Uni - How do you afford it?

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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I feel your pain. Sucks really - people who decide they want to go to Uni but wish to pay for it themselves get screwed over becuase of factors outside of their control..
 
Psycho Sonny said:
its to do with him complaining that he cant get money for uni - its a bit off topic but all viable
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I'm pretty sure it was just a pointless rant actually :)

His parents might have CHOSEN to have a particular house but he's not his parents, is he? He's an individual over the age of 18..
 
[TW]Fox said:
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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And cars ;)
Of course there will be some people who can pull it off, but of the people I know in real life who commute in, I cant think of any that 'get the full experience'. (lol, I cant think of a better phrase for it.) I'd still say that in general you're better off living in halls for the first year at least. If it doesnt work out, or once you've got the friends in place you could always move back in with your folks.
 
calnen said:
And cars ;)
Of course there will be some people who can pull it off, but of the people I know in real life who commute in, I cant think of any that 'get the full experience'. (lol, I cant think of a better phrase for it.) I'd still say that in general you're better off living in halls for the first year at least. If it doesnt work out, or once you've got the friends in place you could always move back in with your folks.
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It certainly doesnt work for everyone - for many poeple, home would ruin Uni. I guess I'm just lucky it worked for me. I come and go as I please, go out several times a week with my mates (Who are more than grateful for the lifts home!), and can drive from house to union in the time it takes them to walk from their various houses to the Union. It's all good.

One of my friends lived at home for the first year but decided for the 2nd year to move out for the full experience - she ended up with awful housemates who made her life a misery - for the second half of the year she moved back home and was considerably happier and didn't miss out on much.

It can be pot luck - get a house with the right people and living away is an absolute blast. Stay at home with restrictive parents and not enough space and living at home is hell. But the reverse of each is also true..

It would suck if you lived at home and had to rely on public transport though, becuase spontaneous 'pub?' text messages would have to be met with 'let me check the bus timetable' :p
 
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My parents and grandparents cover my accommodation between them, leaving me with my loan to pay for everything else. If I didn't have help from them, I would have gone to a different university, probably somewhere cheaper up north... then I could have afforded it on my own.
 
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Unfortunately the only way I afford uni is by not going out very much and working in the summers. Thankfully I'm in my final year so hopefully I will have some more money soon.
 
basically if your parents both work and have half decent jobs, you wont get any help from the government. it really annoys me as im doing engineering, a field that is very important to the country and very little people do it therefore the country (and indeed world) is in major need of them. yet there are people who get full grants and do a crappy art/social science course at a useless disgrace of a university (i.e. derby/preston/wolvo) 1 day a week and get it free it really frustrates me as will end up on a till at tesco/asda etc etc earning so little they dont even have to pay the loans back. ever.

My parents have to help me out or i couldnt be here plain and simple. i have a part time job and keep goign out on the lash to a minimum as i simply cannot afford.

My parents cant pay for all my fees they cant afford it. heck, derby students i know are done for the summer and working to earn money and im still at uni working hard to pass i dont finish til end of june.

im sure some people will disagree with me but many will feel exactly the same way. my parents help me where possible but all my savings will go by the end of the degree.

if you are an ethnic minority, parents have low income and your dislexic you are laughing!! oh and you get a free laptop
 
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my old fella covered my rent at £240/month.

i got 3k loan and had to pay 1k tuition fees from that. i never had a job for more than 2 weeks in the whole time, and managed to spend an awesome amount of time out and having fun.
 
mglover070588 said:
basically if your parents both work and have half decent jobs, you wont get any help from the government. it really annoys me as im doing engineering, a field that is very important to the country and very little people do it therefore the country (and indeed world) is in major need of them. yet there are people who get full grants and do a crappy art/social science course at a useless disgrace of a university (i.e. derby/preston/wolvo) 1 day a week and get it free it really frustrates me as will end up on a till at tesco/asda etc etc earning so little they dont even have to pay the loans back. ever.

My parents have to help me out or i couldnt be here plain and simple. i have a part time job and keep goign out on the lash to a minimum as i simply cannot afford.

My parents cant pay for all my fees they cant afford it. heck, derby students i know are done for the summer and working to earn money and im still at uni working hard to pass i dont finish til end of june.

im sure some people will disagree with me but many will feel exactly the same way. my parents help me where possible but all my savings will go by the end of the degree.

if you are an ethnic minority, parents have low income and your dislexic you are laughing!! oh and you get a free laptop
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so you'd rather be from a low income family and be dyslexic? ;p
 
Psycho Sonny said:
snip
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Live in a bigger house.. well 2 people to a bedroom is ok, which is how it is now isnt so bad.. but in a smaller house.. 3 to a room? hmm no.

Nice car? I didnt say nice car i said bigger car as in 7 seats to fit the bigger family.

Even if we lived in a smaller house and had a car that couldnt fit the whole family my parents still wouldnt be able to afford to give me any money. All my parents have is lots of debt, whether its their fault or not im not argueing, but you cant group every framily in the same boat.

Ive got a bit off topic i guess..

What im saying is if parents finances are to be taken as a factor as how much money you get from the government and even the size of the loan available for university then surely the whole picture should be taken into account.

2 parents earning 30 in total wirth 1 child is completely differnt to 2 parents earning 30 with 5 kids.. i think i know which family is going to have money to give to their child for uni and which isnt..

That was all my point was. That they could make it fairer by looking at the bigger picture.
 
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mglover070588 said:
your dislexic you are laughing!! oh and you get a free laptop
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Please tell me that you misspelt dyslexic for the purposes of irony. And to be fair I'd rather not be dyslexic and get a free laptop, it isn't like it is a particular aid to someone to be dyslexic, many people do well with dyslexia but I'd be pretty sure it isn't because they got a free laptop.

University for me has been funded partly by student loan and partly by having a job during summers and gap years plus my parents help out when they can. :)
 
Parents pay tuition fees and half of accommodation (£57/wk), student loan covers the other half and general living\food etc. I've also got a job working for AQA 63336 and I resell tickets - usually gives me about £400/£500 a month to spend on whatever I want, though that's going up more recently (made £200 this weekend just gone). Every little bit you can earn like that'll help! Work at a cinema during the summer to clear off my overdraft\buy fun stuff... and I do occasional filming\editing services for a little top up too.

However, it's safe to say I live a luxurious lifestyle, so you won't need so much income to get by :p
 
I did some bar work, bummed about really, entertainment is cheap at uni.

I didn't have to pay tuition, as at the time my parents were below the earning threshold required, and my accomodation was 2K per year with bills. My loan was about 3.2 K PA, so I just managed on my loan and the bar work, was all good fun :)

Dont students now get more loans? Like 6K PA or soemthing?

EDIT: I'm dyslexic too, didnt take the laptop though - just the ipod :)
 
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Andelusion said:
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.
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It just rises to meet inflation :) So in real terms you should pay no more back than you took.
 
Student loan mainly although parents give me £150pm which really helps. Dad also does quite a bit of shopping for me so I pick that up when I go home. Also work a month or so over summer to get a bit of cash together.

The main thing is to just live frugally, watch what you spend for example make your own sandwiches and don't blow money on take away every time you go out.
 
i'm nearly done with uni now, just got 1 more exam then graduate in july, did my placement last year which really does help with expenses and stuff as it was paid... living on campus is far cheaper than off campus, as you would have to deal with bills etc... then you may get the odd person if you're unlucky who doesn't want to pay.

My student loan is about £9k in total, could have been more but decided not to take it out for my final year, instead i got my loan whilst at my placement, so i was getting a lot more during that year. ;) I pay for my rent, but my parents paid for my tuition fees which is less.
 
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