Webinars for Newly Admitted Graduate Students - Awards and Financial Aid 2023

Hi everyone and welcome to the webinar for newly admitted graduate students. Just so you're all aware, you are being recorded all 111 participants, so if you put questions in the chat, there will be a record.

We're going to get started in just a few minutes. I see that you've got 112 participants now, but we had almost 300 regiments. So I'm going to wait just a little bit longer before we start this session properly and I will introduce today's speakers and then hand it off to them.

Just for a quick bit of where we get.

Participants are muted. You won't be able to talk on this session, but you will be able to put questions in the chat, which will then be approved by a USGS staff member and then answered into course. But we're going to start off with the presentation before we get to questions and answers with representatives from the Graduate Awards and Financial Aid Office.

To be very specific for a couple of only going to be dressing questions regarding awards and financial aid.

You will absolutely, 100% not be addressing any questions that are program specific. So that's how to enroll in your courses. We will not be addressing any questions from international students about study permit applications. That information is handled by the Center for International Experience. We're really trying to stay very quickly focused on issues of.

So joining us today, I'm going to ask each speaker to introduce themselves in terms starting with Pascal. Would you please go first?

Commercial.

Hi there, my name is Pascal Papa Anisakis and I'm the manager at JS for the financial Aid awards team.

And could you please go ask?

Hi, I'm Debbie Chow, one of the Graduate Awards officers at the School of Graduate Studies.

And Virginia?

Hi, I I'm Virginia Kobayashi and I work with UH at the Financial Aid and Advising Office.

And last but very much not least, Stacy.

Me myself.

How do I get angry at myself?

Hear you. We can hear you.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

OK, sorry. Hi, everyone. I'm Stacey Juan and I am one of the graduate awards of officers at the Graduate Award.

Alright, so with that I'm going to switch off my camera and mic so that I can let the presenters take it away from here. Whoever is presenting, please feel free to take control of the slides and we'll get started.

Great. Thank you, Marie. Hello, everyone. Welcome. So I'm going to do a section on graduate awards and then Virginia will take over and present on the financial aid and advising side.

OK. So just a brief overview. We're going to go through how funding works, budgeting and financial planning, additional sources of funding and lastly with SGS financial assistance and advising information.

So how does?

Graduate funding work at the University of Toronto? Well, all students, when beginning their studies, are expected to have developed a financial plan to fund their graduate studies and support themselves like living expenses for the full duration of their program. This may include funding from your graduate unit and if applicable, from savings or student loans. So how does funding work at the graduate level? There are two main avenues that graduate funding works.

First one is if you're going to be registered in a research stream program. Normally those come with a certain funding commitment. Students accepted into most research stream masters and PhD programs will receive funding from their graduate unit, in other words, from their department or and or their supervisor. Funding typically covers one year of master study and four to five years of doctoral study, so feel free to visit our funding.

Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more about base funding and the average annual income received by full time active graduate students in their respective programs so it can give you an idea of how funding works. And just to let you know, based funding is a graduate units funding commitment. Faculties and graduate units determine base funding amounts for doctoral stream programs and the number of years that their students will be eligible. Based funding amounts vary across graduate units.

For example, for 20/23/24, the upcoming academic year, Faculty of Arts and Science based funding package ranges from 20,000 or 20,500 for the sciences stream, plus tuition and fees for eligible students. The composition of base funding may include employment income such as teaching assistantship or research assistantship.

And stipends from your supervisors, grant, and fellowships.

Remember this varies across graduate units.

And as I mentioned, there's a second avenue of funding and that's for students and professional graduate programs. Actually, they are expected to fund, self fund their educational expenses. So usually their sources of funding are professional student loans, OSAP or other provincial student loans.

And Oregon savings.

Or employment income because there are actually a lot of professional master students who are still working part time or even full time while doing their professional masters degree.

Professional Masters students may also be eligible for a limited number of graduate wards through their own graduate unit.

So, a bit of graduate funding 101. This chart is intended as a quick reference tool that outlines the major sources of funding available to most students. As you can see here, the research doctoral stream has funded or unfunded cohorts. If you're in the funded research doctoral stream program, the amount of your funding package, the number of years you receive, and how funding is composed will depend on specific programs.

Decisions about availability, composition sources, and annual amount of graduate funding over the course of a students program are made primarily at the faculty and graduate unit levels, not by the university overall. Therefore, our best contact, your best contact, for details about your own graduate funding is your graduate unit for your program the doctoral stream is in the funded in the unfunded cohort may include flex time.

PhD students which we usually consider as professional stream because most of the students are registered in the flex time PhD program and are working professionals. Also there are some masters programs that are not funded such as non thesis based masters program. However, their program may provide some funding. Professional masters programs are unfunded as previously mentioned and again listed here. There's some unique sources of funding and.

Mainly it's professional student loans. UM, that are usually for those only in professional programs. Ontario students can apply for OSAP, or if they're outside of the province they have you can apply for student loans through your own province.

And also there are working opportunities on campus or off campus. And of course another source is savings. Please note international students in the funded cohort are funded similarly as domestic students. However, government or external scholarships and awards are extremely limited for international students. They are not permitted to access OSAP or other Canadian student loans and.

There are restrictions regarding employment, so if international students have questions about studying in Canada or immigration questions, you can find more information from the Center for International Experience, the C i.e., and you can speak to one of their registered immigration advisors.

OK, there's one thing I like to mention is the research stream funding letters for graduate students.

We call these UH Research Stream programs UH students in the funded cohort. These funded course students will receive a copy of what we call annual funding letter from your graduate unit, usually between mid August to the end of September and in Tammany Medicine. Umm this is completed online through a system called GEMS. This funding letter outlines how much you will receive this year annually and explains the way that it's going to be distributed.

Do you for example, is it going to pay towards your tuition for you or is it going if the awards going to be released to you directly? It also includes a schedule of when payment is expected to come through, so it will help you plan your for your upcoming expenses and you can see if the payments will be made monthly or by session. Sometimes the sources of funding may change and you'll receive amendments drawing throughout the year to your letter as well, and you should always keep a copy.

Because as the year progresses, sometimes you may be wondering when is your next payment that will that is coming and then you can reference this also. You can even check on Acorn to see if your funding is coming through Acorn and it also has a finance section for you to see upcoming payments that is paid for funds that are paid through Acorn.

OK, try Agency awards and OG S for 20/23/24 academic year. Most of the Tri agency awards and the QE, two GST and OSS competitions have already concluded. However, if you're registering for the next next following academic year 202425, the award applications will start this fall and we like to inform you in terms of awards in general, the biggest.

