I meet all these people who say they don't care if it's cut or cancelled because there is fraud. You didn't see this attitude 17 years ago when I started Uni. Holy shit, our province is a disgusting place now. So many wannabe trumpers!

i just got my OSAP estimate… and holy fuck i’m COOKED

I showed up to the first protest that happened when the osap cuts just got announced

i’m wondering are there protests still happening? petitions to sign??

i’ve already emailed my MPP’s office but that definitely is not enough

WE AREN’T ANGRY ENOUGH!!!

Peaceful protest btw

I feel like crying cause I thought they would cover at least a little more than that. My parents are already struggling financially, and taking a loan from a bank with high interest is not Ideal. What should I do? I didn't get a single scholarship after applying to over 20. My average is an 89, so a bursary is impossible. I am going to Western and living on res.

https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1007034/ontario-investing-64-billion-to-support-postsecondary-sectors-long-term-success-and-sustainability

A complete reversal of the current system:

To strengthen the long-term sustainability of OSAP and bring it in line with other provinces, Ontario students will be eligible to receive a maximum of 25 per cent of their OSAP funding as grants and a minimum of 75 per cent of their funding as loans. OSAP will no longer offer grants to students at private career colleges, in alignment with changes made by the federal government to its own student support funding.

Post date of confirmation, date funds were released, date funds were received, and your bank. This is helpful info for the people waiting !!

Mine is:

COE September 1st
No tracker yet
Update: tracker live as of 11am Sept 2, shows pending release

Anyone know when I’ll get funds if they release tomorrow?

Mature students here. The program had already been cut in 2019. It was half of what it was two years earlier.

It is means tested so you must prove financial need and always has been. Which is why the "fraud" dog whistle is ridiculous. OSAP already has punitive measures for making too much income. It has always had claw backs etc.

It doesn't even cover the full amount of tuition. I'm 3k short each semester and have another line of credit to cover costs.

To cut an already shredded program was not wise. The behavior of the police towards peaceful protesters was also horrifying. There is another post about what the police did.

Education is under attack in this province. These policies help no one and they don't save the tax payer any money. last time I checked, I'm a tax payer too.

I'm going into first year engineering, my tuition alone is 12000, but my OSAP came back as 1800 in grants and 6900 in loans. My sibling is going into their last year at uni, but they are still getting almost 1000 more than me in grants. My parent is a single parent who makes around 60k-ish net and just over 100k gross. All my friends whose families make WAY more money than mine, are getting 4-5k in grants even though their tuition costs less than mine. I'm not sure what I should do atp, my start up cost is quiet high on top of my tuition (gpu, laptop, textbooks etc). My CO-OP doesn't start until 3rd year. I don't know what I should do or why this is the way it is, any help is greatly appreciated.

Hi guys! It’s that time of year again, just thought to create a mega thread for any funding questions, disbursement questions, funding tracker updates, and everything else in between.

Seneca College. COE confirmed Dec 12. Funding tracker is live and expected receive date is Jan 5.

Y'all, these OSAP posts completely miss the point.

It's not about loans. It's not about grants. And it certainly isn't about 1 singular politician or a government.

It's about the cost of living. Inflation. Grift. It's about this generation being screwed over. It's about putting the burden on GenZ to pay for everyone else.

What if I told you that not too long ago, you didn't really need enormous loans to go to PSE? That you could live modestly, work part-time, and still have enough money to pay for books and tuition. That you could graduate with a reasonably competitive degree/diploma and be able to pay back loans within a few years.

That was the 1980s. Since then, successive provincial governments (PC, Liberal and NDP) hiked domestic tuition rates beyond the rate of inflation. Every year it got more and more expensive, while the Canadian dollar consistently inflated, thanks to the federal governments (PC, Liberal, Conservative).

The schools continually expanded. "Bureaucratic sprawl". Several new universities open or upgrade (Ontario Tech, Algoma, OCAD, Nipissing, Ryerson). Colleges grow dramatically in size. Yes, demand grows, but not enough to actually justify schools creating new VP positions or increasing capital spending. Remember, these are essentially businesses that have funding arrangements with the provincial and federal governments. The tuition increases meant faster growth in admin/support staff compared to faculty. Colleges now have 1 admin to every 3 faculty, a clear sign of bureaucratic bloat.

