well I'd love to tell you...how things get so much better...with respect to jobs and work....
but I'm at the other end of my career...and I'm still putting in 65 to 80 hours a week ..
my customers that I do consulting for...would love for me to take on even more...work...
so at least I do so on my own terms...
as far as financial aid...in the Canada's your 100 percent right...
My girls basically have bumped their heads against that same hurdle,,,all thru school...
at least I was glad to see all the hard work my oldest put in to her schooling.. paid off
when it came to securing a good paying job with benefits../bonuses/ and incentives..
and a future....
oh dontget me wrong 80 hour work weeks im used to.
im not as young as you probably think im hitting 25, and ive lived on my own since 17
So unlike other college students who stil live at home, and dont need a part time job to pay for food and live , i get the shit end of the stick
It's us mature students who have mortagages , or rent to pay, with bills, dependents (i dont have kids but lets just throw that in for argument sake since 25 is not unrealistic to have children), etc. its us who get shafted by the government in terms of OSAP
College is EXTREMELy hard to do if youre not someone living with your parents or on the college residence , or living in a house with 5-6 other students.
Now at 25 there is no way in hell youd see me do any of those three options, communal living isnt my jam, im simply too old ontop of being too old ive already established a homestead with a dog.
the average room per month is 500$ my apartment 600$ , 100$ savings per month is not enough to make me want to live with 5 other annoying fucktwits 8 years younger than me. lol
anyways , osap certainly doesnt give enough to live off, they gave me 17,000$ for the year which is split up per term.
im sure youre aware that most of that money goes to tuition, books , deferral fees, bus passes, extra health care plan (which you cant opt out of),
tuition obviously eats up most of that at a staggering 10,000$, books even used rack up another 2,000
deferral fees, a whopping 500$,
that leaves an average of 4,500$ for rent , food and other necessities.
4,500$, doesnt even cover my rent for the school year.
so we see where the problem lies. hence the need to work to live during the school year.
In my opinion students should not have to work full time or close to fulltime in order to live.
I know a lot of older generations argue that if you dont have a job in school youre not really working for it , however most students who give a shit really wanna push for a 4.0 gpa, like myself.
How can one obtain and maintain 100% attendance, push a 4.0 gpa, finish all homework and assignments ontime while working 35+ hours.
Its all impossible. something has to give. whether its me taking an extra shift while I should be at school, or im too tired to possibly even pick up a pen after work to do homework.
I know student loans really put students in debt but I would rather be in more in debt , than have to work 35+ hours just to barely scrape by during the school year ontop of 40 hour class weeks and all the extra homework they give.
We need a more customizable plan it askes very detailed info when you sign up for osap, if youre a mature student who lives on their own it should give you the option to increase your osap and go more into debt or not.
I actually spoke to the premier of ontario about this issue, the huge problem is that theres a direct correlation between academic success and nutritional eating yet we cant even afford rent. Stress is a HUGE problem on mental health if youre worried about how youre going to make rent or eat that day, than how can we be successful in studys?
Not to mention osap always takes way too long to come in, you do your due diligence by paying your deferrals making sure all your information is correct yet osap comes around and it gets held 25 days or so into the start of each semester..
technically BY LAW students who dont have osap cant even come into the classroom. they let us anyways, but you cant do homework because you have no books, youre starving by the 20th day of the second semester because if you were lucky enough to manage your money properly through the first semester and through christmas break you MAYBE have 20$ to your name at that point.
sorry i went off on a rant!
I've really enjoyed this conversation with you though