I don't think there are any other interest-free loans, your best bet is either a scholarship or bursary, sorry...

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UWO 2012 - Biological & Medical Science
UWO > Every other school

FogJUice that doesn't sound sad at all. that's incredibly admirable. you do know that there are tons of scholarships that take into consideration (or specifically target) students who are the first in their family to go to university right? i hope things turn out much better for you, it's a terrific goal that you have

My mom went to college for a year so that removed any chance I had of getting a 1st gen bursary .

Here's an update of what OSAP now wants from me, a record of all bursaries and income from 2006 and 2007 but they want proof from paystubs... I finished working at Zehrs back in March 2006 but I never saved my paystub thinking 2 years later OSAP would try to screw me over. I contacted Zehrs and they are going to mail me a record of employment and my last pay stub but it will take 2 weeks and it comes from Winnipeg, no matter what I said they wouldn't mail it express (cold heartless people). I am also trying to get in contact with a few other employers I had for co-ops in 2007, this is so painful :'(. My financial aid office said when I file the appeal then this should be fixed because I did state my income correctly but something glitched in their system, grrrr OSAP. Anyone who has their education paid for by their parents are very VERY lucky. It is very stressful with an education at the mercy of incompetent OSAP and if I had enough money to pay for school myself, obviously I would

Most of us do not have their education paid for by their parents thank you very much. We take out loans and/or get scholarships. Why can't you be like the rest of us and take out a loan?

OSAP is not incompetent and you should be grateful for any money you get from them.

Hey, yea I have all of my T4's but they are being ridiculous and want to know how much I made between Jan-May 2006, May-Aug 2006, Sept-Dec 2006 and similar for 2007, they also said T4's can't be used and that's most likely because T4's don't give exact dates of income, only a total.

Really? I've searched and I can't really find anything that I fit into (and I don't remember ever seeing anything in my studentawards search).

It sounds like they just mixed up your papers, you should call them or physically go in. Aren't the HQ's in Guelph? You could make an appointment and go in to talk to someone, and bring your papers.

As for other interest free loans, not that I know of. Sorry! Good luck with this whole ordeal.

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UOIT BComm (Accounting) 2013

So just yesterday I finally received confirmation that everything is ok, after 2 months!

It turns out that no matter what this would have happened, I didn't screw up at all.

What happened was that the CRA reports my income for the entire year but without specific dates when I earned everything, OSAP needed to know how much I earned each study period to see if they overpaid me for a student loan. On my OSAP application I reported $6000 earned between Jan-June because that is all they asked for, but on my 2007 income tax return I filed that I earned $12k. So OSAP thought that I earned more than I reported and they wanted proof that I only made $6k between jan and june and the rest was after.

What really really angers and frustrates me is the amount of time I had to take to go through this and the tone and attitude that was taken from OSAP. For something that was completely not my fault at all, I received letters that I can almost say "harshly" told me that I will not be able to receive loans for the next 5 years and that I had to pay all of my loans back without any assistance or anything. I spent the entire summer worrying I wasn't going to receive any OSAP and that I wouldn't be able to go to university, I had to take days off of work to get the proper documentation to submit to OSAP, and I had many sleepless nights just worrying.

There was literally no one that helped me at all, my old financial aid office at Georgian College were not helpful at all, York University financial aid office was even worse.

I needed to get a letter from Georgian College to verify that they gave me a $700 bursary in 2007, I had talked to the lady there in person when I initially received my income verification forms because I was very upset and confused, she helped me a bit just by saying that my file looked correct and that I should fill out the appeal and verification forms. I asked her if I could get a letter verifying my bursary and she said yes she'd type one up when I came back because she had offered to ship the forms priority to OSAP. So 3 weeks later and I finally have all of my forms together, zehrs had given me an incorrect ROE and the wrong paystubs so it took awhile to sort that out... I went into the Georgian College financial aid office and asked the man at the front desk if I could get a letter stating that I received a $700 bursary from georgian, his response, "Sorry you have to book an appointment".. I explained to him my situation and that the lady in the office right beside the front desk had told me it would take a few minutes and I didn't need to book an appointment. His response was "I'm sorry, it can take several hours to go through your file and find your bursary record. You have to book an appointment". So I asked when the next available time was, and it was a week and 1/2 away... I said that was unacceptable and all he could say was "Sorry, there's nothing I can do, you have to book an appointment". I said OK and he booked the appointment, a few minutes later after regrouping because I was fairly upset since I had spent 3 weeks calling, visiting, and working very hard to get all of my documents in order and this was the last one, I told myself that I wasn't going to be pushed around. I walked back in and told him that I was told by the lady in the office beside him that it wouldn't take long to do this letter and that I didn't need to book an appointment, I also told him that my entire university education is on the line and he is basically throwing it away because if I wait any longer I will never get OSAP. I also told him that if she had mentioned I would have needed an appointment and that it would take a week and 1/2 to book it, I would have done that 3 weeks ago. He just said "Sorry, you have to book an appointment". As he said that, a voice came out from the office next to the front desk "It's ok, let him in, I'll take care of it". The original lady that told me I didn't need an appointment heard my frustration and decided she'd live up to her word. She quickly found my file on her computer, wrote the letter, and 5 minutes later I was out with a signed printed letter... 2 hours... riiiight. I looked at him but he held his head down in the corner ignoring me because he looked and acted like a complete prick. The Georgian financial aid office didn't live up to their word about mailing the documents priority, they told me to drive all the way down to york to do that... but I'm now used to georgian financial aid office telling me lies, this isn't the first time they've told me something and it hasn't been true, it's the last time I'll ever trust them though.