Largest awards that students can apply for are usually through the TRY Agency awards. The TRY agency is the federal granting agency, so there's Cir. which stands for a Canadian Institute for Health Research, the Anzac Natural Science and Engineering Research Council, and the Shirk the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. Depending on which type of research you're doing, you would apply through the university or affiliate a hospital where you may be researching to apply for funding from the federal government.

And OGS is another big one, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. There's a domestic competition and international competition. The OS is actually one of the only awards that's available to professional masters students, so you may want to look into this if you're in the professional Masters program with through your graduate unit. However, just a big reminder is that students have to apply by their graduate units deadline, so each department has their own deadline to apply by and.

So there's no further deadlines for 2324. You will have to start applying for last fall 2022 for this upcoming year to hold the ward in May that this past May or the upcoming September 2023 or January 2024. So for those who have applied, please check your departmental OS results on the s s Forms tool.

The OGS application system and another note is for try agency awards. Usually there are multiple stages of application. A competition you have to apply through your department 1st and if you get forwarded by your department it then goes to the School of Graduate Studies for central adjudication. And if it's the doctoral level awards, the USGS will have another adjudication and forward your application to the national competition. And just a quick notes about SGS student award information.

Questions. If you're planning to apply for the Try Agency Awards and or OG S for 20/24/25, I strongly recommend that you attend these sessions or the cell session that's relevant to you. This information will be shared by your graduate unit, so the dates will be announced by your graduate unit. The sessions are live and presented by SGS awards staff each year and the recordings and slides are then posted on the individual SGS award web pages so you can see if you're unable to attend.

You can look up the recording.

And who should you contact for sources of funding? It can be confusing to try and determine who to go to for funding information, so here's a short breakdown for you listed here. First, for funding package, you would be best to contact your graduate unit as per your funding letter. For scholarships awards in general, you can always check with your graduate unit, the school of graduate studies, your supervisor, or even your peers within your same.

Department and of course Internet searches, scholarships, awards administered through SGS. We have s s awards table so you can go on SGS dot utoronto back slash awards and see the listing of awards. And there could be another source of funding from Teaching assistantship and Research assistantship so you can check with your graduate unit and for supervisor stipend check with your supervisor.

There's a big source of funding at the UT is the UFT fellowships, so that's something to check with your graduate unit. And of course there's OSAP U taps and government loans. This source of funding you need to inquire through the OSAP office that's located at the University of Registers office, the URL, and for campus employment. You can go on this website to find employment postings and this is through the Career and Co curricular.

Learning network and off campus employment. You'll need to do a bit of networking or walk-ins or check through the Internet. And then last but not least, students often want to know may have questions about their tuition invoices or fee payment and or have fee payment inquiries or service charges inquiries. You would check with the student accounts office that's also under the URL University Registers office.

We often wonder when to start applying for awards and scholarship. You may start preparing the September to apply this fall to hold next year. So here's some quick tips we will explore further as we move through the presentation. A solid application takes time preparation. Just remember, prospective students can apply for awards even before they are offered admissions. If offered awards, the recipient must register in order to receive the award. So start.

Really read up on what's involved in the application on the different websites.

And um, lastly, UH, we have UM University internal wards. There may be merit and need based awards and awards offers by your graduate unit or department, faculty and school of graduate study. So the main listing is on the Award Explorer website. And here's the website. You can log on and filter for awards relevant to your department, degree and research. And that concludes the segment from the graduate.

Board's Office. I now pass this over to the Financial Aid and Advising Office. Thank you.

Thanks, Debbie.

So for the following sections.

I'm going.

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If the mute button at the top of your screen is in green, it should be in Gray.

Hello.

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OK.

Sorry about this everyone, we're just trying to fix this technical issue and we will be resuming as quickly as possible.

Hello.

There we go. Perfect. We can hear you and see you.

OK. Sorry, apologies for the delay. So the next section we're going to be discussing budgeting and financial planning. I'm going to review financial planning and budgeting, which includes resources that are available for students to apply for.

When it comes to budgeting and planning, it's very important to plan ahead.

You need to take care of your financial Wellness as you would any other part of your life.

Some questions to consider would be how much money will I need for my degree?

What expenses and resources will I have?

Will I have enough funds for the program?

For the monthly expenses and also for daily costs.

Some of the expenses to consider while you're working on your budget are listed in the following link.

Um.

They are, some of them. Listed are tuition, books, equipment, rent, housing, food, utilities, et cetera.

The Financial Planning Calculator is an excellent tool that helps students to determine your financial needs for the school year. I recommend visiting this website to start your budgeting and planning for the year.

After you determine your expenses, the next step is to look into your available funding.

If you have if you have funds saved or expecting funds, but your expenses are gonna end up costing more than what you have, you need to look into additional sources of funding.

As Debbie already mentioned, some sources or resources are employment which you can have. There's on and off campus opportunities such as TA ships and R ships. The work study program is very flexible for students.

There's also seasonal.

Um, you can use networks, Connect with friends, family, fellow students and professors to look at. See what's out there and what's available for you.

UM International students should review their study permit restrictions and contact the Center for International Experience if you have any questions.

Another source of funding is student loans.

And they are administered by the university registrars office.

So they administer UM student loans from the application process to any additional information that's required all the way through to the payment process.

So one of the.

Student loans available is the OSAP Ontario Student Assistance Program. It's available for Ontario's residents only.

You can receive.

Both you can apply for the OSAP.

Grant or loan And you can. Actually you can. Um, only you can choose to pick the grant portion of it, which you don't have to pay back.

UM students in the funded program can also.

Apply for OSAP and receive OSAP as well. So if you're in the funded cohort you you have the option to apply for it.

UM other student loans that are available are the out of province student loans.

Which UH, the university Registrars officer also administers.

They also administer US student loans as well.

So another um.

Financial resource is the Needs Based OSOTF Ontario Student Opportunities Trust Fund Award.

It is available for students who.

Sorry. Yeah, it it's sorry. The Ontario Student Opportunities are open are eligible for eligible students who meet the following criteria. In addition to the criteria specified by the individual award, students need to demonstrate financial need through the completion of the URO's Navigator tool through OSAP application process or the SGS Financial Need Assessment Form. You also have to be Canadian citizens, permanent residents of Canada.

Or protected persons.

Under the Immigration Refugee Protection Act.

You also have to be a resident of Ontario at the time of the application as defined by the eligibility criteria.

The application process and deadline. It varies across the university depending on the award faculty or the graduate unit department.

Sorry.

I'm sorry, I'm just.

Sorry about that.

So the line of a line of credit is also a useful tool that can help students borrow money up to a preset limit. You don't have to use the funds for specific purposes, You can use little or as much of the funds as you like, up to a specific specified maximum.

Additional details for student lines of credits are available on the Government of Canada website.