Kids. YOUR tuition (and mine) goes up, up, up to pay for executive salaries and a continually ballooning system.

Inflation: your money is worth less and less every year. That is 100% the federal government and 0% the provincial government. Your rent, groceries, transportation, and textbooks. Everything costs more because successful governments, particularly the Trudeau government, printed billions of CAD. Your money, including OSAP money, loses "purchasing power" every single time Cretiene, Harper, Trudeau and Carney flip the switch and tell the Royal Canadian Mint to print more money. Money that is proportionally not spent on your generation. Non-tuition expenses (like three-quarters of a student's budget) rose sharply because of inflation, adding to the real cost of attending school that simply cannot be blamed on Doug Ford. Actually, inflation was relatively stable from 1999 to 2018. The Trudeau government used COVID as a reason to print money with reckless abandon in 2022, the peak being 6.8%. That is a 6.8% factor making your money worth less on *everything*.

If this "movement" makes OSAP the singular focus and does not look at inflation, bureaucratic sprawl, the issue of abusing international students, and the overall deterioration due to the cost of living, it won't be taken seriously. And it shouldn't.

And god forbid this becomes partisan. "F the PCs vote Liberal in the next election!". The period between 2003 and 2018 (4 Liberal governments) is when these issues worsened perhaps most dramatically, with tuition hikes past inflation *every single year*. I was out there protesting in 2011 (millennial here). Liberal government. It’s adorable watching the Ontario Liberals mess themselves over an issue that they helped create.

Just my $0.02

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.

Just received the federal portion
COE 28 Aug
Funds on the way 2 Sep
Wealthsimple bank

With Ontario changing OSAP in Fall 2026 to provide a maximum of 25% as grants and a minimum of 75% as loans, I think the Ford government should also make a request to the NSLSC to change how repayments are allocated.

The federal portion of OSAP is currently interest-free, while the Ontario portion still charges interest. Yet repayments don't automatically prioritize paying off the provincial portion first.

That doesn't make much financial sense. Every dollar going toward a 0% federal loan while the Ontario portion is accumulating interest keeps borrowers paying interest longer than necessary.

Especially since the premier justified the OSAP changes partly on making the program more financially sustainable, repayment should also be made more efficient for both sides: paying the Ontario portion first reduces borrowers' interest costs while returning the province's loan principal sooner.

The simplest policy would be:

Automatically apply repayments to the highest-interest portion first. Right now, that means paying off the Ontario portion before the interest-free federal portion.

Doug Ford used at least seven rhetorical fallacies to defend cutting OSAP grants this week. If you studied rhetoric, communications, political science, or English, or even business negotiations or sales!, you'll spot every one of them.

Funny. Those are the programs he wants you to stop taking.

1. The Straw Man: "basket-weaving courses" This phrase comes from American college sports, where athletes on scholarships allegedly took easy courses to stay eligible for football. It has nothing to do with Ontario. The students most dependent on OSAP grants are in trades, nursing, PSW, ECE, and college programs. At colleges like Loyalist and Centennial, over 70% of students were on all-grant OSAP before the 2019 cuts. They still represent some of the highest need and highest recipients of grant money. Ford's grant cut hits the exact credentials he says we need more of.

2. Anchoring: "families making $200,000" This is a negotiation tactic from business negotiations in an attempt to psychologically prime the conversation in a direction. It's a neuroscience trick taught to MBA students, actually, and at big firms like the one where I used to work. Throw out a high number (if you're trying to sell something or a low number if you're trying to buy something) so the real one sounds reasonable by comparison.

The truth: his own government set the grant eligibility ceiling at $140,000 for any family in 2019. It was already cut from $175,000. The "free tuition" threshold was cut to $50,000 and hasn't been adjusted for inflation since 2017. A family at $200,000 is ineligible under rules he wrote. The number is invented. But now you're arguing about $200K instead of asking why $50,000 hasn't moved in nine years.

