osap and tuition questions

[canadamed111]

I recently completed my OSAP application and was told that I need to complete a Confirmation of Enrolment at the beginning of my study period in order to obtain *any* funding. However, the first portion of my funding is supposed to be given in early September. For anyone who has gone through this process -- do I need to worry about filling out the Confirmation of Enrolment form before September?

 

Also - when are tuition fees due (assuming no deferral of payment)? The school hasn't contacted me about anything since May.

[Rock*]

My school, the U of C, doesn't need the first installment of my tuition paid until September. I'd imagine that yours may be similar.

[kcolangelo2011]

I was on OSAP in my undergrad (and will be for med too!), and my understanding is that you need to wait until at least the first day of classes to obtain your confirmation of enrollment for them to release any funds to you (otherwise you could say you were going to school, take the money and withdraw from classes before starting)...usually your financial services at your university will have some type of line going in the first week that you go to, sign your confirmation of enrollment and then they sign their portion of the OSAP forms and release your funds.

 

I also believe that most med schools won't require all of your tuition upfront, that it will be due later in September. Many students I know in med school didn't even arrange lines of credit until they started classes in September, because the banks were trying hardcore to recruit them at that point.

 

Hope this helps!

[TidusAlexandros]

Hi everyone...new to the site but a quick question:

 

Does anyone know when the entire OSAP assessment process is completed so that I can know how much money they are willing to lend me this year?

 

I know that when you complete the application, they give you a preliminary figure but how accurate is that amount?

 

Thanks!

[moose]

as long as you entered the information for the estimate accurately, it's pretty accurate. my figure was accurate to within $1000. all depends on when your school sends out the program information form to OSAP for them to make their final estimate. Historically, UofT is pretty damn slow with this. Although I never personally had OSAP while at UT, I know some friends who have said UT is quite slow.

[lostintime]

I have a question re: OSAP. I heard this rumor that you get part of your OSAP waived if it's over a certain amount, I forgot if it's 7k or 9k. My estimate was around 14k. So does that mean I get the rest as "free money"?

 

Thanks! (I think I'm being too....idealistic? But I swear I've heard this somewhere).

[Satsuma]

Yep....anything over 7k for 2 semesters is forgiven.

This is done automatically at the end of each shool year for you (roughly). You'll get a notice in the mail, I can`t remember when, maybe end of summer or fall?? That notifies you of what has been forgiven. Also it will show up online where you can see the summary of all your loans.

[lostintime]

Thanks Satsuma! Ooo that's so GOOD! But I'm worried about how accurate this estimate is (I've heard many stories lol). And they don't know about my UWO Bursary yet (although UWO said they would tell them....).

 

Does anyone know when we find out our status? I think it's sometime in June.

[drduiib]

I've always been confused about the classification of the Doctor of Medicine program. I know it's also referred to as the Undergraduate Medical Education program at most schools. It's technically not grad school, so OGS doesn't apply to it (darn). I've always thought that it's a second-entry professional program.

 

I'm in the middle of applying for OSAP. I indicated my program and instituion, and the system indicated that the "level of study" is a Bachelor's degree. Does that make me eligible for the Millenium Bursary?

[kaysersoze]

i have applied to osap all throughout undergrad..is the process the same for medical school? any extra curveballs?

 

thanks guys great info

[silverjelly]

Man, the after-7K OSAP loan forgiveness is awesome.

 

As an OOP student attending an Ontario school, it really sucks that almost all of my classmates will get this. Well, it doesn't suck for them but it sucks for me.

 

It's a huge relief of burden when the max OSAP is around 13,000 but 6K of that each year is forgiven.

 

Grrrr, why don't other provinces have loan forgiveness programs like this?

[lostintime]

I have a question. If your school gives you like 3 k of bursaries, will OSAP decrease your total loan?

[MillerTime]

Possibly, I would think it would depend on the other factors in your application (assets and income). If you have neither, then it probably wouldn't affect it all that much, but say you have some of each, they you might be getting less than the max and the additional bursary may deduct more. I doubt you'll have a dollar deducted for every dollar of the bursary though, so you'll still end up ahead. Guess we'll find out for sure when OSAP pays us though!

[lostintime]

Thanks for replying. Did you guys report your account balances? I didn't =S

[MillerTime]

you are supposed to report balances of everything, so bank accounts, bonds, gics, investments, piggy bank, etc...ok well not the piggy bank, but you get the idea. One option is to not have any assets in only your name, so if you could make a joint account with someone you trust with your money (a parent maybe), that could be good because then there's no way to say that it's your asset and you don't risk any bad outcomes if by chance you got audited.

[lostintime]

But what if your account balance keeps changing? Like technically, if I know that someone is going to take $4000 away from me (i.e. I write them a cheque) and I end up with close to 0, I shouldn't need to report it.