If you're an international student, you need a Canadian citizen to cosign the application for you. We recommend checking with the Center for International Experience For more information on your options for a line of credit.

You can also check in with your home country and also family members.

So the next section I'm going to review the SGS financial grants and bursaries that are available for students to apply for.

This is just a list of um.

But we what we offer additional details are available on our website that has more details regarding eligibility and the award amounts et cetera. But I'm going to review walk you through some of the programs that we have.

So UM, the SGS Emergency Grant Program provides support to registered full time graduate students who experience an unforeseen financial emergency.

It's an emergency that caused by what was caused by an event beyond someones control and it provides short term financial relief in a in an immediate crisis.

Uh, you must first have applied to OSAP and also demonstrate financial need.

In the application.

It does not cover tuition fees or arrears, unfortunately.

Um, some examples of emergency grant eligibility is if a person, an immediate family member passed away and a student needed to fly out to the funeral. If you demonstrate financial need, you could apply for the grant for that.

Another program that we offer is the SGS and emergency loan. If you're experiencing A shortfall of funds and are expecting incoming funds. For example, you're doing a TCA ship and you're not getting paid until the end of July. But for the month of July you don't have any funds until you you receive that payment. You can apply for the emergency loan. You have 120 days to repay it without service charges accruing.

And um, you can receive about $1500, but there is a bit of flexibility. It can vary depending on the circumstance.

The Research Travel Grant provides financial support to eligible students registered in a humanities or science social science program for research travel. It is available for PhD and JD doctoral students.

Um it is. Domestic and international students are also eligible, and students may apply to fund one return trip per application cycle.

The value and duration varies based on destination and duration of travel.

There is also the SGS Indigenous Graduate Travel Award, which provides financial assistance to University of Toronto Indigenous graduate students to travel and participate in educational and experiment, experiential learning in Canada, or broad and activities specifically focused on Indigenous students or educational issues.

The SGS Conference grant provides financial support to encourage eligible students to actively present their research at an academic conference in early stages of their graduate studies. It is available for full time masters and doctoral students.

The value and duration of the grant varies based on registration fee and location of events. It is open to domestic and international students, and students can hold one in person and two virtual conference grants per graduate degree.

The SGS Accessibility Grant is available for students who are registered with Accessibility Services.

It is normally to cover the cost of unexpected adaptive technologies, equipment and necessary therapies that are not normally covered under other plans. In order to access this grant, you have to be registered with accessibility services mentioned and you apply through your accessibility advisor.

The STAGS Parental Grant is available for research stream doctoral students within a funded cohort who experiences a loss or reduction of funding as a result of taking an approved parental leave. The value of the grant covers the portion of the program's base funding that is paused when a student is on approved parental leave of absence.

Leaves are normally taken at the time of birth or adoption in order to provide full time care during a child's first 12 months of life or the 1st 12 months of care if the child was adopted.

There is also parental leave funding for external awards such as the federal agency awards.

For Chr and search and shirk.

Students can receive up to 12 months of paid parental leave equal to the award amount.

And the amount is dependent on the number of sessions of leaves students would have to submit us a form, a request for deferment or start date for interruption of award.

So for the financial advising portion, um our team also provides a financial advising to currently registered students we review.

A multitude of subjects We address questions in consideration of the students uniques financial situation. We help students navigate various funding opportunities at the university and access financial support such as OSAP Work Study U tabs and we also assist with budgeting and debt loan management.

So if that concludes this portion of the presentation, if you have any questions, our contact information is below for the financial aid and advising team and also for the graduate awards team. Thank you.

All right. I'd like to thank both of our presenters. We're going to move on now to the question and answer session of the of the webinar. We've been answering some questions as we went along. Those will show up in the chat as especially relevant ones like hey, can you share a link with this?

I'm about to do something that will seem really rude. I'm going to go through the questions and I'm going to be rejecting a lot of them and the reason for that is we're gonna answer them in very short order cause a lot of people have asked very similar questions. My colleague Stacy is also going to be going through looking for questions to answer so those were we'll be reading them out so you don't have to go into the chat to find them, but we'll be providing links in the chat as well with some verbal answers on.

But to start with the questions that I'm going to be deleting, several people have asked whether these sessions are recorded or will we be sharing the PowerPoint slides. We won't be sharing the slides. You can look into sharing the slides, but we will be posting or recording of all the webinars on the same page where you found the registration links. So I'm going to put that in the chat very shortly, but that's that's the answer to a lot of your questions.

We also had students.

Oops, sorry didn't go.

We also had students asking about.

Very departmental specific questions such as can I find a supervisor in in the winter session instead of fall? How do I meet students in my program? We are not able to answer those questions because the answers are going to vary from program to program. If you are concerned about finding a supervisor and when you have to do that, please look at the information on your programs website or contact the graduate administrator for your home graduate unit. I'm going to put a link right now.

Into the chat. I posted it before, but I will post it again.

This is our graduate unit directory to help you find the contact information for your home graduate unit. So for instance, if you're in Electrical and Computer engineering, that's your home graduate unit.

We also had students asking about how to get in touch with other students in their programs. Most programs have some kind of departmental orientation and they send out materials regarding that in July and August. Also, most programs have some kind of student course or student association that you can look up online and join. Many of them will have Facebook groups, so you can join those. Some of them have ongoing Whatsapps to Orient these students, but that again is going to vary enormously from department.

His department and program to program.

And I see that.

I see that we are approving questions. So Grace was asking when OSAF will be. Information will be released and Pascal has referred her to the university registrars office. All OSAP queries go through the university registrars office directly.

And so I'm going to.

He's silent for a moment and get back on to the questions and see what we can approve and answer as quickly as possible.

OK. So we have a really good question. Actually I'll sort of a two-part question with one part asked by Shabnam and another part asked by.

Vincenzo So Shannon asks are Tri council awards only for domestic students? And the answer is most Tri council awards are only for domestic students. But some of the really prestigious awards, such as the Vanier, are open to international students. So Vincenzo is asking for information on how to apply for that. I'm going to get that information from the USGS website, while Stacy takes another question.

Taking that.

Ohh, let's see here we have.

Do you want I'm gonna give a part of of a verbal answer to the venue question. The venue award is a multi stage nomination process. Each individual grad unit has a number of non can nominate a student or a couple of students. Those students are then sent on to the School of Graduate Studies for a university wide communication before being sent on to Ottawa. Process takes a lot of time and because the Daniel Award is a multiyear award.

Most units make their not determine their nominations during the summer for the next year, as in summer 2023 for Student would first hold it in 2024. Details about being nominated from within your unit will vary from unit to unit, so read the general instructions I'm going to post in the chat, and then feel free to get in touch with your graduate unit administrator.

