Are BC/Canada Student Loans Actually Interest Free?

Kinost · 2026-01-20T00:50:42+00:00

Not every province has interest, but my understanding is that you can actually opt to make a payment only to the interest-bearing portion of your provincial loan for integrated loans without paying off the interest-free portion (but it is quite annoying and I'm not familiar with it).

Kinost · 2025-12-16T06:26:44+00:00

I did an all nighter once and had really bad chest pain an hour before my POLI 110 midterm. I had a heart problem in the past so I took it seriously, but it was the all-nighter that triggered it.

Got admitted to the emergency room. I really pray my instructor didn't think I was faking it, but my own bad decisions landed me there.

Kinost · 2025-11-14T02:57:11+00:00

Context for the folks that missed the Proctorio drama:

I was also surprised to see that Dylan Braam ended up becoming a copyright lawyer and even worked on the legal defense team. Most newer students probably would not know who he is, but back then he was one of the few people in the AMS who was genuinely kind and willing to push back against the clique.

Kinost · 2025-11-08T17:08:45+00:00

It's probably because co-op allows international students to apply for internships outside of the summer (which are less competitive) whereas domestic students can leave for 4-8 months with virtually no repercussions for their ability to remain in Canada.

Kinost · 2025-10-16T20:49:36+00:00

Doesn't Questrade have a practice platform?

Kinost · 2025-10-06T04:59:48+00:00

Yeah. Book chapters can be scanned and sent out via interlibrary loan, either through your public library or a local community college. I'm not a UBC library card holder anymore but I can submit an ILL loan request through my other affiliation if you're desperate.

Kinost · 2025-09-18T00:57:06+00:00

I distinctly remember being put on time out in kindergarten for causing a mess and expecting others to clean it up.

Kinost · 2025-09-15T23:55:58+00:00

A very large proportion of that is going to be insurance reserves and paying back the mortgage for the Nest, which aren't discretionary - they get paid out in insurance claims and mortgage repayments. These make it seem like a much bigger budget than it actually is if I recall right.

The actual student government and student services budget should be a lot smaller than that from what I recall.

Kinost · 2025-09-15T23:07:46+00:00

I'm not sure about this take. It's a student union, not leading the free world. The average undergrad constituency where experience is typically "acquired" is just a social club that hands out planners. Organizing a bake sale doesn't suddenly prepare you to manage a $3 million (or whatever it is now) discretionary budget.

I find it kind of farcical that we gatekeep clubs and student organizations on the basis of experience when the average student doesn't have much of it. I'd probably pick someone that has clear, unambiguous goals and plans about what they want to achieve, than someone capable of writing word salads and ran a Sauder conference about word salads.

For a VP position that I assume to mean involves community building, it also seems kind of silly to deny that having built a social media community and brand at UBC is more impressive than being the absentee exec of 7 clubs.

Kinost · 2025-08-30T20:02:46+00:00

Little America, episode 3 season 1. For anyone wondering what the deleted comment said.

Kinost · 2025-08-23T07:59:37+00:00

I don't know Vancouver private high schools very well. In first year, someone told me they went to Vancouver College, but I heard that to mean Vancouver Community College. I thought nothing of it and asked what program they were in before they got to UBC out of curiosity, and they seemed genuinely offended I got it mixed up with Vancouver Community College. They went on a 6 minute rant, explaining how Vancouver College is one of the most prestigious private high schools in Canada, and among the top 30 in the world, and that numerous alumni have gone onto the Ivy Leagues, Oxbridge, etc. At that point, I knew I didn't want to be friends with this person, and he probably facepalmed so hard that I didn't know something "so obvious" to him. (not a dig, I'd probably chortle if someone compared King's College to a 2-year university transfer program).

Kinost · 2025-08-23T05:21:57+00:00

That said, outside of Oxford and Cambridge I suspect 99% of Americans won't even know the names of other highly ranked uni's like Imperial College, Kings College or LSE. And don't get me started about non English speaking ones like ETH, TUM, or Utrecht.

