Uni - How do you afford it?

shifty_uk said:
That's a fairly big chunk! Does having student debt effect the possabilities of getting loans(eg business loans etc) in future?
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Absolutely, miss a payment and you lose credit score.
But payment is about as automatic as it can be, so you should be fine :)
 
shifty_uk said:
That's a fairly big chunk! Does having student debt effect the possabilities of getting loans(eg business loans etc) in future?
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Student loans are different to a normal loan. They're government subsidised, so there's no interest on it. The amount you owe just goes up in line with inflation. You get the repayments taken off your salary automatically when you start earning above £15K.
 
Ive promised my mum central heating for the winter and air conditioning in the summer for her retirement shed in the garden.

If you want to get involved fully in the social scene uni has to offer, expect to need a lot of money. There are many, many factors; heres an outline of my living costs while a student:

Rent - 300 (in Bristol it is!)
Mobile - 20
Internet - 5 (shared with housemates)
Insurance - 5 (I actually paid mine in one go. £60 from Endsleigh)
Food - 80 (20 per week. Includes house care / cleaning products e.g. fairy liquid, Cif & Persil. Buying sensibly, I eat very well on this. Fresh veg, good meat ect. NOT inclusive of any going out money for cinema/pub/club activities)

That should give you a rough idea of some of the basics. Don't forget water/gas/electricity, gym membership, running a car costs (luckily I have none), going out money, equipment for hobbies (e.g. you might join the tennis club, cycling club or go on a winter holiday with the snow sports club).

I hope that gets you started.
 
shifty_uk said:
Incredibly generous! Very lucky.
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Indeed, don't think I could hack a part-time job and do my studies would have too much on my plate then, was hard enough balancing both in college...

Very grateful to me mum and dad :)
 
Student loan - pays for tuition fees, maintenance loan (and maintenance grant) - pays for accomodation. I also have a part time job which pays for my food, bills and other things.
 
Will_3rd said:
Indeed, don't think I could hack a part-time job and do my studies would have too much on my plate then, was hard enough balancing both in college...

Very grateful to me mum and dad :)
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I could probably get by without having to work during term, but it would mean eating rubbish food, drinking much less and generally enjoying life a lot less.

I find I have plenty of time to enjoy going out with friends, studying, playing video games and doing things like paintball, skiing, mountainbiking etc. there's 24hours in a day.
 
You guys who are on the 'old system' have it so much easier, what is it £1200 a year for tuition fees? That sucks bottom :( After Uni I think I'm gonna have £18k debt minimum.
 
shifty_uk said:
I'm looking to get into London Uni next year, but I've recently been adding up all the costs and looking at possible funding and I have no idea how I'm going to afford it!

The tuition fees are £3000 per year, which ends up £9000 for the three years. On top of this I'll need to pay for accommodation, living costs and study materials, but somehow I don't even think a part-time job would be of any advantage.

I've spoken to a few people who've said their parents pay their tuition, or accommodation fees....but no way would I get anyone paying that ammount for me.

As thread title says - How on earth do you afford it?
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Its called loans. my parents were too poor to pay much, but I did get some reduced accomodation and with my parents being poor I got some grants etc.
Apart form that expect a £20K loan
 
what is the english system now? 1200 a year that you have to pay while you're at uni? or do you pay it afterwards?

In scotland SAAS are paying 1100 a year or so for me and I'll give them it back +inflation-interest when I'm earning over £15k - unless I emigrate for a few years, then for some reason they dont mind.
 
uni costs me approximateley nothing


tuition fees - payed for by SAAS
travelling to uni every week - £15
food/drink whilst at uni - can be anything from £5 a week to £25
loan from SAAS - £2200 a year
put it this way all i would need is a job making me £50 a week and i could survive easily, especcially thanks to SAAS for giving me loads of money
 
It seems unfair how the grants are allocated. Its based purely on total income from the year. My parents might earn more than some peoples but i also have 3 sisters and a brother... which obviously means my parents have a lot less spare money and need a bigger house/car have to buy more food spend more on clothes etc. Yet how much they earn defines my grant? Im not going to get a penny of them for uni! No way they can afford it!

Why arnt other factors taken into consideration?
 
Rebelius said:
what is the english system now? 1200 a year that you have to pay while you're at uni? or do you pay it afterwards?