Vanier has already started. It was launched a couple about a week ago. s s hasn't sent out our announcement yet. I should be going out hopefully today or tomorrow, so we'll be updating our website as well. But so your graduate units might not have all the information you get, but by the end of this week they certainly should. So maybe early next week if you're interested in being, I'll reach out to your departments to find out their nomination processes.

Another question that we have here is it was mentioned that base funding includes an X amount of money and then tuition and fees. Can you clarify if this means that tuition and fees are covered on top of this amount of money or is it included in it?

So Debbie briefly touched on this when her presentation. You have, if you're in a funded program, you have what is overall called a funding package. And your funding package is made-up of a couple of components. The first component is base funding, which is kind of like a living stipend. That is funds that you will receive and will be yours to use on living expenses, textbooks, food, whatever needs you have and then.

On and then the second component is funds for your tuition and fees. So yes, on top of base funding there is tuition and fees and overall those two components create your overall funding package.

Hopefully that clarifies that.

OK.

Now I've got a question from.

Fabian asking how he could find an award that is suitable to him. Well, it's gonna take a bit of work, but the university spent a lot of time and energy a couple of years ago putting together the Award Explorer tool and I'm gonna put the link to that in the chat.

You can go a lifetime and not get through all the information in the Award Explorer tool, but it does let you search by category for admission awards, graduate versus undergraduate.

Programs, domestic or international, and it's a really useful tool.

So that will help you on a search for available funding.

We had enough. We have a number of questions about TA ships. So I'm going to answer those verbally and then I'm going to reject all the questions, which will seem a bit risk. I apologize.

A lot of students are asking whether they can apply for teaching assistantships in departments other than their home department.

And the answer is a qualified yes.

There are.

Certain priorities in assigning TH tips. So for example, the English department makes up part of its funding package for students through TA ships. So priority for English TA ships will go to students in the English Department.

Usually they're also the best qualified.

If, on the other hand, you're in a program or you have an undergraduate background that makes you qualified to teach in a program that has a lot of students at the undergraduate level and few or none at the graduate level, there may be TA ship opportunities open to you. For example, the human Biology program is offered jointly of Medicine and the Faculty of Arts and Science for undergrads, but because there's no corresponding graduate program, they take teaching assistants.

From all across the Health Sciences. So this the answer to that question is going to vary significantly depending on your educational background and your qualifications to teach and what programs have extra TA ships floating around. But it it pays to ask, so it doesn't hurt to ask.

I just thought I wanted to end.

One, if I have an external source of funding secured, who should I refer them to? What is the address? So that is actually the graduate awards office. If you have an external award that was not applied through the graduate awards office already, then they and they are asking for an address where they can send a check or.

A check for your award. Please send them to the graduate awards office. The address is. I will type it in the.

Checked it is 63 Saint George St.

Toronto ON, of course.

What is her postal code?

M5R2Z7 No M5S 2Z7.

No, she said.

Let me find that out for you.

OK.

Umm.

The post.

I will put the address in the box shortly, but it should be just addressed to.

MM.

9.

5 S T2Z.

Ask them to send the funds to that address and we will pay out those awards for you.

I guess you FT does accept award payments in USD as well U.S. dollars as well, so you can have them set.

We have a number.

An award as well.

We have a. We have a number of students who are eligible for OSAT or other Canadian provincial loans.

Who are part of funding program?

So a common question from a number of them is.

And finally found an independent program. Should I apply for OSAP? My answer to that is always yes.

They may look at your application and say Nope, this student doesn't have any financial need, no assistance for you.

But they may conclude that you do need assistance and provide a loan.

If you don't end up needing it, you don't have to spend it. You can always immediately pay it back on graduation, but it gives you access to that financial cushion in case something comes up. So yes, if you're eligible for provincial student loans, apply. If you can get. If you're awarded some that can get by without spending the money, that's a great plan. But yes, it's it's worth, It's worth applying.

Agree. If you can get by with it, Get those, not put it in a DIC, pick some interest, and then put it back at the end of your degree.

Exactly. We're not really able to answer a lot of detailed questions about the OSAP application process. So if you're asking about what should be included in your OSAP application, and we've got a number of these questions, we're gonna refer you to the university registrars office for student loan support, because the worst thing we could do is give you incorrect.

More out of date information, so let me just get you their contact.

And I will put that in the chat. So if you have those questions, yes, by all means reach out and get help. But it won't be from USGS.

I'm seeing a lot of questions about booking financial advising appointments or booking appointment from someone about funding options through Virginia or Pascal. Do you want to speak to that?

Yes.

Hi there. You can hear me right. So I just put a I just approved one of the questions and link to the financial aid and advising web page that has information on what you know how to book an appointment in the e-mail addresses there. So how to touch base with us?

I think I proved that question. I'm not sure if there are are more, but I could also. If that's enough, then I can go on to another question about EU taps. I think the question says that there's an it's automatically assessed after applying for OSAP and I believe that that's how it used to be, but the university registrars office will soon be launching.

What's called a navigator tool? Um, and there's there will be communicating with a graduate unit soon when? When they officially launch it.

And I believe that only difference there the highlight is is that you you wouldn't be considered automatically after applying for OSAP. You do actually have to log on to the Navigator tool and put in an application for.

Considered 4U tabs so and then it says as U taps largely grants or loans, the UTAP is a grant to meet unmet financial needs. So once you've applied for OSAP and they've decided how much you are going to receive in Canada, Loans and either and provincial loans, either or both.

Um, if there is still an unmet need according to the information you entered to the navigator tool, you may be considered for for you tabs, the timing on that. You may want to reach out to the university registrars office. Because again, as we said, I wouldn't. I wouldn't want to. There are specific deadlines and I believe that that information is going to be coming out.

When they launch it and they send all the information to the unit, so more to come. It is very new.

Your question that I saw a couple of times is.

Our OS or our professional program students eligible for OS. Debbie also touched on this briefly. Yes, professional program students are eligible for OS. However, it's up to each individual graduate unit which of their programs are eligible for their OS competition since.

Each graduate department at the University of Toronto holds their own domestic OGS competition if you're a domestic student. So if, the answer would be checked with your graduate department to see if your specific professional program is eligible for their OGS domestic competition. For OGS International, it's open to all all all programs and candidates who are eligible, so you can consider applying for that if you would like to.

OK, we have a question from Safra who's asking if she's got conditional admission last spring.

That she needs to wait until the fall to apply for scholarships for 2024-2025. I'm not sure I fully understand the question. Does that mean you're starting your program a year from now? If so, look up award deadlines, because some deadlines are very, very early and you could start applying.

Very soon for starts in 2024.

