum wage in the future. I'd gladly take out a loan to be able to cover ALL of my expenses associated with going to school because at the end of the day it's me who's going to have to pay it back. At the end of the day there are many more costs associated with post-secondary school than the government is willing to provide assistance with.

Also for those who aren't lucky enough to get more OSAP because their parents make too much money, I don't quite feel much sympathy for you. Call me ignorant if you must but there must be a reason why your parents wouldn't be willing to contribute to you bettering your quality of life. Maybe your reckless behaviour makes them incline to believe you will waste the money they give you to obtain a degree? Maybe they already buy you designer brand clothing, and anything else you want? Maybe they already spent that one year of university money on your brand new car?

I find it very hard to believe your parents "don't care about you" to want to help you financially. Coming from a low-income family, I'm glad there's OSAP to help fund my education. With all the debt my mother's in from being unemployed over the years, and spending tons of money on lawyers throughout her divorce, working at Tim Hortons is not what I see for my future. I don't think until you actually become financially unstable do you realize the importance of money, and realistically speaking a lot of students think of college/university as a party and drink 24/7.

I'm not trying to be rude, but that was very ignorant. My parents not being able to pay for my tuition has nothing to do with the clothes I wear or my behaviour. You don't know everyone's personal situation and it's inappropriate to assume that just because someone's parents have money and don't pay their tuition, it is necessarily their fault. That entire post was really offensive to me. If you don't know someone's personal, family and financial situation, you shouldn't say those things about them.

One example: OSAP considers what my parents made 2 years ago, but my dad lost his job last year and hasn't been able to work since then. He has some money saved up, but there are things more important than my tuition (ie. mortgage). So did my dad have enough money, according to OSAP, to pay my tuition? Yes, a year ago, he did. But does that mean he could actually afford to pay it this year? No. He helps what he can but OSAP doesn't acknowledge these types of financial and personal barriers. It has nothing to do with the brand of clothing I wear or if I party and drink. And I've been taking the HSR for 4 years. I don't own a car, much less a brand new one.

Originally Posted by shes-a-diva*

The whole arguement of OSAP being not enough to fund an education is true. The government puts these stipulations on loans as if we won't ever pay it back? From what if heard even if you declare bankruptcy you will still be required to pay back your loan at some point or another throughout your life. The amount we receive should be increased as I could careless about the amount I pay back, if the money is used to help me get a career that will pay more than minimum wage in the future. I'd gladly take out a loan to be able to cover ALL of my expenses associated with going to school because at the end of the day it's me who's going to have to pay it back. At the end of the day there are many more costs associated with post-secondary school than the government is willing to provide assistance with.

Also for those who aren't lucky enough to get more OSAP because their parents make too much money, I don't quite feel much sympathy for you. Call me ignorant if you must but there must be a reason why your parents wouldn't be willing to contribute to you bettering your quality of life. Maybe your reckless behaviour makes them incline to believe you will waste the money they give you to obtain a degree? Maybe they already buy you designer brand clothing, and anything else you want? Maybe they already spent that one year of university money on your brand new car?

I find it very hard to believe your parents "don't give a sh*t about you" to want to help you financially. Coming from a low-income family, I'm glad there's OSAP to help fund my education. With all the debt my mother's in from being unemployed over the years, and spending tons of money on lawyers throughout her divorce, working at Tim Hortons is not what I see for my future. I don't think until you actually become financially unstable do you realize the importance of money, and realistically speaking a lot of students think of college/university as a party and drink 24/7.

Man, I pride myself on being as obnoxious as possible, but this takes the cake.

Come on bud.

Originally Posted by Kathy2

I'm not trying to be rude, but that was very ignorant. My parents not being able to pay for my tuition has nothing to do with the clothes I wear or my behaviour. You don't know everyone's personal situation and it's inappropriate to assume that just because someone's parents have money and don't pay their tuition, it is necessarily their fault. That entire post was really offensive to me. If you don't know someone's personal, family and financial situation, you shouldn't say those things about them.

One example: OSAP considers what my parents made 2 years ago, but my dad lost his job last year and hasn't been able to work since then. He has some money saved up, but there are things more important than my tuition (ie. mortgage). So did my dad have enough money, according to OSAP, to pay my tuition? Yes, a year ago, he did. But does that mean he could actually afford to pay it this year? No. He helps what he can but OSAP doesn't acknowledge these types of financial and personal barriers. It has nothing to do with the brand of clothing I wear or if I party and drink. And I've been taking the HSR for 4 years. I don't own a car, much less a brand new one.

Realistically speaking, when my mother was unemployed for many years, solely relying on the income of her boyfriend, money was real tight. Sorry to hear that your father is unemployed, but he could do what my mother does and work at Tim Hortons for minimum wage if you are in dire need of assistance. With that said, the minimal income he would be making, if he badly needed funds, would make you eligible for OSAP even as a low-income family. He clearly has enough money to support his family even without a job.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

Man, I pride myself on being as obnoxious as possible, but this takes the cake.

Come on bud.

Like I said previously, if your parents didn't have money to give you for education purposes, they "must not care" about their child's success. If your parents really don't have money for anything, their income taxes would show that. My mother over the years has had to remortage her house twice to pay for lawyers and support my brother and I. Along with that, working at Tim Hortons is what pays the bills and gives me the ability to take advantage of receiving more OSAP as I qualify as a low-income family.

That's still a broad generalization to make and I hope you realize that it's a pretty ignorant one too.

My parents may be better off than some others, but between the mortgage and bills, they've NEVER once bought a brand new car, and definitely have never owned a car made in the 2000's. That mortgage they pay is for a house in a not-so-hot part of town. No designer clothes. We're painfully middle class.

My parents came to Canada in 1980 as boat people refugees in Vietnam. They worked their asses off to set up a good environment for my brother and I, even though we lived in a shit area. There just isn't room for things like RESP's and extra savings. They wanted to get out of the roach-infested apartment buildings. They put everything they had into getting their house.

Listen, we all have hardships. But don't go judging other people and jump to conclusions. Don't you say parents don't care. Don't even ****ing think about it.