Have you ever found yourself tugging at your hair over the stress of OSAP? You are definitely not alone.
The winter semester has just begun and students have already recognized that it isn’t always easy applying for and receiving OSAP payments. Although OSAP is mostly an efficient program, the process can be a headache. Students are told they will receive their payments within a certain period of time and a lot of the time it is delayed.
This is a major reason behind the constant long line in front of the Financial Aid office. Not only are students waiting around for their OSAP money, but the overall application process can be a pain.
“Anytime you try to submit a required document, it takes around 10-12 business days to get it processed which slows down your application,” said Manuel Alejandro Alcalá, first-year computer engineering technology student. “It’s very stressful.”
Alcalá experienced other problems which led to him not being recognized as a full-time student. As a result, his OSAP was cancelled completely. He is now in the middle of the very long application process for a second time.
Even after the time consuming application process things can still go wrong. Applications may not go through or they may be lost which is what happened to second-year student Logan, as requested her last name is not included.
After completing an application, Logan was told she had to restart the whole process after something went wrong. She contacted National Student Loans Service Centre for help, who told her to contact OSAP. OSAP then told her to contact Algonquin Financial Aid.
“These things obviously happen, I just didn’t like how long it took to figure out a solution,” she said. She was given very little information as to why she needed to restart completely, and because the application was for the winter semester she needed it done ASAP.
Although the blame cannot be put on any certain person or any certain thing, students hope that something will be done about it soon.