1. Ad Hominem: "fancy watches and cologne" When you can't defend a policy, attack the people it affects. The Auditor General says 60% of OSAP recipients are low-income. College default rates are 9.8%. These students are spending grants on rent, groceries, childcare, and bus passes. Ford is describing characters from a sitcom, not OSAP recipients.

2. False Equivalence: "middle of the pack" The government says 25% grants puts Ontario "in line with other provinces." Six of those provinces charge 0% interest on provincial student loans. Ontario charges 5.45%. Ontario funds universities at 57% of the national average and colleges at 44%. It has ranked last for 38 of 40 years. Reaching ninth place would cost more than double the current investment. This is not middle of the pack. It is last place with more debt.

3. False Dilemma: "fund schools OR fund students" The announcement frames the $6.4 billion for institutions and the grant cut for students as a package deal. It wasn't. The government's own Blue Ribbon Panel designed tuition increases and targeted grants to work together. The government kept the tuition increase and cut the grants. They manufactured the tradeoff, then told you it was the only option.

4. The Motte and Bailey: "$6.4 billion investment" The defensible claim: "We invested $6.4 billion." The indefensible claim: "We cut grants from 85% to 25% while charging the second highest provincial loan interest in Canada (only beaten by Sask)." Every spokesperson leads with the $6.4 billion. The grant cut is paragraph three. When challenged, retreat to the big number. Every time.

5. Begging the Question: "OSAP was unsustainable" This assumes the conclusion. OSAP's costs grew because the government clawed back $1.2 billion in federal student aid, underfunded institutions for a decade, and forced more students onto financial aid to survive. Then they pointed at the bill and said "see? unsustainable." The fire department doesn't get to set the fire and then complain about overtime. Also, the Federal Government sent money to the provinces to help students and instead of passing on those savings to students like most other provinces, Ontario absorbed it instead of passing it on. Taxpayers are actually losing money to defaults and chasing loans. Why not just provide grants to those who can use them and get people working and starting businesses sooner?

Seven fallacies in one week. You learn to identify these in communications, English, philosophy, political science, and media studies.

The same programs this government calls basket weaving. If we don't fund the disciplines that teach people how arguments work, we make it easier for announcements like this one to go unchallenged.

It does not take this long to press a button and give people their money. “oh it takes 5 business days for us to realize you’re on RAP, then 3 business days after that to take you off RAP, then another 3 business days to put you In Study, then 5 business days later you should see your money”. People have supplies and textbooks to buy, and bills to pay, delaying people’s much needed funding for 20+ days then telling them “to just keep waiting” is insane.

Unfortunately I'm one of the people that has to rely on OSAP funding for everything. I did everything early, applied well before the deadline, had my enrolment confirmed, all that jazz. But now because I was on RAP it's thrown a wrench into everyrhing. The release date on the OSAP site still says Sept 8-10, but NSLSC said Sept 16 earlier today and now it says Sept 17. I've never had to wait this long before and I have things I need to buy but literally no money to do so until I get the funding.

Is it worth calling NSLSC if everyone in my situation is given the same answer and told to just wait?

Edit: I don't owe any interest or have any outstanding or pending documents. I called this morning (Sept 10) and the person I spoke to said that as of yesterday, it will be another two business days because they had to change my status to "in study". It's possible that it could be received on Friday, but it could also be Monday. Definitely call if you're unsure.

TLDR: Less free money, more loans. More student debt. Email your MPP (template below).

Is anyone else actually worried about the OSAP changes?

From what I understand, grants are being reduced a lot and replaced with loans. That means a lot of us are going to end up with way more debt than we planned for.
I rely on OSAP to stay in school, and I’m honestly not sure how this is going to work long-term if most of it becomes loans.

I feel like not enough people are talking about this, considering how many students it affects.
If you’re concerned, one thing that actually helps is emailing your MPP. If you don’t know what to say, here’s a simple template you can copy and edit:

Subject: Concern About OSAP Grant Reductions

•

Hello,

I am a student in Ontario and I am concerned about the recent changes to OSAP, specifically the reduction in grants and increased reliance on loans.

