Deferring admission due to finances

[lilolemenotmuch2see]

Hi,

 

Not sure if this is the right area to ask but Is it a valid reason to defer admission due to being unable to pay for law school? I got an admissions bursary and will hopefully get maximum osap funding. After crunching numbers this means my entire tuition will be paid. But that will still leave me with no money for housing, food etc.

 

Also, I likely won’t get approved for a student line of credit due to bad credit history because of depression and mental illness that ruined my credit. 

My dream is to ofcourse go to law school in september, but what if I can’t? Will a school allow me to defer so I can save up money and fix my credit as much as possible?

 

Thank you in advance

 

Edit:  I firm accepted Western

Edited May 24, 2023 by lilolemenotmuch2see
Add info

[Tesseract]

It doesn't hurt to try and apply for the PSLOC, especially if money will be the only thing between you attending and not attending in September. There are numerous banks offering them and I was declined by several before I was finally approved by one near the bottom of my PSLOC list. 

Another piece of advice is to see if you can find a family member or significant other to cosign the PSLOC for you. If they have good credit and decent income, your bad credit matters a lot less.  

 

[lilolemenotmuch2see]

On 6/12/2023 at 5:16 PM, Tesseract said:

It doesn't hurt to try and apply for the PSLOC, especially if money will be the only thing between you attending and not attending in September. There are numerous banks offering them and I was declined by several before I was finally approved by one near the bottom of my PSLOC list. 

Another piece of advice is to see if you can find a family member or significant other to cosign the PSLOC for you. If they have good credit and decent income, your bad credit matters a lot less.  

 

Thanks so much for this advice. I ended up applying even with bad credit. And got approved for PSLOC with no co-signer from one of the major banks. 

[Tesseract]

1 hour ago, lilolemenotmuch2see said:

Thanks so much for this advice. I ended up applying even with bad credit. And got approved for PSLOC with no co-signer from one of the major banks. 

Nice! Always happy to help.

[lucieux]

On 6/22/2023 at 11:32 AM, lilolemenotmuch2see said:

Thanks so much for this advice. I ended up applying even with bad credit. And got approved for PSLOC with no co-signer from one of the major banks. 

Hi there, if you don’t mind which bank was it? I basically got declined from one (even with a co signer; the amount they are offering is 10k) and that won’t be nearly enough. Grateful for your help.

[lilolemenotmuch2see]

40 minutes ago, lucieux said:

Hi there, if you don’t mind which bank was it? I basically got declined from one (even with a co signer; the amount they are offering is 10k) and that won’t be nearly enough. Grateful for your help.

Hi,

 

It was scotiabank! 

[TheDevilIKnow]

3 hours ago, lucieux said:

Hi there, if you don’t mind which bank was it? I basically got declined from one (even with a co signer; the amount they are offering is 10k) and that won’t be nearly enough. Grateful for your help.

@lucieux, unless you have really bad credit, you may have just been talking to the "wrong person" at the bank. This can happen at all the banks, really... you need to be talking to a rep who is familiar with this lending product, which is a fairly niche one. Might need calling around to the right person, or else ask other Osgoode folks which Scotia Rep they worked with.

Generally, it's more likely that branches near campuses will have someone on staff who is familiar with these things. But in Victoria, for example, there is one rep at the main branch downtown (nowhere near the campus) who is the "right person" for these PSLOC's. 

We learned this the hard way... my spouse and I walked into our local CIBC branch (where we'd been doing all our banking) when she got into Med School. She had impeccable credit, had researched the options and all that... and they told her she didn't qualify for an LOC because she wouldn't have an income (?) while at medical school. Anyway, CIBC lost very, very, very many dollars of future business as a result of that interaction. But if we'd gone to a different branch it would have been a different story.

[lucieux]

11 hours ago, TheDevilIKnow said:

@lucieux, unless you have really bad credit, you may have just been talking to the "wrong person" at the bank. This can happen at all the banks, really... you need to be talking to a rep who is familiar with this lending product, which is a fairly niche one. Might need calling around to the right person, or else ask other Osgoode folks which Scotia Rep they worked with.

Generally, it's more likely that branches near campuses will have someone on staff who is familiar with these things. But in Victoria, for example, there is one rep at the main branch downtown (nowhere near the campus) who is the "right person" for these PSLOC's. 

We learned this the hard way... my spouse and I walked into our local CIBC branch (where we'd been doing all our banking) when she got into Med School. She had impeccable credit, had researched the options and all that... and they told her she didn't qualify for an LOC because she wouldn't have an income (?) while at medical school. Anyway, CIBC lost very, very, very many dollars of future business as a result of that interaction. But if we'd gone to a different branch it would have been a different story.

Oh this makes a lot of sense, and is very helpful. Thank you!

[lilolemenotmuch2see]

@lucieux To piggyback on the comment above. I found my PSLOC advisor right on the scotiabank webpage. They were listed as the advisor for my law school. And they had a list of all the respresentatives for different schools. My advisor even went as far as saying they would help advocate for me to the underwriters! I would definitely shop at different banks for the right rep

[howzerz96]

I am in a similar situation as op; I already deferred one year due to poor finance; my credit score is < 700... Honestly don't know what to do... Do I stand a chance getting LOC at banks?

[chaboywb]

37 minutes ago, howzerz96 said:

I am in a similar situation as op; I already deferred one year due to poor finance; my credit score is < 700... Honestly don't know what to do... Do I stand a chance getting LOC at banks?

OP, who you say you are in a similar position to, got a PSLOC. So why would you not stand a chance? 

We know nothing about you. Reach out to a Scotiabank PSLOC advisor and talk it through with them. Chances are you'll be fine.