Guest avisee Posted July 28, 2004 Report Share Posted July 28, 2004 How does taking bank LOCs affect your OSAP status? I'd imagine that OSAP would assess annual expenses at your average Ontario med school (maybe not U of T, with a higher cost of living and tuition) as around $25-30K for a single med student not living at home. If a student takes out a good LOC at $100K, and uses $25,000 of that per year (maybe more for the first year, given the added expenses of setting up a new residence - moving, furniture, maybe buying a car), plus gets maybe $10,000 from OSAP and $5000 from a summer job, then the student essentially has an annual income of $40,000. Wouldn't that be classed as an overaward, since OSAP is assessing you with the assumption that with their contribution, you will only have access to $25-30K that year? Do bank loans work against the amount of OSAP one is eligible for? Or do most med students who are getting OSAP only use bank loans to top them up to cover that $30K cost of living? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ollie Posted July 28, 2004 Report Share Posted July 28, 2004 Loans/LOCs are not factored in to student loans assesments because they are not income. They are a loan that you will have to pay back. My LOC is definitely my last resort, but after using up my (measly) savings and my student loan on my tuition, it won't take long for me to get to that last resort. :b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest avisee Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 well that's good news to hear. But what about those students who use their LOCs to buy cars? (Especially students at schools where cars are considered a near-necessity, eg, Western). Even though the financing comes from another loan, won't OSAP go on to use the car as an asset against you when you go to reapply for a loan the next year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 Your LOC is a debt... not an asset. OSAP will not factor in your LOC into your loan calculations at all. Meaning that they will not count a high credit limit against you as an asset... but they also will not count a high debt to the bank as a 'liability' either. So, you won't get any more OSAP for being in debt to a bank. That said, the things you buy with your LOC money MAY be counted as assets. If you buy a car, that is an asset. OSAP doesn't care if you do it on borrowed money. If you invested your LOC money in an RRSP (why I don't know) that would be an asset too. Assets do influence your OSAP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 Hi there, I just read the following OSAP announcement on the UofT news site: www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/040721-271.asp Hopefully that should help a few more folks, especially in the area of debt relief. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted July 29, 2004 Report Share Posted July 29, 2004 Sounds encouraging.... however, they STILL have yet to increase the amount of max OSAP...(still stuck at 1990 levels) so there will be no more money for those of us assessed as needing maximum assistance. The changes will really only increase the number of people that are eligible for some funding. A step in the right direction, but not a real bonus for the med students... most of us qualify for OSAP under the existing rules. The debt reduction sounds nice... but I guess we will have to wait and see what it actually means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted August 7, 2005 Report Share Posted August 7, 2005 Floating back to the top. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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