In scotland SAAS are paying 1100 a year or so for me and I'll give them it back +inflation-interest when I'm earning over £15k - unless I emigrate for a few years, then for some reason they dont mind.
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It's £3k a year now and like your system we also don't have to start paying it back until we're earning over £15k, if there is any interest I think it's very very little. Or non at all? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
 
The new fee system is easier to afford despite being more expensive - when I started my degree 2 years ago I was under the old system so I had to pay my fees up front - £1150 a year out of my student loan (Which in itself was only £2400).

Now, you get a fees loan as well which means you don't need to worry about it until after you graduate and even then, you just pay it off at £sod all per month for 25 years.

it IS very expensive if you move away and are not entitled to government handouts and suchlike - if this is you, then ask why you've picked 'London Uni'. If you are going to Imperial, LSE, UCL then fair enough, its expensive but your degree will be worth it.

If, however, London Met is where you want to go then rethink immediatly, no point gettnig yourself into huge debt for a degree at a Uni as naff as London Met - save cash, go to a better non-London uni.
 
SAAS pays tuition fees.
Mum + Dad pay my accomodation
I got a full time job during my gap year and saved up quite a bit expecting to use it for food/drink/books/clothes/etc. But i now have a part time job which covers all that and i havnt needed to touch my savings account.

I'll get a job over summer as well.
 
[TW]Fox said:
it IS very expensive if you move away and are not entitled to government handouts and suchlike - if this is you, then ask why you've picked 'London Uni'. If you are going to Imperial, LSE, UCL then fair enough, its expensive but your degree will be worth it.

If, however, London Met is where you want to go then rethink immediatly, no point gettnig yourself into huge debt for a degree at a Uni as naff as London Met - save cash, go to a better non-London uni.
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Have to agree with that. My girlfriend's little sister started at Kingston Uni (In london) this year. Her living costs are just astronomical - luckily her parents are willing to fork out for most of it (making my young lady very jealous, as she has a job during term time to pay for everything!) but it does seem very weird to be spending so much to go to a mediocre uni. People say the social scene in London is better than other areas, but I dont see it tbh. I've never found anything London has that Manchester or other big cities dont.

The idea of living at home for uni is just odd though tbh. I definately wouldnt recommend staying with your parents just to save money! There's a line between being sensible with your finances, and just missing out on all the fun to save some debt at the end :)
 
Ja (: said:
It seems unfair how the grants are allocated. Its based purely on total income from the year. My parents might earn more than some peoples but i also have 3 sisters and a brother... which obviously means my parents have a lot less spare money and need a bigger house/car have to buy more food spend more on clothes etc. Yet how much they earn defines my grant? Im not going to get a penny of them for uni! No way they can afford it!

Why arnt other factors taken into consideration?
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your family chooses to live in a bigger house, have a nice car, if they didnt then they would have more spare money, also the system is made to help the poor, in my opinion nobody should get benefits, its free money for the lazy, although there are people with disabilities etc, they still shouldnt just get free money, if i was in power smoking would be made completely illegal unless designated to special smoking rooms so nobody else could be harmed, benefits revoked from everybody, all drugs made legal but only available to people in small quantities per month, prostitution made legal, all military funding would be stopped for army,navy,air force, etc (what the hell do we need an army for when we have america to do all the fighting for us) , with all this extra tax money i would make the UK into a country like dubai, filled with glorious big buildings and structures, make electric cars, etc
 
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Parents stuck me about £150/month to cover food and petrol

Accomodation was covered by my grant (about £2.5K)

Part time work and student loan covered the rest which came to about £4K

No tuition fees luckily due to when I started.

I always say be very sure your career is going to earn you all that extra money because it's a hell of a lot of debt to rack up.
 
calnen said:
The idea of living at home for uni is just odd though tbh. I definately wouldnt recommend staying with your parents just to save money! There's a line between being sensible with your finances, and just missing out on all the fun to save some debt at the end :)
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It depends entirely on your home life though. I stayed at home - mostly becuase I was entitled to minimum loan and absolutely zero assistance so it would have cost a fortune - and I'm having a great time. Don't really miss out on much, plenty of nights out, etc etc. Loads of fun.

And spare cash to spend on completely random stuff.
 
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