University finances

SideWinder

SideWinder

SideWinder

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Okay, i am going to be asking about numbers, income and outcome.

Basically i am looking through my finances and i want to find out just how expensive it is to go to Univesity. I know it varies depending on area, University and living costs but i want to get a general idea.

Questions, how much did you save up out of your own money? Does your student loan cover day to day living expenses plus your rent? Did getting a part time job benefit you or could you survive perfectly fine?
 
Don't worry, no matter what happens students always find money for beer :D

But yeh, ive heard it can be abit of struggle just living from the loans and that part time job, even just working sundays for a few hours can help a lot :)
 
SideWinder said:
Okay, i am going to be asking about numbers, income and outcome.

Basically i am looking through my finances and i want to find out just how expensive it is to go to Univesity. I know it varies depending on area, University and living costs but i want to get a general idea.

Questions, how much did you save up out of your own money? Does your student loan cover day to day living expenses plus your rent? Did getting a part time job benefit you or could you survive perfectly fine?
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M8's I know who are at Uni, for example one doing Maths at 3rd year already has over 10k racked up on a Student loan, I haven't asked specifically but your looking well over £10k for a degree. Worth it in the long run?

I'd say most Uni students live the student life, get money, get wasted :). So really even if you had a part-time job it would help no doubt, but the pay wouldn't be great being part-time.
 
If you're studying in England then most places are going to be charging £3k a year in tuition fees, so after 3 years that's £9k already.

Then if you're moving away you're got rent on top of that, at the moment this is coming to £3400 a year for me, I have a maintenance loan+grant to pay for that.

You're actual 'student loan' can go straight to paying for your tuition fees, so that you don't actually have to pay anything out of your pocket for the actual course to begin with.
 
So, what do you need to pay at the end of each month say? Your rent obviously but do you start paying for the course or do you wait until your course is completed?

And what about the money you saved up before hand? That's the bit i'm most worried about. :)
 
As a rough guide: (This is my experience - I'm a third year now)

Tuition fees - these are about £1100 a year for me, but will be £3k a year for you. They are paid by the SLC, so thats £9000 loans.

Your 'Student loan' is between £3000 and £4000 a year, depending on how rich your parents are and whether you're in London or not. Average that at around 3.5, and you're talking about £20,000 Student loan for a 3-year degree. I dont have as much tuition loan, so mine's around £13000

In my case I saved up about £1k in the summer after A-levels, and my parents gave me £1000 a year to help. I earnt about £2000 last summer, but didnt get much the summer before that. (Jobs aren't as easy to find as I thought they would be..)

So in my case (and this is in the north-east, and living a fairly normal student life I guess) it's cost me about £19000 over the 3 years. So thats £1k tuition a year, about £3 rent and £2.5k for everything else. (£50 a week)

Hope that helps :)
 
I never saved up money before uni because I knew it would be gobbled away pretty quickly and I'd just end up spending it on something daft like food shopping...! :D

As for the course fees, I don't know as it changed this time around so I don't know exactly how it works. The loan totally depends on your 'rents income too... as far as I know but again it's changed this year.

You just have to be really careful. It's perfectly do-able, just just gotta be careful, watch your money, enjoy yourself, and probably get a job which will really help with socialising money and leave your loan etc for the more practical things.

If some of the folk that I know are at uni (lights, no one, and home are words that spring to mind) and can manage their finances then I'm sure you can. :)

Good luck! :)
 
The SLC pay the £1200 a year towards my tuition fees( welsh student in wales = cheaper :) ).

I then get about £3000 maintenence loan a year to use for essentials and accomodation etc.

As far as my standard of living, I'm plenty ok with what I have, however when I leave, I will have a total of £15400. That's the debt I worked out anyway. Until I start earning £15k a year or more, none of it will have to be payed back, then it scales etc.

But I think unless you come from a very rich family you'll be looking at £15k minimum debt once you leave, and possibly anywhere up to £25k.


Worth it? Absolutely :p
 
I'm a first year student at Glasgow Uni. Up here i'd say we're pretty well off!

We get out tuition fees paid by a third party called SAAS - i dont *think* you need to pay them back - tbh, im not sure exactly how it even works. Even then, most courses are around the £1700 mark (for the whole course!) except Medicine and Law i believe.

Within SAAS you can apply for loans and bursaries (if your parents income is under a certain threshold). Some people even take the loans and put it in an ISA and use the money from a part-time job to cover most expenses throughout Uni. Only the stupid ones leave Uni's in Scotland with ridiculous debt ;)

In my eyes, the Scottish students are lucky buggers when it comes to further education and fees for them - however i'm not sure on the specifics related for an English student applying through SAAS - i know it's a Scottish Student Funding Scheme, but i'm not sure if you reside in Scotland, if you are eligible, even if you are English/Welsh/Irish. Something you'd need to check up on.
 
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Also don't forget that your student debt is one of the most relaxed to pay back, as you know you don't have to pay it back until you're earning £15k a year and then you can even decide how much to pay off per week/month etc. It's hardly even a debt, if you can't keep up with your payments you can just tailor them to suit your income, it's not as though the baliffs are going to come around if you start to struggle :D
 
Andelusion said:
Also don't forget that your student debt is one of the most relaxed to pay back, as you know you don't have to pay it back until you're earning £15k a year and then you can even decide how much to pay off per week/month etc. It's hardly even a debt, if you can't keep up with your payments you can just tailor them to suit your income, it's not as though the baliffs are going to come around if you start to struggle :D
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And if you become a bored housewife with no job, you never get to pay it back! :p ;)

(Not that I'm planning that!)
 
Student loan was more than enough for me, i used some of it to go on a skiing holiday with a group of people from Uni the first year
 
SideWinder said:
Does your student loan cover day to day living expenses plus your rent?
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If your prices are similar to those here, then no chance. My student loan is £1100 per term. Rent costs £800 for the term, and I can expect to spend another £200-£250 on food. That doesn't leave very much spare. Fortunately my parents are able to pay my rent so I can get by on the loan - I have about £200 left at the end of the term so without my parents' assistance I'd be -£600 without a job.

I think all my friends who pay their own rent have had to work quite a bit in the vacations, unless they had plenty saved up prior to Uni. A couple of people I know felt the need to take a gap year solely to save up enough money to live comfortably at Uni, which is a shame and not the way the system should work.
 
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My loan just covers my accommodation and tuition fees (I get £2100 loan a term, £1000 of which is spent on tuition fees and ~£1100 on accommodation, leaving me with nothing), so I have to pay all my living expenses myself and I cope perfectly well. You just have to live like a student, that's all, and be prepared to work.

Or get handouts from your parents, I suppose.
 
I basically wouldn't be able to go to university in London were it not for my parents and grandparents helping out..

Rent £400 a month
Living expenses are going on for £400 a month too.

My loan basically covers 10 months of my living expenses.
 
My student loan covers my rent and living expenses with a bit to spare. Tuition fees are paid by the SAAS. :)
 
My parents are well off so I got the minimum loan but I paid for everything myself. My hall accomodation (cheapest here) and fees came to~£4400 and my loan was for ~£3100. I earnt money over summer (about 4k) and currently have a weekend job, although the weekend job isn't necessary I like to save up money just in case :)
 
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