Korean Job Discussion Forums

[OBwannabe]

Has anyone here been accepted to a university program in Canada while living in Korea and then apply for a Canada Student Loan (Federal/Provincial)? Are we eligible for Canada student loans if we spend the previous year in Korea? Do we need to provide total income for the previous tax year (line 150)?
If we don't have to submit total income, but are eligible for student loans...then I guess we would have a good chance of recieving the maximum loan huh?

I currently live in Canada, but taught in Korea for 5 years.
Life is unecessarily difficult here. Boy I miss the easy life in Korea. Felt like I had the world on a platter. Nothing but a struggle here. Nearly impossible to pay much of the principle off of my student loans let alone save for more schooling. Yet when I lived in Korea it seemed like just about anything was possible.
Now I may have to head back to Korea to save and be eligible for enough of a loan to go back to school. Sheesh! Canada sure ain't no land of opportunity. Unless you are a refugee or have family to sponsor you for permanent residency. Might sound controversial, but I know/work/an friends with many. Life is good for them...but I digress

Any help would be very much appreciated. I'm sure there are loads of people who have worked in Korea and decided to go back to school after their tenur there and applied for loans.

Lets hear from ya!

Thanks all,

OB

Oh ya, perhaps one would need to move back to Canada a few months before their program begins and then apply for a loan? As I will hopefully not be deemed a resident in Canada when working in Korea.

[OBwannabe]

Sorry, failed to mention that in the time it would take to find out if I am eligible for a loan for this upcoming school year I will need to pay 700 bucks in deposits. So if it turns out that if I don't qualify for a loan, that's 700 bones wasted as it's non-refundable.
According the the online student loan estimator (which is no guarantee) I may be eligible for $6000 of loans of the $8000 in tuition. I have about 1500 in savings....so this surely won't do. And no, student line of credit is not an option. I have enough of those...never again! Besides, would need and don't have a co-signer.

Thanks again all...needed to vent.

[silkhighway]

You were thinking about going back to take a B.Ed, right? Not to be preachy, but I would think long and hard about that decision if you're already in student debt. Are you in Ontario by chance? It's a very tough market and you may not even get on a sub list depending where you are. Bankruptcy won't absolve you from that student loan, either. Overseas teaching may pay alright, but not if you got those huge bills from teachers college on top of what you already owe.

[Ginormousaurus]

Hi there, OB.

I was accepted to university while living in Korea and successfully applied for student loans. My memory is a little fuzzy on the details, but I know that my total income for the previous year would have been zero. I still recieved the maximum amount since I claimed that I had some savings to put towards tuition (maybe $3000 or so).

I hear you about missing the easy life in Korea. My first semester back was hell and all I wanted to do was quit and return to Korea to be with my gf and all my friends. Even now, nearly 4 years later, I'm still lurking on Dave's and missing my old life.

[OBwannabe]

[OBwannabe]

[Ginormousaurus]

I'm studying mechatronic systems engineering. Currently I'm doing a 16-month co-op (internship) for an oil company in Fort McMurray. I'll have one year of classes remaining when it's over.

If you're interested in sciences/engineering, I recommend looking into power engineering. You can get an engineering technology diploma in two years at SAIT or NAIT in Alberta and be all but guaranteed a high paying job upon completion. The demand for power engineers is incredibly high and will remain that way for at least a decade thanks to all the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) oilsands projects coming online over the next several years.