Ontario Student Loans - OSAP Help Please!

Dread Pirate Arbuthnot

I am a first year student attending York University in the fall. After my acceptance, in the middle of May, my mother and I went through the OSAP application process. I told her that I was fairly sure it wasn't available yet, she said she was sure it was. Seeing how I am the fourth child in my family to go to university I deferred to her.

It turns out I was right, and after filling out the application it turned out we had just applied for 2008-2009 OSAP instead of 2009-2010.

This has come back to bite us in the ass - OSAP has me on record now, and when I tried to apply for student loans this year I was informed that I was not a new student and should not be applying for first year student loans. Oh dear.

Any idea on how to fix this mess? My mother suggested I call York tomorrow morning, but I don't think they could help me. Is there an assistance line for this sort of thing?

Unterpreiz

I think your best bet would be to call York's financial aid office. From my experience, the school's financial aid office handle most of the administration of student loans and would be able to help you out.

It sounds like a strange situation, I'm not entirely sure I see how not being able to apply for "first year student loans" could be detrimental. If I recall there are some bursaries and awards tied to applying for your first year, is that what's causing the trouble? Is it that they're literally just not letting you apply AT ALL, due to this status?

I've had 5 years of OSAP, myself, never ran into this problem-- but I did run into several problems and contacting my school's financial aid office was ALWAYS the first step towards resolving issues. For example, because you generally only sign into OSAP's online account once a year to set up a loan application...naturally its pretty easy to forget your password-- I forgot it 2 years in a row, hah. The way to get your password back through OSAP's offices was a long process including mailing in proof of identification and a bunch of other stuff-- the other way to get your password back was to just go into my school's financial aid office with some proof of identification. Going through OSAP would take a couple of weeks, going into my school's office took me 20 minutes(I don't live far.)

DEFINITELY contact York's financial aid office, I wouldn't be surprised if they've run into this sort of problem before with students and know exactly how to help you out. Calling OSAP directly can be tricky and you might be able to get the RIGHT number to call at that giant bureaucracy if nothing else, if you go through York's financial aid office.

Good luck.

Wezoin

First year students get quite a bit more money than everyone else, for some reason. My first year loan was over $7000, second year was $1100 (I made slightly more money during that year, but nowhere near enough to make a $6000 drop logical.)

Anyway, Unter is right, financial aid office at each university tends to deal with OSAP stuff. Its a little strange, but at the very least they'll be able to tell you what to do.

Dread Pirate Arbuthnot

Thanks for the advice guys, I'll be calling York this morning and getting this sorted out.

Sharp101

You should also be able to call the OSAP offices directly. Not sure what the number for that is though.

Zael

In my experiences with OSAP, I have found no way to call them directly and always had to deal with my institutions own financial services department. That being said, they were always able to sort out my problems or at least tell me how to do it myself.

Dread Pirate Arbuthnot

Ok, attempting to call the student centre has been unsuccessful thus far. I just have to keep trying, I guess. It just keeps ringing and ringing. Sigh.

Unterpreiz

Hey, Dread Pirate, are you calling the student centre or the financial aid office? I found this http://www.yorku.ca/osfs/contact.shtml giving contact info direct to the financial aid office, and the office hours say they're open 9am-4pm. But I also found a number for the York University Student Centre, which I guess could be closed in between terms. Just trying to make sure you're calling the right office/number; I know that this can be a super stressful time-- sorry if this sounds patronizing. (If you have the right number, phone lines at colleges and universities can be especially busy in the summer months, especially if they run a summer semester in combination with setting up all the new students waiting for September.) Just keep calling! You'll get through eventually.

Dread Pirate Arbuthnot

Unterpreiz wrote: »

Hey, Dread Pirate, are you calling the student centre or the financial aid office? I found this http://www.yorku.ca/osfs/contact.shtml giving contact info direct to the financial aid office, and the office hours say they're open 9am-4pm. But I also found a number for the York University Student Centre, which I guess could be closed in between terms. Just trying to make sure you're calling the right office/number; I know that this can be a super stressful time-- sorry if this sounds patronizing. (If you have the right number, phone lines at colleges and universities can be especially busy in the summer months, especially if they run a summer semester in combination with setting up all the new students waiting for September.) Just keep calling! You'll get through eventually.

Yep, that was the one I was calling! I think it might have been either an a) they were busy or b) technical problem, because the phone would either keep ringing or there would be a small clicking noise and silence.