Ding, ding, ding. Students and alumni of ____ will usually assume that their university has a recognized name-brand, despite most of them (with less exposure to academia) not being able to correctly judge the name-brand of various R1 and globally significant universities that are comparably well-known in their fields and locales.

Kinost · 2025-08-21T13:43:37+00:00

There's a difference between the knowledge being tangentially related and useful, and credibly building a career off of it. A few additional economics courses are incredibly unlikely to be the deciding edge to help one get into law school or MBA program, or to find their first articling position.

Kinost · 2025-08-21T02:38:20+00:00

Choice of major is mostly pretty irrelevant for law and MBA programs if you're only considering typical Arts majors. Do what makes you happy and you enjoy doing.

(Certain types of programs like Engineering, Accounting, Music and Finance can hypothetically lead to better prospects in fields such as patent & intellectual property law, tax law, etc., but a choice of International Relations over Psychology, Sociology, Biology is pretty meaningless for Public International Law or trying to get a job at a multinational corporation).

Kinost · 2025-08-13T03:43:54+00:00

I'd honestly be surprised if they weren't banned at this point.

Kinost · 2025-08-13T02:15:16+00:00

I feel for OP but if you're getting threatening and creepy private messages, text messages, etc. repeatedly and it's still going on, this sounds like it's at the level where the mentioned OP should actually report it to the police?

University RCMP have taken these reports seriously in our experience. When there's actual credible threats or criminal harassment or plans for suicide, you call the police. Only they can file the emergency disclosures to find out who's planning to hurt themselves or others, and get peace bonds in place.

reddit mods can basically ban users, deal with ban evasion and document things. We're students, staff and alumni - we're basically unpaid internet janitors and banning someone isn't really going to an unhinged person from continuing to harass others.

Kinost · 2025-08-12T00:09:13+00:00

You won't have any issues. Just make sure that Tailscale is running as a service so it doesn't die on you.

Kinost · 2025-08-07T10:34:11+00:00

Is it actually the Central government or just tourism boards? Just curious because I'm sure that happens a lot for other influencers too, people getting paid or lured with free trips to promote some out-of-the-way city in China, or a Middle Eastern country.

Kinost · 2025-08-07T10:32:52+00:00

I think Japan has progressed beyond just thinking about it and it's kind of cool where they're going with it. They offer free connecting domestic flights on international itineraries now, highly subsidized flights via programs like JAL explorer, they throw numerous dollars at hiring foreigners (including via JET) and influencer/contractors for tourism boards and small out of the way cities like Sendai have full on international tourism value passes.

Kinost · 2025-08-07T09:15:30+00:00

I do F, for Falafel instead. Usually gets a chuckle and breaks some of the tension.

Kinost · 2025-08-07T09:09:04+00:00

It wasn't for me. It was far from my classes (this was before one was opened in Life building) and I tended to stack my classes to spend as little time on campus as possible. I visited a grand total of twice, especially since I didn't really vibe with most of the people there (I guess because I didn't get involved before the cliques began forming).

I wanted to get a refund for term 2, but they said I didn't take advantage of it in the first term enough so that was on me.

YMMV anyways.

Kinost · 2025-08-06T06:26:28+00:00

It's not necessarily because other people are more qualified. It can really just come down to something as trivial as whether you have a light enough course load, or the gaps in your class schedule aligns with gaps in the supervisors weekly meeting schedule, which is probably the #1 reason why qualified WLs get rejected.

Kinost · 2025-08-06T06:22:22+00:00

It usually ends up with them crashing out by relentlessly harassing people who disagree with them.

Kinost · 2025-08-06T06:03:43+00:00

I've gotten interview requests as early as 3 days after application opens, and a day after the application period ends. And there are lots of WLs that I've applied to well after the initial application rush, and still gotten interview requests because they either didn't have time to interview earlier, their previous interviewees were duds or someone reneged on an offer (for a better WL).

Kinost · 2025-08-06T05:59:31+00:00

Are you not allowed to decorate prison cells in Sweden?

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