If your uni student dc lives at home and commutes

I appreciate this is not relevant to you op but I overheard a parent at dds uni school evening and they were saying some Welsh unis still support medical degrees financially with bursaries.
I don’t know the details or even if it’s true but it may be useful to some.

Sheffield*!!! En suite room for £70 inc all bills

In that situation I would definitely charge some keep money - parents I know in similar situations do. He will get a lower maintenance loan if he lives at home, but that will reflect he's not paying rent - it will still cost to feed him and for utilities. It's all part of becoming an adult and learning to pay your own way, in my book plus you can't really afford not to!

A 90 min commute is rough with the hours a Medical student would be putting in. When placement time starts, he could be required to be there 07:00-1900.

My ds is just starting uni and is living at home. He won't be paying us anything.

DS graduated last year but he did a degree apprenticeship so did earn a very decent wage as he studied and worked so he did pay £50 per week. We didn’t need it but I am very much you pay your way. He will do alright by us when he wants a deposit for a house. He has no idea as I don’t want to make him just sit back and coast along.

A 90 minute commute would be very hard with an early lecture. If he was getting the train and the stars aligned and they were always on time and he always had a seat and can study head down on the train it would be ok but it’s not like that unfortunately.

DD lived at home whilst attending a local university - she paid a nominal amount of board (£150 a month) just to cover food and utilities - she was able to continue her PT job that she’d had a 6th form in local supermarket and got full student loan plus a bursary as I was a low income lone parent

I hope they still use books and not just the internet!

A lot of their reading is online. DD did biomedical sciences for an undergrad degree and is doing diagnostc radiography as a post grad. Everything she has needed is online. She hasn't bought any books.

Regarding med school applications - you need to apply strategically. It may be that the best options for success are not local.

Any healthcare related career requires good people skills. How would your son be able to cope in placement in a busy A and E department, for example?

Once they qualify F1s are sent to where there are vacancies, which may not be local. Placements may not be local either so he would have to live out. Then there are the different shifts he will have to do - earlies, lates and nights.

As others have pointed out med school has more contact hours than other degrees, and the travelling plus all the extra work could become cumbersome with long commutes.

If he lives at home his maintenance loan will be lower, so he may well be financially better living out.

Given it’s so tough to get into any medical school I’d advise him to focus primarily on targeting his applications at the four he is most likely to get an offer from as opposed to the four closest.

Where is uni accommodation £90?
One of mine is paying £150 another slightly less, but still?

When they lived at home for uni they didn't take the maintenance loan..no need for it.

Not a dime..even when they stay at home and start working

Medicine is really hard to get into so he might find he has no alternative than to live in.

My DS lived-in the first year (not medicine ) and second year commuted but it's was only about 20 mins train. He struggled being away and sharing a flat, there were options with own kitchen which might have been better.

We can afford not to ask DS for any contribution. In your circumstances you both sound like you will struggle.

I wouldn't charge rent while my child was studying at uni especially if they are taking out loans. I would charge a small rent if they were working full time and living at home after uni.

I don’t think they should pay keep unless they get a large grant from the university.

OP how much do you know about the medical school application process? Make sure your son applies to a realistic selection as it’s very competitive, and he may not get his first choices.

DS is living at home for his final year. We are not charging board or lodging. We are in a fortunate financial position though and this year is going to be a lot less costly than previous years when he lived in halls/a flat.

yir financial issues are not his issue

They are if she can't afford the bills/food/heating etc! In an ideal world I'm sure no one would charge their adult child when in education, but we don't live in an ideal world !

My DC will live at home, but his uni is a half an hour walk. Your DS has a 3 hour round trip with significant rail costs. I’m not charging my DS. He’ll only get the minimum loan and we don’t need it. I’d like him to get a part time job though!

I think that at the very least, he should make up the child element of UC that you lose.

The full maintenance loan if living at home is only about £1500 less per year than living away. Given that my DD pays around £800 per month on rent, bills and food at uni, it seems only fair that your DS gives you something towards his keep, especially if money is tight for you. He'd still be better off than living away.

It sounds like, if he's going to commute, he won't have much of a uni social life, which is a shame, but it will save a lot of money! If he gets around £9k loan, spends £280 pm on commuting, £200 pm say on keep, it still leaves around £270 per month for spending. I mean, it's not a lot, but it's more than many students have who live away on a full loan.

Whether he should live at home and commute is a different matter - but purely from a financial perspective, paying something towards his keep seems fair to me in your circumstance. It's what the maitenance loan is for!

No. My ds works and pays rent. But I wouldnt charge it if he were in ft education
It's hard enough to get a degree.and yir financial issues are not his issue

Why shouldn't your DC contribute to household bills?

It's forbidden on MN.

Parents have got to cover all costs, give them a huge allowance, pay for them and their partners to come on holiday with you forever and gift them a house deposit.

You can also take them to the stocks in the market square and throw veg at benefit claimants. Rotten veg - keep the organic stuff for adult DC.

He also needs to check he can use a railcard at peak times. Iirc there were or are restrictions on when they could be used if he’s talking about the 16-25 one. Dd used to take the train to sixth form and had to pay full price!

My DS lived at home, I didn't charge him anything. He worked in the summer holidays, and I didn't take any money from him then, as I didn't need to, but it would have been an option.

I agree with others saying a 90 minute commute isn't doable, especially with a degree as full on as medicine, and the need to go to a hospital as part of training.

Would he consider biomedical science instead, still in the medical field, but much more regular hours. A friend's DD did it, she's an embryologist now, works regular hours, no shifts, and less stressful than medicine as a career.