Um.

Yeah, just to add to that Rory, you don't need to be registered in your program necessary to apply to a lot of our awards. There are very few few number of them that are in course awards, which means they must be registered in your program in order to apply. But almost all awards can be applied to prior to starting our program. So you do not need to be registered, currently registered. So if you're deferring your admission to next fall, not this current fall for example, you can still apply during this year's competition.

That are opening this fall we're going on right now in order to hold the award when you start fall 2024 if that's the case.

Yeah.

And.

And also obviously starting in September this year as well, you can apply for your second year to hold the award in your second year.

And I would just add to that, just to remind everyone what Rory, UH about the Award Explorer. It's UH. There's just a plethora of awards. There's so many listed there. You can filter out whether your masters or doctoral or by faculty or unit and so forth. So it's a very helpful tool to find internal and you know almost every award across the university. Uh, s s. So very helpful to you.

It's also, I'm also going to add on to that, but it lets you filter for domestic or international. So we've had a couple of students asking, are there awards specifically for international students? Yes, yes. And the award explorer will help you find them.

I'm going to have to reject a few questions I'll just give. I'm not giving full information about them, but some students who hold SGS administered awards are are asking if they've fulfilled all the process they need to do. That's not a question we can answer over this webinar, so if you're concerned, you want to make sure that you submitted all the required paperwork. Again, please check with your graduate unit to make sure they've received everything and sent it on to SGS.

Um.

We also have a very good question about students in funded programs and whether or not they have to accept employment as part of their funding package. And the answer, as with so many of these questions, is that varies from program to program. So if you're in the social sciences and P manies, I can almost guarantee that private part of your funding package will include some kind of TA ship.

But in the sciences, that's much more variable. Often the TA ships are additional income that you can take on top of your base funding package. And so you're going to have to check with If you're part of a funded program, you will have received a letter outlining the sources of your funding package, what's mandatory, what's optional? And if you have follow up questions, you need to contact the graduate administrator in your unit. But thank you Nancy, for asking the question. It's a good question.

It's just not one that that has an easy answer.

Umm.

We have another question whether there are awards for part-time students. Again, you can use the Award Explorer tool to filter that out.

So there is a question and I'm not sure if we missed it from Helena.

There you go.

Uh, are the are university internal awards applied for or are they given to students freely who meet the criteria? And so there could be so many different internal awards that you can apply for. So from an s s perspective, you know Stacy Stacy's team and our team and my team will we put out award announcements, right? And we'll usually send them to the graduate community and a list, you know, the links and the deadlines and all the information that you need and then once they graduate units.

Um, get our award announcement, they'll they'll send it out to their students. Um.

Criteria.

But again, I mean, Award Explorer will have information on the same awards that we send out. But if if you're wondering when, because there's so many with different deadlines, different criteria, so even when we get questions sometimes, which ones can I apply for? I'm in a professional program. Well, there's so many other criteria outside of just being a professional masters student and you just have to go, you know, wait for the announcements, do do some legwork, contact your graduate administrators. There should always be your front, your your first.

Contact to that you you know you meet with them. They they can help you network. Sometimes they'll refer you to our team or Stacy and Debbie's team.

Um, so really do start with a graduate administrator in your graduate unit. Um, with the exception of OSAP questions because they'll just direct you again to the university registrar's office. But yeah, for internal awards, so many different ones, some are merit based, some are financial need based. That will depend which side you go on, whether you go to Stacy and Debbie side to call them, you know, we're sort of the same office, but.

Good.

Um, the merit based scholarship will mostly internal awards will come from Debian and Stacy's team, and we, Virginia and I, and some other of our staff will do the financial need internal awards. So different awards, different deadlines, different criteria. You you just have to stay up to date, don't miss your emails, check in with your grad unit, and always take a look at the award explorer from time to time. Yeah.

I'm good.

I would also add that if you're in a program that is 2 years or longer, you will want to have on your radar the university wide awards that are administered by the school of Graduate studies usually have their application deadline in the winter session. I have just posted a link in the chat to those university wide awards. Make sure you check those because the application.

Processes and deadlines vary.

We've been asked by a couple of people whether there are any admission awards for which students are automatically considered, and the answer is not through SGS but through the individual graduate units.

Because you're automatically considered for them.

No point really going and asking about them, but if there are awards administered by your unit that require application, you'll find that information through you rather than through the School of Graduate Studies. Most of them will also show up on the award explorer.

OK.

What else?

I have a question that I see here from Nancy T about adding U.S. bank accounts to Road or Acorn for direct deposit. Unfortunately it's not possible. You can only add a Canadian bank account to 8 core for direct deposits, so you'll have to wait till you get to Canada. If you're not here already, create a bank account and then set it up on Acorn before any awards will be paid out to you, so hopefully you can.

Get on that as soon as you get to Toronto.

As I was asking if we can provide a link to apply for an international student loan and the short answer is no, we don't have any working arrangements with international.

Banks or other finance companies that provide student loans. If you are taking out a loan from your home country to pay for your education in Canada, make sure that you do your research into the company that you're taking the loan from. Make sure that they're not a predatory lending company to make sure that they have a good public reputation and if ideally that they're a longstanding and well established financial institution so you know that the money is going to come through.

But we're not, we're not able to recommend third parties in terms of providing loans.

We have.

Go ahead.

Another question. Go ahead. Ohh. OK, I see a question here from Daniella G Will PhD funding packages decrease to not cover tuition fees if tuition if a student receives an OS to try agency grant so we get. This is a good question to clarify. So as I mentioned before there's a funding package and it's a certain amount depending on your program and department. If you do receive a major award, what happens is your funny package is sort of.

Recalculated to take into account that awards. So depending on what your package is made-up of, some things might be decreased which is equivalent amount of the award, and you might receive a a small top of that the base, the final, the total funding package as a award recipient. So not necessarily that it will take away the tuition fees that will be not covered, but there's some sort of.

Recalculation of things that were supposed to be in your funding package originally that will be.

Are rearranged and recalculated and if that is the case for you, if you received an OS or try agency award.

And you should first let your department know that that's the case, if they don't know already. And then if you need a a new funding letter or a revisal they'll have, they'll get that together and provide it for you and let you know how it that award will change your funding package. So it's sort of your your award will replace a portion of your funding package but not necessarily the tuition portion.

And I I should emphasize, every couple of years I hear a wild rumor going around that you lose money by winning an external credit, council award, or OS.

Because the money's taken, your funding package is taken away from you. This is an urban legend.

You always get more money than the base funding package. If you win an external award that I'd like to try council award.

They're not. You will let you may only get it very little bit more than the minimum funding package, but it's always more. It is always worth your while to win that award. If you hear someone saying this, get them to check their numbers. It's an urban legend.