So finally I had all of my documents together, I photocopied them all so I wouldn't have to start over if OSAP lost them. I drove down to York University and went to the student services centre, took a ticket, and waited for an hour to hand in my income verification forms so they could mail the documents. 45 minutes later and my number came up on the screen, I went in, and sat down with a lady that was somewhat hard to understand because her russian sounding accent was very strong. I showed her the documents and explained the story, she didn't even know what an income verification form was and she had no clue what to do with my papers. I said that on the bottom of the document it says that if I submit it to my current school than it will be treated with priority, so the whole thing could be expedited. She said "ok, I will take it but I don't know when york mails out documents". I said ok, and left it with her. Big mistake. I had a very bad feeling in my stomach, I should have stuck wiht my gut feeling and took the documents home to mail them myself, the only reason I brought them to york was because as I said before, the document said that if I bring it to my current school than it will be treated with priority.

One week later and I called back to york to check up on the status of my forms, the lady that answered the phone at york financial services said they can't track it and that they need to make a ticket to have someone else get back to me in 3 business days. They create the ticket and I wait as directed. After 4 business days I called back to see what the hold up was, the lady that answered said they have a high volume and I should wait longer. I wait 2 more business days, still no call from York. Meanwhile OSAP called me asking if I have submitted my income verification forms, I said yes, I submitted it to york as directed by Georgian and also as directed by the print on the bottom of the form. The lady said "oh.." as in "He shouldn't have done that". She said she'd call york to see waht's taking so long and I told her I've been trying to and had no luck, she told me to keep trying. That was the last I heard from her. I called york again to see what was going on, a lady picked up and said that the person in charge of my problem is on holidays and won't be back until next week, but because that person happens to be her mom, and somehow she has a cousin with the same name as me, she will mention it to her mom that night to see if she will do anything. I call again the next week, another lady answers and gives me attitude about it saying that york doesn't deal with income verification, she then said she can forward me to the managers number because the manager might be able to help but I might get voicemail. I said OK and she put me through, I waited 10 minutes for someone to pick up as the phone kept ringing before I hung up. I called york back right after, the same lady that forwarded me to the manager picked up, I said that the number she connected me to just kept ringing and ringning and in an angry tone she told me that it was lunch time and that she might not be answering, I then said that there was no voice mail either as she had told me there would be b4. She gave me the ext to call and said "keep trying until someone picks up".. So I said ok thanks, bye and tried about 15 times within a 2 hour period and no one picked up, I left a message but to this day no one has returned my call. I was lost and didn't know what to do, york wasn't helping me out at all and I thought they had lost my papers. Out of desperation I tried calling OSAP office in northern Ontario, I waited 30 minutes in queue and someone picked up. I told them york can't track my documents, for weeks i've been tryign to find out if they mailed htem or not, I don't know what to do.. the man that answered pulled up my file and said that york mailed them 3-4 days ago and that OSAP had received my package and would be reviewing it within a week. I said thank you and felt a little relieved.

So I called OSAP back a week later, my documents were still waiting to be reviewed and the man that answered this time told me to call back after the weekend because it should be done by then, so I did, still not done, and a few weeks later, still not done. Finally 2 days ago I was able to talk to a lady that told me they were received and everything was cleared up, I will be getting OSAP and that I should now deal with york for everything else. Yaay!

So now, September 3rd, still not sure when I will receive OSAP, not sure how much, but I am getting it... Unfortunately now I am dealing with slight depression set off by not knowing how much OSAP I will receive, not knowing when I will get it, and having to pay for rent, food, textbooks, and internet. If I don't receive enough OSAP I will have to drop out, if I don't drop out by Sept 10th than york keeps 10% of my tuition, then 20% the next week, then 60% or somethign the week after, and by Oct 3rd I get nothing back. I can appeal it but that process takes 4-8 weeks.. more waiting. I would probably know by now how much if york had mailed the forms within a few days of when I submitted.


Anyways, just thought I'd let people in on what happened. I will be sending a letter to the minister of colleges, universities, and training, and also my local MPP. OSAP doesn't work, I fell through a very wide crack, no matter what this would have happened to me, it was unavoidable because of the current way OSAP is setup, and so I wasted all of that time worrying, running around, taking days off of work, sleepless nights, just because OSAP doesn't have their stuff straightened out. Not only that but York is a complete horror story on the administration side.

Thats interesting because at York I went to the loan zone and they got rid of the loan because I didn't need it. and they gave me over 2k in grants which will cover my books and tuition sweet. I just need to know when I'm getting my grants >< I'm gonna be on edge for next while

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YORK; Honors Arts - History Major/German minor? '12

there are bursary's for first generation uni students form where?
I could definitely use that money...

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*mz_alliyah*

SuMmEr 08 iS hErE !!!<done high school; gonna live it up....b4 i go 2 uni>