The first rule of financial survival for students isn’t “Stock up on macaroni and cheese.” Nor is it “Skip town and hope your student loan just disappears.”

Rather, local post-secondary officials are telling students to apply for government loans and grants, even if they don’t think they’re eligible for financial help.

“Last year we turned back tens of thousands of dollars in grants because nobody applied for them,” says Don Yurchuck, registrar at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT). Despite his college’s best efforts, he says, many students still do not apply for financial help.

It’s a problem Laurie Woldanski, a student advisor at Grant MacEwan, also recognizes. Students assume they won’t qualify for government support because of their parents’ income or because they’re living at home, and it’s a mistake that could cost them big bucks.

The federal government has just introduced a new grant program to replace the Millennium Scholarship Fund. The Canada Student Grant program provides $250 a month for students from low-income families and $100 a month for students from middle-income families. But students won’t receive either grant unless they apply for a Canada student loan.

At the University of Alberta, loans and grants though the federal government are fully used, says Beverly Eastham, vice-president external of the students’ union. However, the Laurence Decore provincial scholarship for student leaders, which offers $500 in funding, isn’t receiving enough applications and had money left over last year.

Alberta Works also provides funding for scholastic pursuits, and Woldanski encourages any student who has recently received employment insurance or maternity benefits to apply for educational funding.

“All they can do is say no,” Woldanski says. “It’s worth a try. You might get some funding.”

abrunschot@see.greatwest.ca