[MillerTime]

yeah, from the information I have gathered, the only way bank account balances are actually checked is if there's an audit of your file, which is fairly rare under normal circumstances i guess, and quite unlikely. Something like income though, they can verify with CRA much easier. So I wouldn't worry about it too much, but i'm just goin the safe route with my accounts.

[Laika]

yeah, from the information I have gathered, the only way bank account balances are actually checked is if there's an audit of your file, which is fairly rare under normal circumstances i guess, and quite unlikely. Something like income though, they can verify with CRA much easier. So I wouldn't worry about it too much, but i'm just goin the safe route with my accounts.

 

If OSAP can verify with the CRA, then they'll know about significant bank balances since banks issue slips (T5 maybe? Can't remember.) when you earn interest on a bank account.

 

And I'm not sure the joint account is "safe," either. I heard from an FP that you'd be on the hook for half of the joint account.

[funkymonkey08]

When do you no longer need to declare your parents income? I heard that if you have been living "by yourself" (i.e. on campus or away from home) for the past four years then you no longer need to declare you parents income and this could significantly increase the amout of OSAP that you are entitlted to...

[MillerTime]

If OSAP can verify with the CRA, then they'll know about significant bank balances since banks issue slips (T5 maybe? Can't remember.) when you earn interest on a bank account.

 

And I'm not sure the joint account is "safe," either. I heard from an FP that you'd be on the hook for half of the joint account.

 

Even if the banks issue slips, how would they know when the money is where. I could have had $100,000 in an account (i wish, haha), but then bought a $100,000 car, and it's not like they would look at it as me having both $100,000 and $100,000 car.

 

I don't actually know how OSAP goes about verifying assets, or the rules they go by for determining if it's your asset, I'm just going on information I've read from a guy who used to work there and he had done the joint account thing for all of his years or school and received the max amount every year, so by all means, take my suggestions/opinions with a grain of salt, I don't want anyone to think I actually know exactly what I'm talking about, haha.

Probably the most common joint accounts would be between a married/common-law couple, in which case, OSAP would take into account your spouse's income and assets anyways, so a joint account in that case wouldn't make a difference, but maybe a joint account between a child and parent would be easier to defend and say it's not your asset. But again, i'm not a FP or anything like that, so really I have no idea, I just hope we all get as much from the gov't student loans as we can, within the rules.

[MillerTime]

When do you no longer need to declare your parents income? I heard that if you have been living "by yourself" (i.e. on campus or away from home) for the past four years then you no longer need to declare you parents income and this could significantly increase the amout of OSAP that you are entitlted to...

 

if you've been out of high school for 4 years, you are considered an independant and you do not need to declare any info from your parents.

[Laika]

Even if the banks issue slips, how would they know when the money is where. I could have had $100,000 in an account (i wish, haha), but then bought a $100,000 car, and it's not like they would look at it as me having both $100,000 and $100,000 car.

 

OK, fair enough...

 

I don't actually know how OSAP goes about verifying assets, or the rules they go by for determining if it's your asset, I'm just going on information I've read from a guy who used to work there and he had done the joint account thing for all of his years or school and received the max amount every year, so by all means, take my suggestions/opinions with a grain of salt, I don't want anyone to think I actually know exactly what I'm talking about, haha.

 

Re: the joint account... this is what the FP had to say about it:

 

Sorry it has taken me a few days to get back to you, but I wanted to do some digging and talking to colleagues before I gave you an answer. Essentially what the general consensus is, that if you make the account joint, the assets will still be considered yours in OSAP's eyes. They view the change of ownership as though you are hiding assets from them.

The government can track savings because you have to claim the interest as income on your tax return. What you may want to do is pay for your first year studies out of this savings and apply for OSAP next year.

 

So it sounds like we're supposed to spend out our savings and then apply for OSAP. I just feel like OSAP/grants are a bit of a game... try to get the most we're allowed under their ambiguous rules...

[MillerTime]

Yeah actually one thing I left out from what I was saying about transferring the funds to a joint account was that the other party (not you) would have to claim the interest gained from that account on their tax returns. So if that's the case then, maybe it would be a slightly different situation and they couldn't consider it your asset? There's nothing wrong with giving a monetary gift to someone, the person receiving it doesn't have to pay tax or anything, and there's nothing special you have to do to prove this gift, so I don't really see how they could argue against you if you say that you gave transferred this money to a parent/someone else as a monetary gift, and from then on they will claim the interest from it as they will be treating it at their asset?

 

But once again, the person you talked to is a FP. I am not. So who knows!

[lostintime]

Who says I have to give the money to someone who pays tax in Canada? I could send it half way across the world too...and even if I give a monetary gift to my parents, and they then choose to give that monetary gift to my grandparents who are not in Canada....I don't see what OSAP can say about that =P

[kaysersoze]

ok so queens sent me a ltter telling my the dollar value of an entrance bursary i'll be getting...should i put that value in my "income to be gained during the school year" part of the application...or should i put 0 and let them go fish?