We have a question from Ankar about adding a bank account to Acorn, and I've got the instructions from Acorn itself, so I'm gonna put the link to that in the chat right after his question and I have a question for Stacy to answer.

We've had a few questions from students with SGS administered awards, so OGSC, GSM, etcetera. Assuming that they have put in all their paperwork on time, let's say all the paperwork that the activation form has gone in, now their bank account is set up, every last detail is in place. Approximately when should they expect the money?

Yeah. So if you have an award starting this September.

First processing date should be.

Either Monday the 4th or Tuesday the 5th. So that week like either the Monday or Tuesday of that week, the awards will process. Actually I think the 4th is Labor Day so it might not process so it might be the 5th.

Um, so Tuesday the 5th should be the date that it processes. And then it takes usually two to three business days from the processing date for the funds actually to be deposited into your bank account if you have it set up. If you don't have a bank account set up on Rosie or Acorn, sorry then.

Check will be mailed to you if you have a valid Canadian mailing address. We really don't recommend that. We recommend setting up direct deposit. It's so much quicker, you don't have to lose the check, could get lost in the mail, and you don't have to deal with that trying to find it. And it takes way longer, like at least two weeks for the check to arrive. So we definitely recommend setting up direct deposit on Acorn so you can get your money without any delays. Yeah, so if it's deposited.

Or process on 5th of September, then it should be in your bank account by the next on the Friday or the following Monday or such. So you can anticipate that sort of schedule when you're planning your finances.

OK. We've got a number of students asking questions that once again are very, very program specific. So students who've applied for programs, admission, scholarship, but haven't heard back, you need to contact the program. We're not able to help with that. We have people asking very specific questions about what, what, what, what's in my funding package? I've heard about Hugh Fellowship. Is that part of the funding package? Is it something separate you need to contact if you haven't got that in your funding letter from your graduate?

You need to contact the graduate administrator in your unit because you've got more than 90 departments offering PhD programs.

All the different, we've put together funding packages. So the answer that's right for one person in this session might be very wrong for another person in this session. And the worst thing we can do right now is misinform you. If you have questions about your funding package, you've been awarded one, and you have a question about how it works.

Contact the graduate administrator in the unit. I am once again gonna put the directory link into the chat so that you can hear from so you can contact your unit directly.

We have an excellent question, excellent question from Alessandro.

And he's asking whether stipends are tax free.

Technically, a stipend, yes, is tax free.

However, some.

People use the term stipend very, very carelessly to refer to an overall funding package. So if you are receiving a research stipend as part of your funding package.

Check with your unit to make sure that it's what's known as T4A income.

That means that you're receiving it, you need to report it for your taxes, but you will not be taxed on it.

Significant portions of some funding packages.

Particularly teaching assistant income or some research assistant income will be taxable income.

And you should be able to get a clear answer from your unit about which different components in your funding package are taxed and which are not. So very good question. Be very careful as you read over the information, because some people do get a little careless with that term stipend.

OK.

Any awards paid through ACORN are.

Uh.

Are not taxable. So if you're getting paid through Acorn that will be non taxable income, yeah.

And then?

What is taxable and taxable?

So Vincenzo's asking, and I'm I'm gonna, I'm gonna project a question onto Vincenzo's question. He's asking whether PhD funding packages are issued before the registration deadline.

And also, is it possible to open a Canadian bank account before arriving in Canada?

Gonna take the second question first.

If you bank with a bank that operates in your country and in Canada as well. So if you're with TD Bank in the United States, you should be able to open a Canadian account before arrival.

If you don't bank with the bank that operates in both countries, usually you need to wait until you're here because you have to provide documentation of your identity to get the account.

It is true that you can set up an account, deposit money into it from outside the country, but then you don't have access to the funds in that account until you arrive and show them your ID. This is for your protection. This is so Stacy can't go down the street and represent herself as Rory and take the money out of my account.

But lingering in the background of Vincenzo's question is.

How do I register if I don't have my funding package yet? Stacy, do you wanna take that away?

That's a good question. Actually there is something called a register without payment option. So as you will be.

Yeah, You'll be getting your invoice very soon. I think it usually goes out in mid-july to most students and you'll be getting emails about what you have to pay and the minimum payment, etcetera, etcetera.

In order to get registered, you do have to pay that minimum payment. But if you don't have the funds because you're waiting for your funding package, you can go on to a core and there is an option to defer your fees. And once you do the deferral, you have until the end of April of next year to pay your fees.

Although we don't like to say that necessarily. That is, if we're until you, that's the deadline by which the fees must be paid. But the fees should be paid well before then based on the funds you receive from your department and whatnot. Not everyone is eligible for the fee deferral. You have to have either a funding package or a major scholarship or enough OSAP from the provincial government to cover your tuition to be eligible for that deferral.

And not everyone can do the deferral through ACORN. If you have a funding package, you should be able to do it through ACORN without any issues. But if you do not have a funding package but you do have a major award like an OS for example, then you can fill out a PDF version of the for free deferral or register without payment form that is available on the School of Graduate Studies website and the letters and forms.

I.

Page which Rory is probably linked.

I just put the link in the chat.

Link in the chat. So definitely get that form has to be filled up by yourself and your graduate department and then they will send that along to SMS for processing.

So overall, yes, if you need to register without payment first, please either go to Acorn and fill out the deferral or the form through the USGS website and then you'll be registered without having to pay your total tuition.

OK, we have a question asked. We have a question, another question about whether or not we will be sharing the PowerPoint. We will be hosting the recording of this session on the same site where you found the registration links. But we also have a very good question about whether or not there are any particular resources for families in terms of funding.

In terms of funding, the answer is no, and unless you have a.

Become apparent during the course of your program, in which case there there are parental leave and parental leave grants.

For students in funded programs.

If you are simply worried about how to support your family while studying, the assumption is as you come into your program that you've got a plan for at least how to fund the 1st.

There are some options to help families that come in in forms other than direct funding. For example, if you're a student with a family, you're eligible to apply for student family housing. There's a long waiting list, but the units the rental units in student family housing are at below market rate rent. So if you're in a multi year program and have a family to support, absolutely apply to student family housing. You live close to campus in significantly less.

Expensive housing. And even if that's not something that can help you right away, it's worth getting on the waiting list for that. There are also resources in terms of information sessions for spouses or partners with.

Of students and some support groups as well as a discussion groups on how to find a job in Toronto if they're coming as as a as a as what's called a trailing spouse. So look into the family care office. I will put their information in the chat as well. They run a number, as I said, a number of programs for the primarily along the lines of information and social support as opposed to actually having financial resources to share.