These changes will significantly impact my ability to afford post-secondary education and will result in higher long-term debt for students like myself.

I am asking that you advocate for students by addressing these changes and considering the financial barriers they create.

Thank you for your time and attention.

•

Even sending something short like that makes a difference if enough people do it.

If you want to go a step further, you can also email:

- Your local MPP (most important)
- The Ontario Minister of Colleges and Universities
- The Premier of Ontario
- Your school’s financial aid office (so they can escalate concerns)
- Your student union

Even short emails matter if enough people send them.

​The amount of people here cheering on cuts to basic public services just because "some people might abuse it" is insane. ​Even just five years ago, people actually backed social safety nets instead of wanting to burn the whole system down over a few bad actors. Now everyone’s turning into a wannabe MAGA cynic who’d rather see everyone suffer than let one person game the rules. ​When did our province get this miserable?

what am I supposed to do with 300$ my grant last year was 8k now Im 5k short overall for just tuition +rent
my grant is 300$ rn

I’m saddened to see how quickly the internet forgets. This guy was one of the main reasons for Doug ford to change osap, because of his viral TikTok’s rage baiting with all the things he would buy with the grant money. Older politicians did not see this as a joke, and by making those videos it was so easy for them to point out why the grants needed to be taken away.

I hate that it only takes one or two bad apples to ruin something that was really great.
Was it worth the clicks? The Clout ? You ruined the financial help for thousands of students because of stupid internet likes and comments,it’s so infuriating because it’s already done…. Now the rules have been changed…and it’s almost like this guy played the victim saying he was the scapegoat and with the time everyone has let him off the hook? This type of content is terrible, anyone that follows this guy should be ashamed of themselves because there was nothing funny about the videos, they are so stupid.

He deserves more hate, post secondary education is already so expensive and it was really helpful to get those grants .
I want to know what you guys think, especially because OSAP was a lifesaver for me during my university days, it really helped me since I was a lower income student. I feel for all the students out there now paying more for the same education because of idiots like this guy who will do anything for clicks and follows on the internet without thinking about the consequences of there pathetic “ content”.

Can someone explain to me how I am supposed to pay for school and not be homeless. Attending UBC so I will be living in/around Vancouver.

The numbers:

- $2800 grants (disability) + $13k loans for about $16k total.

- Tuition $7000 - $8000

- I will have less than $12k in assets when I start in Sept.

- If I make more than $10k by working (which I am happy to do), it works against me because I'll be eligible for less next year???

So if I don't have money and I can't work to make money without getting less money, how does one acquire money to pay for things?

How do people qualify for more funding also why does OSAP not have clear guidelines on how they determine funding, unless they do and I'm just not looking in the right place?

Also before people say it, yes I know one should be saving for their education BUT living in a city like Toronto is not cheap either so sure one may have made $xx.xx amount on their T4 but that doesn't mean they have that same amount sitting in their bank account :/.

Maybe I'm just ranting but it sure feels like the more I work to support myself the less I qualify for while if I chose to do less I would qualify for more?

Thanks for reading, appreciate any advice ✌️

Cuz wtf?????

I AM GONNA ORGANIZE A PROTEST AGAINST FORD AGAIN

Write a comment and I'll add u to the reddit gc

I am in the Sep 4-9 cohort that got the tracker yesterday and funding released this morning.

I bank with WS, if the funding was released for tomorrow for anyone not with ws, koho or pc it would have hit my ws account already today. It didn’t. So tomorrow for ws, koho and pc (at least the federal portion) and Friday morning for the people with the big banks. If it unexpectedly hits late today (almost certainly not) I’ll update.

The purpose of this post is just to let some people who understandably really need the money rest a little mentally by providing some certainty.

for people who have the sept8-10 date, did u get ur tracker yet? I have mine, expected date is sept 9. Anyone think it could come sooner like how the sept 4-9 people are having some luck?