As a college and university student, one of the biggest headaches I ever faced was applying for financial aid.
Ensuring that I had all the right forms handed in on time, all of my fees were paid, and that the money I did receive was going to cover my tuition was almost more stressful than midterms and exams combined.
Like dealing with any government application, it was a pain to get a straight answer whenever I ran into an issue. There was normally a lengthy waiting process involved, and before anything could be addressed, I had to prove to the person on the other end of the phone I was indeed who I said I was. (Which normally added on another 20 minutes of trying to remember what I wrote as my favourite movie or television show for my security questions when I made the original account.)
Robynne Henry The Henry Hype
Luckily, I didn’t run into many problems throughout my post-secondary career. There was never anything that prevented me from affording my education, even if that means I’ll be making payments to my student debt for the foreseeable future.
Since I relied heavily on the Ontario government to help me afford school, my heart broke a little last week when I saw a number of scholarships offered to Alberta students were on hold until the fall.
While the Rutherford Scholarship applications are now available, there wasn’t any word on a number of others that could be the difference between someone being able to return to school in the fall or not. The uncertainty that could face students since this money might not be available is a level of stress I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, and I don’t understand how this could be happening.
The provincial government said the issue surrounding the Rutherford Scholarship was a misunderstanding, and was fixed as soon as it was brought to the attention of Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides. However, that doesn’t explain why the remaining scholarships were put on hold due to a technology upgrade.
If this was a planned outage, which it seems like it was, why wasn’t it done at the beginning of the summer so applications would be available for the 2019/20 school year? The work could have been started earlier, and not done with less than a month until the new semester starts. I’m assuming a lot of students were banking on having that money available, and this could be a hindrance to them moving forward.