I know, he said most OSAP questions should be answered by you RO, but I just see a question about our OTFOTSOP only available for domestic students. So all of those programs, in order to be eligible for it, you actually have to be an Ontario resident. You can't just be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. So specifically OSAT, yeah, you must be a.

So.

Ontario resident and they have their own definition of what an Ontario resident is. Someone who has lived here for quite a long time, there's like a period of time where you have to have lived in Ontario. If you're not in Ontario resident, but you are a Canadian citizen, your your home province where you've lived for probably like the last 12 months at least I think it is passed. Maybe Pascal can clarify what the term is, Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, There were a few questions about the OTF, so I put some answers in the chat along with at some point the link to the OTF website and the eligibility criteria is listed there very carefully. Yes, Stacy, you do need to be considered an Ontario resident, but sometimes people are a little bit confused about what that means. So I strongly recommend you go to the website because it's in bullet points and.

Yeah, so they'll say, well, I I'm living in Ontario, have an Ontario resident, a residency, but it's not enough to be considered an actual Ontario resident. You might be coming in from British Columbia and not living here for up to 12 months prior to going to school, but maybe you have a spouse who's been living here. And so it can get a little complicated once you go through the criteria, just sort of go through one at a time and process of elimination. Eventually you'll find if you fit into the category there and if there's ever any doubt you can, you can contact either your grad admin can help out or we can help out for sure.

Yeah, but it's somewhere in the chat there. Uh, I do see a lot of OTF questions, so I I even put a little blurb.

In there, one of the questions was comparing the Osoto F with OSAP to to very different things. Um.

It's probably best to to click the links.

Definitely.

And pick out the information that you need here.

Thanks, Pascal.

So I've got two questions in a row that I needed to take on. That's all right.

I just wanted to sort of finish up on that. No. So if you are not an Ontario resident, the other provinces have their own loan programs which you can apply for and take and use for schooling in Ontario or Toronto at UT. So you don't have to be living in or going to school in your home province to be eligible for their loan program. You can come to Ontario and still use the loan program from your home province.

If you're not from Ontario but a Canadian citizen, just wanted to add that and thanks for.

So we have a question that I'm going to cheat on because I'm only partially going to answer it here is asking, given what she's seen about some applications for financial aid, the more you work, the less aid you're eligible for. It's it's true that those have considers how much income you have as their assessed senior eligibility, but I don't know enough to tell you how to determine what's the right sweet spot for you. What I can say is it's important to remember that.

An external awards do have a limit on how much you can work, so if you're holding a try council or you're not supposed to be working more than 10 hours a week outside of study.

Anymore.

That's not. That's not the case anymore.

Now you can work full time and hold a try cancel award now as long as you're making good progress and registered full time in your program.

Yeah.

It's.

Yeah.

And This is why the awards office is giving this webinar and not me flying solo. Thank you Stacy. You may want to check the fine print of some other rewards though, to make sure that there aren't restrictions.

Yes.

And we have a We have a question from Faraday about when can you apply for housing and how can you be informed of prices? If you're a graduate student, then you're eligible to apply for.

Graduate house.

To the theological colleges, and that's really about it in terms of university residences, Shortly after you paid your application fee, you were sent what's called a join ID, which is a login that lets you log into the housing resources provided by Student Life, where you can apply for graduate house, other eligible residences or use the off campus housing database. I'll put a link to housing in the chat.

But once again, you were sent that information shortly after you make paid your application fee. The reason they do it this way is there's a lot of demand for these very limited number of resident spots, so the waiting lists are long so.

Please, by all means check and see if you've got that joint ID. Use it to make your applications, and if you don't have your join ID, I'm gonna put our admissions assistance e-mail into the chat and I'll ask you to e-mail Priya to have your joint ID we sent to you.

So no joint ID.

So there's the e-mail address if you have misplaced your join ID or if it somehow didn't reach you in the initial name.

And I think we're starting to come to the end of the questions that we can actually usefully answer. As I said, if there's OSAP questions in here, we're not the best source of information you can get general information if you're asking about how to apply for teaching assistantships.

Within your department, they'll let you know what's available. If you think you're qualified to be teaching assistant in another program, contact the program directly.

If you want to know about your particular award and whether the paperwork is complete, again, we're not the right place to answer this question.

So.

Stacy, do you want a Pascal? Do you want to take?

Quick looks through the list to see if there's anything left for us.

That's teaching assistantships, teaching assistantships.

It's.

One thing I did want to mention. Sorry, go go ahead Pascal.

Oh, sorry, I was just going to reply to the student who says that there's still a little, uh, not fully understanding the defer tuition fee deferral. If you are in a funded program, which is like the arts as my program fully covers my tuition department pages while registering opt for tuition fee deferrals. So that's right. That's what you'll click when you're on ACORN.

And then something. But I don't need to pay any amount before April 24th, so I would recommend talking to the graduate admin and reviewing your funding package letter to be certain that the graduate unit will be.

Nothing.

Paying your tuition fees directly to your student account to pay down the tuition, um, which is mostly the case. I don't know what program you're in and we won't know all the differences in the programs. You really have to contact them. Again, your grad admin is is the front line for you.

But of course it should be laid out in detail in your funding package letter so that you are.

Certain that you're not going to get a large dump into your bank account and then are then expected to make a payment to your ACORN account to pay down your tuition, or if the tuition is going to be set up in ACORN just to pay down your student fees account. But check on that. So it's a good question, but yes, you should. You should confirm with your grad unit.

Yeah, that's a great advice for scale and I also to add to that.

Technically we referral, they say you have until the end of April to pay your fees, but we really would like you to see it as more of a deferral of the interest rate, so.

Nothing. Before April 30th, you won't be charged interest on any payment of the tuition that is sitting on your fee account that's outstanding. After April, interest starts accumulating. So with award, if you have an award, a major award or a lot of these funding packages, they will pay down your tuition fee normally in January. So just keep that in mind for.

Words the payment cycle is we pay session only September, January and May and the September installment is released in full to recipients. The January installment is paid to tuition fees and if there's extra remaining funds that don't need to cover tuition fees that they are released to you but only that amount and then May is the same. Pays down tuition fees first and only the remainder is released to students. So and a lot of.

Departmental board to set up that way as well. So as Pascal said, clarify with your department how your award is going to be processed. So you know if it's going to be released to you or if it's going to be paying down to your tuition, your fees account. So you can plan your budget as well for that. Because we get a lot of students in January that we're expecting their funds from their award or for their tuition package, but it actually goes down to pay their fees and they didn't budget properly and they'll fall.

Thinking about that, so they end up in a bit of a pickle financially. So do clarify how your report is going to be paid out so you can properly budget way, way in advance.

