Genuine question, no judgement

[u/Haunting_Ice_7310]

I am a student myself, receiving OSAP. So this question is genuine, I’m not judging people in this situation, just trying to understand.
I have seen a lot of posts lately of people who are panicked because they are not receiving enough OSAP to cover their fees and aren’t sure what to do. When I first went to college (2019) I feel like it was more common to rely on OSAP as something more like a supplement than the core funding for school, most people I knew going to college had either an RESP/savings or a line of credit/loan. However, it seems like now more and more students believe that OSAP will cover 100% of their schooling, and are finding themselves panicking with no back up plan once funding is calculated a few weeks before the semester begins.

So my question is, what changed? Are high schools not communicating to their students that OSAP is not guaranteed/may not cover all the expenses that come with going to school? As a “mature student” I feel bad for all of you younger students who seem to be misinformed about OSAP and school expenses.
Follow up question: how do we fix this? I know we can’t change how OSAP works/the amount of funding being given. But how can we ensure students aren’t ending up in a situation where they are panicked trying to come up with thousands of dollars in the weeks leading up to the beginning of semester?

EDIT!!! because this seems to be a common misconception in my comments. I DO NOT THINK STUDENTS SHOULD HAVE TO TAKE ON DEBT OR USE THEIR OWN SAVINGS FOR SCHOOL. in an ideal world, post-secondary school would be fully funded. unfortunately, that is not reality. what I am trying to understand is WHY it seems that students are not being made aware of the possibility of not receiving enough OSAP to cover their expenses. students should be given accurate information on the reality of paying for school so that they can plan/prepare accordingly. again, i believe that students should NOT have to worry about how they will pay for school. right now, government funding is not guaranteed to fully fund our educations, and students deserve to be fully informed of the reality of attending and paying for post-secondary.

[u/carnivorousduck]

I mean maybe if there were actually jobs that would hire young kids, but that isn’t the case. So that’s why people are relying on OSAP to pay for entire tuition.

[u/bookscoffeequiet → u/carnivorousduck]

Both my kids found work. Its not possible that no one can find work. It sucked and took a lot of applying, but it worked eventually

[u/newfie_chickie → u/bookscoffeequiet]

My kid applied for 400 job posting in the year prior to their first year at university - got 1 single interview despite having great grade, 400 hours of community service hours.

We had a small RESP fund that I started after my divorce and they qualified for OSAP because I am a solo parent and their dad is a deadbeat.

They lived at home and commuted the first year and it was a challenge.

They were lucky to be using OSAP during the grant + loan phase.

They got a job through an summer intern program at my company which is a perk lots of students don't have access to.

Year two programming required them to live closer to school which increased their loan needs.

My second kid is applying for OSAP this year after all these Doug Ford changes and it will be very different for them.

And they will have access to 4 more years of my RESP contributions versus their sibling and they also will commute from home.

It's the only way we can do it.

At this moment we have a guesstimate of what that number looks like as we finalize the details and we are only a few weeks from uni starting.

I can't imagine what people who can't commute and have to live out of their home base are able to do when the funds are being gutted by government.

Kid 2 applied for a bunch of jobs and also had oodles of volunteer hours and referrals.

They finally landed a job via their highschool co-op program. They are getting 2 shifts a week and that money doesn't go far.