u/Stalker0039

I’m a York/Lassonde Engineering student and I just got my OSAP application closed for Fall 2026 because apparently I reached the maximum number of study periods for my program.

The message says:

>“You have received funding for the maximum number of study periods for your program and are ineligible for further full-time OSAP effective Fall 2026.”

Basically, they are applying the “program length plus one” rule. Since Engineering is treated as an 8-term / 4-year program, they say I can only get 10 terms of full-time OSAP.

The problem is that this rule makes no sense for my situation. I live on my own, pay my own rent, food, bills, everything. My parents do not support me financially. I have had to work while studying just to survive, which is exactly why I usually took 4 courses instead of 5. But because 60%+ course load still counts as full-time for OSAP, every term counted the same as if I was taking 100% course load.

So now I am being punished for not being able to take a full 100% load while also supporting myself.

I also had serious personal circumstances during these years, including a stalking situation and deaths in my family, which affected my ability to overload myself academically. I was not dragging school out for fun. I was literally trying to stay enrolled while working and living independently.

Another issue is that I changed programs from Software Engineering to Mechatronics Engineering. I want to check whether York/OSAP counted my study periods correctly after that program change, because many of the courses I now need for Mechatronics would not have counted the same way if I had stayed in Software.

My friend switched from Mechanical to Software Engineering and he is in his 8th year here. He is still receiving OSAP despite the switch, and is way above the 10 term limit that I was recently informed about. I heard the amount of credits transferred after the switch affects the decision but I have not confirmed this information yet.

I already spoke to someone from OSAP/York and they basically told me there is no appeal unless I have a disability, which I do not. They said once the decision is final, there is no appeal.

So my questions are:

Has anyone dealt with this Study Periods + One rule before?

If you changed engineering programs, did your OSAP terms reset or did they keep counting everything together?

Is there any actual way to challenge this, or at least request a review of how they counted my program change?

Would going to Bennett Centre (York's OSAP staff advisors) and asking for a term-by-term breakdown help?

Would a student line of credit basically be my only option now?

I am not trying to dodge responsibility. I am trying to finish my engineering degree. I just do not understand how they can base the program length on a 100% course load, but then count my 80% terms the exact same, when the whole reason I could not take 100% was because I had to work to support myself.

The eecs department has been closed the entire reading week, and I need to know this earlier than next week because I am enrolling in my Fall courses. I have delayed taking eecs2030 for over two semesters because I refuse to take it with Jackie or Mufleh. I am not going to pay around $1300 just to be stressed out, poorly supported, and forced to teach myself the entire course using AI and YouTube while spending 15–20 hours per week on a single subject. I refuse to.

Section "F" is listed with Jackie Wang, while sections "E" and "G" still have no instructor posted. So what exactly am I supposed to do? Enroll in one of those sections and pray I do not get Mufleh Al-Shatnawi? Because I would genuinely rather take a different course or delay my graduation than get stuck in one of those sections.

I am not someone who tries to dodge every difficult professor. I have had bad professors before and dealt with it gracefully. But these two are the only ones where I am genuinely not willing to take the risk. Their teaching style, expectations, and overall course management are exactly the kind of thing that makes students feel like they are paying full tuition just to be left on their own.

On top of that, eecs1021 does not properly prepare engineering students for eecs2030. eecs1021 feels butchered compared to eecs1022, which is the computer science version and seems to cover more relevant content. So engineering students already enter eecs2030 behind by default, and then the course expects us to somehow already know things that were never properly taught.

I am also taking eecs2032 right now, and we were expected to become comfortable with Bash very quickly. Maybe I am not amazing at coding, sure, but when many people do badly on the lab test, even after studying, working in groups, and practicing, then it clearly cannot just be an individual problem. At some point, the course structure and teaching quality need to be questioned.

I am honestly sick of teaching myself the majority of the content in eecs courses. What am I exactly paying for? The department feels disorganized: communication is often delayed and unclear, and students are expected to just accept whatever happens. How are we supposed to plan our schedules when major sections still have no instructor listed? Are they aware that students avoid enrolling with certain professors, and is that part of why some instructor names are left blank for so long?

I know I ranted a bit, and thanks for coming this far. My question is simple: Are sections E and G actually going to have different instructors, or are we just gambling and hoping we do not get one of the same professors students are trying to avoid?

Because at this point, I am tired of pretending this is normal. Engineering students deserve better organization, better communication, and better teaching than whatever this is supposed to represent.