Ohh And it's Yeah, yeah, sorry.

Yeah. And and some students, some students, there may be some confusion sometimes when they're just expecting that the tuition will be paid. Ohh, it that happened to me last year. You just paid it. So why wasn't it paid this year? I just assumed it would be paid. So from one year to the next, just if you want to keep this information at the back of your mind, you might get awards, uh, you know, the second year in the program and so different you can it can change slightly so when you get your funding.

Which letter every year for the annual details, go through them and make sure that they're the same and they're consistent. And who's going to pay what, when and how? And that's that's just good budgeting and good money management. You know, your stipend might come monthly and it might be a certain amount, but only up, you know, for certain amount of months. Just make sure you know that so you don't get used to something that suddenly changes. And then you say, well, I didn't know and then you know it's because it's in the funding letter. And if you don't understand the details or you need clarity, again, your graduate administrator is the person to go to, to.

Iron all that out.

Yes.

Just thought I'd add that because there, there it does sometimes change from one one year to the next depending on your finances.

Definitely Great point, Great point.

Um.

Sorry, I've got a question about pay her TA's and I don't want to go into the details on that because the collective agreement is quite long, but I put a link to the collective agreement, the QB collective agreement in the chat. So if you're going to be working as a teaching assistant and you want information on.

Pay the vacation, pay any other entitlements. The collective agreement is there in the chat for you.

Want to reiterate again, if you have questions about how activating our award or specifics about that, please respond to your award offer letter. Usually it will be go to the correct award officer at SGS if it's an s s award and we can provide you with those details again if you need them. But just a general statement to anyone who is interested or confused about how to activate their award through SGS.

Or, if you have read the instructions and are still not sure what to do next, please send an e-mail to graduate.awards@utoronto.ca. Put the award that you're trying to activate in the subject line so it can be assigned to the correct officer and they'll be happy to help.

Now, one thing I wanted to mention before we wrap up, we have a few more minutes is that the Graduate Awards office offers information sessions every August. So if you're interested in an.

Try Agency Award, either the Doctoral level awards, the Masters level Awards or Vanier or the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. We do hold information sessions where these awards. The dates have been set yet I don't believe, but I'm going to post in the chat a link to the SDS Events page. Once the dates have been set for those information sessions, they will be posted to our Events web page and you can find out when those will be held. There'll be.

Online as well, similar to this and you can just sign up or join, put it in your calendar when those are available. But we go into detail about how to apply, what the application includes and just tips and tricks for filling out a good merit based application for those awards. So keep an eye out for those events. We hope to see you there if you're going to apply.

And I just. I would just like to draw attention as well to the Graduate Center for Academic Communication at the same time as those information sessions are being offered by the Awards Office. The Graduate Center for Academic Communication runs workshops and even intensive courses on how to write effective research proposals, Slash grant proposals, slash forward proposals. These are really fantastic.

Passions. Students who participate in them have a greater success rate than students who don't. These awards are highly competitive, and writing them as writing proposals is a very particular skill. So take advantage of these workshops. Some people will tell you these workshops are free. They are not free, They are very expensive, but they've already been paid for out of your student fees. So you've paid a lot of money for these workshops already. Make sure that you make full use of them.

So on that note, um.

I think we're coming to the end, unless, Stacy, you've got anything to add.

I'm just looking to see if those intensives are available for registration yet or not.

They're not, I don't think.

They're not alright.

No.

Boot camps are writing.

Got it.

The August the strict one is August 15th, the 17th and circus also 15th to 17th for August and Chr is August 8th to 11th. Thank you have to be a registered student though. Do you have to be registered student for these I?

Something I would need to look into, but.

Yeah.

Definitely for the intensives that might be the case, but for the workshops, no, they don't Actually don't Check to see if you're registered to participate in the workshops.

OK.

For those who are interested, later in July we will be hosting A webinar exclusively about the Graduate Center for Academic Communication and other professionalization options at UT. But we haven't been able to schedule a date for that yet, so check back on on on the chat page to see what other sessions we're adding.

On that note, yeah, go ahead.

I think there's just one other one other question here. I'm not sure if we missed it or we were going to reject it because it was sort of an OSAP question. But it's from Eric and IT. They're in a program where they're funded and oh, no, sorry, there was a couple of them and I've been scrolling my program. OK. Yes, my program provides basic stipend and tuition. Do you still recommend?

Applying for OSAP. So applying for OSAP is obviously a personal choice. Um, but.

You know if you apply for, even if you are funded and you you must enter all that information in there, your base funding package and you know what you need to add to the application or leave out and where and when. Check with the registrar, university, registrars office. But definitely your funding package information has to be entered to the OSAP and and your income and all the rest that they ask for. So I mean it doesn't hurt to apply for OSAP and see what the outcome is. After clicking submit you'll get a notice of assessment which is an estimation.

According you know if all the information you entered was correct and after all the verifications go through for income and everything else that they they double check. Um.

Then you'll get a notice for assessment which will say this is probably how much you're going to get and it's very helpful to to plan.

And.

You know it you might want to extend there and sometimes you'll get OSAP loans and OSAP grants and there is the opportunity to just take the grant and there is a there is a deadline to decline the loan portion as well if you're going to do that. So you could decline the loan portion and just take the grant which is super helpful to anybody who who is eligible for that. So you don't always get the grants, just depends on all the information, your financial information that you enter there so.

We can't tell you you have to apply for OSAP. You should apply for OSAP. It is a personal choice, but the financial resource there um.

It does take a lot of stress off of students who are, you know, making ends meet dollar for dollar as they go through through the month. And you know you could. You can decline and you can decide not to. If you find out after you apply that you're financially stable and you don't need it, you can, you can decline and you can apply the following academic year if your financial situation changes, so.

I would, if it was me, I'd apply. I'd applied just to see, to see what I can get. Can I get the grants? Do I have to take the loan? Uh, do I need the loan and all those kinds of things.

I think that's it.

Yeah. Thank you.

Yeah.

So if you want to say we're getting more questions again about whether or not this session will be posted, yes, the recording of this session will be posted probably in about a week's time on the same page where you found the registration link. So here is the link back to that page in case you need it.

There only remains for me to thank you all for coming. You're making the smart choice of coming out to get this information and get yourself well prepared before you start your program. So congratulations to you for making the smart choice, even if that's watching the recording later. But I do have to say a very big thank you for all the work put in on this session by Pascal, by Virginia, by Deputy, and by Stacy. Not just the presentation, but also the sharing of expertise in the question and answer session, getting the links out.

They're sharing your own experiences. Really appreciate all your help. Thank you so much and everyone have a great rest of your day.

Take care, everyone.

Take care.

Thank you.