OSAP/NSLSC frustration

[NeuroD]

3 hours ago, rmorelan said:

unless something has changed  it doesn't unfortunately enter interest free status in residency - you are considered working etc and enter if you haven't already repayment status. The good news I suppose is you arent that far off from when you would have had to deal with repayment anyway (or move it to the LOC). There is that program of course to stay in the province for interest free status but that is completely separate and an entire discussion on giving up mobility for interest payments ha would have to be had. 

Terrible deal as far as I can tell. You give up so much for so little! I think it would only be worth it for people who have maxed out their loans and have such poor cash flow that they can't service it!

I guess I'll just transfer it all to LOC this week.
Thanks for all your help guys and gals!

[rmorelan]

46 minutes ago, PhD2MD said:

Terrible deal as far as I can tell. You give up so much for so little! I think it would only be worth it for people who have maxed out their loans and have such poor cash flow that they can't service it!

I guess I'll just transfer it all to LOC this week.
Thanks for all your help guys and gals!

or for whatever reason know absolutely they are going to be in Ontario regardless. Mostly that I guess apply to family doctors but they also only get 2 years relief so are effectively getting less for the same cost of 5 years of service. The program isn't that popular because the restrictions can really bit you in the ass. Being able to move around is an important asset in our hard to predict job market. 

Ha welcome I suppose to the "these loans are not actually annoying" part of your life. It isn't a great part to be honest  

[NeuroD]

FINAL UPDATE

It's been months of back and forth between the federal and provincial departments (both scratching their heads and blaming each other), and my local OSAP reps (who were really useless). As far as I can tell, things sat untouched for months at a time, until I got on the phone and pushed each of the 3 groups to start talking to each other aggressively. In the end, they finally realized that a PhD can be done before and MD, not just after, and awarded me about half the usual amount of OSAP for this year. They also reversed the interest charges that have been accruing.

There's been a lot of talk in this forum about where the best place to keep your overall debt is...I've learned a lot about this + made a calculator + there are changes coming in the new budget...so i'll make a post about this soon.

Thanks for everyone's help/suggestion along this journey

[la marzocco]

1 hour ago, PhD2MD said:

FINAL UPDATE

It's been months of back and forth between the federal and provincial departments (both scratching their heads and blaming each other), and my local OSAP reps (who were really useless). As far as I can tell, things sat untouched for months at a time, until I got on the phone and pushed each of the 3 groups to start talking to each other aggressively. In the end, they finally realized that a PhD can be done before and MD, not just after, and awarded me about half the usual amount of OSAP for this year. They also reversed the interest charges that have been accruing.

There's been a lot of talk in this forum about where the best place to keep your overall debt is...I've learned a lot about this + made a calculator + there are changes coming in the new budget...so i'll make a post about this soon.

Thanks for everyone's help/suggestion along this journey

Happy to hear that this ended on a relatively good note! Thank you for sharing this experience with us

[photato]

5 hours ago, PhD2MD said:

FINAL UPDATE

It's been months of back and forth between the federal and provincial departments (both scratching their heads and blaming each other), and my local OSAP reps (who were really useless). As far as I can tell, things sat untouched for months at a time, until I got on the phone and pushed each of the 3 groups to start talking to each other aggressively. In the end, they finally realized that a PhD can be done before and MD, not just after, and awarded me about half the usual amount of OSAP for this year. They also reversed the interest charges that have been accruing.

There's been a lot of talk in this forum about where the best place to keep your overall debt is...I've learned a lot about this + made a calculator + there are changes coming in the new budget...so i'll make a post about this soon.

Thanks for everyone's help/suggestion along this journey

Did you get the interest reversed on both the Canada Student Loan and OSAP?  I'm in a similar situation but with provincial loans from a different province.

[NeuroD]

24 minutes ago, photato said:

Did you get the interest reversed on both the Canada Student Loan and OSAP?  I'm in a similar situation but with provincial loans from a different province.

Yes both.

[Zuk]

On 9/7/2018 at 8:57 PM, PhD2MD said:

Unfortunate update: I've reached the maximum number of weeks allowed for OSAP due to a sucky technicality. I want others to know about this in the future so they don't get trapped.

I did not use OSAP during the 5 years of my PhD, but I had interest free status because I was student. Those 5 years of interest free status counted as time as an OSAP recipient. Sucks because I wasn't carrying much OSAP debt, and only saved ~1000 in interest over the whole 5 years. Would have gladly paid that if I had known about this technicality.

Ah well. Not much I can do about it now. LOC to the rescue. Just would have been nice if they did this before tuition was due so I wouldn't have to pay late fees and interest.

This happened to me, after the first year of the second degree...  I was really lucky that I was able to get a line of credit and some financial help from family.

[Zuk]

6 hours ago, PhD2MD said:

FINAL UPDATE

It's been months of back and forth between the federal and provincial departments (both scratching their heads and blaming each other), and my local OSAP reps (who were really useless). As far as I can tell, things sat untouched for months at a time, until I got on the phone and pushed each of the 3 groups to start talking to each other aggressively. In the end, they finally realized that a PhD can be done before and MD, not just after, and awarded me about half the usual amount of OSAP for this year. They also reversed the interest charges that have been accruing.

There's been a lot of talk in this forum about where the best place to keep your overall debt is...I've learned a lot about this + made a calculator + there are changes coming in the new budget...so i'll make a post about this soon.

Thanks for everyone's help/suggestion along this journey

Good to hear.

 

[lovemedicinesomuch]

Does this not happen if you pursue MD first then a Phd?

[Zuk]

16 minutes ago, lovemedicinesomuch said:

Does this not happen if you pursue MD first then a Phd?

Yeah you might run out of weeks during your MD, but extensions are granted routinely in that circumstance if you want to do a PhD (that's what I gathered from the thread). 

[NeuroD]

9 hours ago, lovemedicinesomuch said:

Does this not happen if you pursue MD first then a Phd?

 

9 hours ago, Zuk said:

Yeah you might run out of weeks during your MD, but extensions are granted routinely in that circumstance if you want to do a PhD (that's what I gathered from the thread). 

Right... they're used to extending for PhD after and MD. But they don't understand what to do when it's the other way around.