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The provincial government’s overhaul of post-secondary grants and loans is starting to sink in for students as they scramble to figure out how they’ll make ends meet with a new school year only months away.

For undergraduate Carleton student Nadia Hansen, the drop in funding puts even more financial pressure on her still-mourning family. Hansen’s father died last January.

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She used to qualify for fully covered tuition for low-income families, and got $14,000 or $15,000 each year in grants. Now, she’s only slated to receive about $9,000 — barely enough to cover her tuition, even with the recent 10-per-cent reduction in fees.

“Now (my mother) also has to worry about me just being able to cover my rent,” Hansen says. “So I just worry it’s going to be a lot of stress for her that I don’t want to add on. We’re already still grieving, so it’s just a really scary situation.”

Hansen is about to enter her fourth year studying human rights and social justice. Her parents, both immigrants from Ghana, never had a post-secondary education.