Student loan is messing me up.
- Thread starter aimeeandbeatles
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aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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I do, but my mom keeps taking my money. Not for things we need.
History_Buff
Deity
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That's what the Canadian summer is for. We get a 4 month summer vacation from University (is that a standard thing?), which is plenty of time to earn whatever cash you're going to need that year.
aimeeandbeatles
watermelon
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It pays $80 a week. Oh, and Im off for a few weeks due to renovations so thats not much help 
warpus
In pork I trust
When I attended University every second term was a work term. This meant that I got no holidays at all (it was basically school, work, school, work, etc. for 5 years), but every 2nd term I would be making $700-$800 a week doing programming for banks, insurance companies, web development firms, etc. That meant that I basically only had to get OSAP for the first year and now I only owe a small % of what say, my sister owes. It also meant that by the time I was done, I had a ton of experience and was very employable. As such, I highly recommend universities with co-op programs... I don't think many have it, but it is awesome.. if you don't mind the whole "no vacation" thing, which to be honest kinda drives you insane.. but at least you don't end up broke when you're done.
Now I don't know how your college and Nova Scotia Student Loan work so all of this is OSAP and Ontario colleges. First off, what did you declare as you means of payment for tuition? If you said through student loan then you will have to put a down payment to hold your spot and they shall wait to the money comes in. Second go to you financial aid office they can give official documentation
History_Buff
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Land survey. You can have an entry level position that pays 20+ dollars a week, offers vast amounts of overtime, and the job requires no pre-existing skills.
There are lots of tricks students can use to not have to pay quite so much of a fortune for books. The hell of it is that some instructors will say that you MUST have the latest edition of a book, even though the difference between it and an earlier, MUCH cheaper edition may be extremely minor. And sometimes all you need out of a book is a single chapter or maybe a couple.
Some books are available in a library. Or buy the book, take notes on the chapter(s) you need, and then return the book for a refund (ALWAYS keep your receipts!).
Amazon.ca is having a HUGE textbook sale now. Some books are up to 90% off.
Do you have any used book stores in town? Does the college have a used book store? Go to those places first. And check the bulletin boards to see if other students are selling their books. Sometimes you can negotiate a really good deal.
This is uncalled-for. Aimee does have a job. And loans are LOANS. They have to be paid back eventually.
@Aimee: There may be part-time jobs available on-campus. You should consider looking into that - maybe helping in the library, cafeteria, or computer lab (right up your alley, right?). And DON'T tell your mom if you do. You really need to get your finances organized so she doesn't have access. Direct deposit, and a bank account she can't get at would be a good start. You might consider asking the campus finance office for suggestions - they're there to help.
wolfigor
Emperor
That's pretty expensive!
In Italy, where I studied computer science, tuition costs are relative to your and your family income.
There is a very handy calculator (unfortunately only in italian language): http://epheso.24oreborsaonline.ilsole24ore.com/SchoolPlanning/School.asp
The tuition fee (university taxes in italian "slang") are proportional to your family income and to the university of choice.
In the University where I studied the tuition fee for 5 years of study is 0 (completely free) for the lowest income bracket (from o to 15K euro) and 9670 euro for the top income bracket (over 75K euro).
There are about 14 income brackets, so I'm not going to report them all.
A private university would charge much more.
Example Bocconi University in Milan:
0-15k : 22584 euro
over 75K : 41378 euro
But I guess that's the most expensive university in the country.
Universities in poorer regions also cost less than in the most affluent areas.
For example the top tuition fee for the university in Enna (in the middle of Sicily) will cost you only 7987 euro for 5 years.
wolfigor
Emperor
I did almost all studies without buying any book at full price.
In most of the cases I borrowed books from the library and make photocopies of the necessary chapters (*).
Second-hand books fitted the remaining gap and I always re-sold the books after use.
I also did some book sharing with other students, planning our courses to don't overlap.
(*) Or the full book if that was necessary: Not legal but widely accepted where I studied.
One didn't even have to borrow the book from the library, there were tens of copy-shops to provide you with the copies directly... everything completely in the open with advertisement and all.
History_Buff
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It's true. Alberta, the province I (and Valka coincidentally) live in is like America junior. The people assume that reasonable government funding of education is some sort of apocalypse.
used textbooks from amazon marketplace are usually fairly cheap, thats where ive got most of mine
wolfigor
Emperor
This is a revelation for me... I always (and wrongly it seems) assumed that all Canada had European style welfare.
It's quite shortsighted for a country or state to don't finance high education.
The last time our provincial government gave a damn about education was in the '70s, when the premier (Peter Lougheed) established the Heritage Trust Fund. Part of the fund was used to buy books for school, college, and university libraries.
While all provinces have more than most of the US, we are not close to most of Europe. It also varies heavily by province (like US states), so long they meet the minimum requirements of the Federal government the have complete control of things such as healthcare and education.
warpus
In pork I trust
Ontario universities are quite cheap, compared to their American counterparts, and OSAP is a pretty good loan system.. only thing being that you have to pay it back later..
I plan on marrying and escaping out of country (into America) after I finish school.
Will I still be responsible to repay OSAP?
(onstario student awards program)
TheLastOne36
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It's the major reason why I went to University in Poland instead of Canada.
History_Buff
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Yeah, it's sort of imbalanced between the provinces; again, the Canadian federal system might actually be more decentralized than in America. It's kind of shocking. In Quebec especially, you'll find a lot of European style welfare systems (and some pretty repressive language laws if you ask me). Come out to Alberta, and you'll see a lot of the 'If you don't make enough to afford it, you shouldn't have it' doctrine. And although we easily have enough oil money to fund a generous welfare program, the electorate won't stand for it; I for one envy your little $550 billion pension fund.
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