Looking like both kids are going to Bristol at the same time - how screwed am I?

[CottonOn]

Posting here for traffic.
Two kids, 13 months apart, both want to do aeronautical engineering, one girl starting this autumn, the second the next.

They’ll get the minimum maintenance loan. I’ve got roughly 20k set aside which I naively thought would give them a fairly pleasant 3 years. I’ve only just clocked that actually this isn’t nearly enough.

This is what the calculator is telling me

You could get a £4,767 Maintenance Loan to contribute towards your living costs.
How your Maintenance Loan is calculated:
£10,227 (the maximum Maintenance Loan available)

• £5,460 (the amount you might not be eligible for, based on your answers)

= £4,767 (the amount you could be eligible for, based on your answers)

I’m going to have to stump up £10,920 in the years where they are both there simultaneously just to get to the basic £10,227 and it ooks like accommodation is going to eat up 8k, so even that won’t be enough.

Can anyone tell me how much it’s realistically going to cost to top them up enough to live in Bristol? I’ve been so blithely naive all these years thinking I’d squirrelled enough away. Could kick myself.

@TheChosenTwo wow! DS, in another university, different city, has just signed up for his 2nd year accommodation at £115pw (inc bills) and it is a much nicer house than ours! He has foregone the option of an ensuite but that would only have been £135pw

Yes, this. Or if they do decide to look at other universities, pay attention to how well regarded they are in that field (I don't know much about this one!). And be aware that there is fierce competition for accommodation in many cities - to the extent that Manchester students are being advised to look at commuting from Liverpool or Preston to do their courses. You also have to be somewhere you'll actually enjoy living in for three years...

I do know people who had some kind of funding/sponsorship when studying in Manchester from firms that also offered work placements during holidays - this was years ago, back in the days when we grew up thinking university would be free for us too and then suddenly had to start thinking about fees and applying for loans with what felt like no notice, but it may still exist and be something worth looking into.

Your dd needs to look at
non en-suite starting at £5000
shared twin rooms starting at about £4000

and all self catering
The higher prices are fully catered with en-suites super posh

Congratulations OP! Bristol is a fantastic uni, great for engineering, loads to do for students and they’ll have a wonderful time there.

Just a point re: first year halls, I don’t know if you’ve been to visit? The halls of residence across the Downs in Stoke Bishop are a great first year choice, although a walk into town it’s quite sociable as everyone goes together in the mornings / gets buses or taxis in and out. If you can afford to get them into catered halls they’ll spend a lot less money as halls will feed you breakfast, dinner and weekend lunch. Great for kids learning to budget as even the skint ones can still eat properly. Very sociable atmosphere too, all eating together daily. Don’t let your kids dismiss it out of hand because it’s not as cool or modern as a city centre location (the halls bars are very cheap too…).

Send them up to Prestwick and they can do a Aeronautical Engineering apprenticeship and get paid to do it.

Mad that halls could cost more than the maximum loan! I wonder what effect this has on the demographic of students that go there. Are they disproportionately from well off backgrounds?

How much will you save by them not being at home - can you also contribute that?

do you have anything that you can sell to bring in some additional money to go towards it?

Definitely better off students on average at Bristol.

It’s about 50% with parents earning £40,000 or more based on loan applications info and according to a report I read last year prior to mine applying for Bristol

I know this is probably out of reach but would there be any way of buying a flat for them as this would cost roughly £600 pcm.

Talk to the Women's Engineering Society to see if they can help with finding sponsorship or other ideas.

I assume for both of them combined. Student accommodation is expensive as it will also include bills.

OP, have a look here, I was researching exactly this last year for my daughter.

Just to say that in engineering degrees it should be very possible for your kids to get well paid summer internships definitely after second year, potentially after first year too. Those would go a long way to making up the shortfall in money and are a great first step to a career.

I'd think about looking for a full time summer job the summer after A levels and also after first year if no internship. Much more fun and interesting than scuffing around at home with not enough to do and even at minimum wage should give a decent amount of savings for uni, plus a bit of spending money for summer plans.

I have worked out that my son will:

Take out the tuition fee loans and therefore have debt of £27,750 after his 3 year course
Take out the maintenance fee loan across the three years and therefore have debt of an additional £13,953
Need an additional £31,300 for rent across the 3 years that we will pay.
Also probably need regular top ups and have to work in holidays.

Congratulations to your daughters. Bristol is regarded as among the world's top universities for aeronautical engineering. But it is a hard course, and competitive. A friend of mine did the course in the mid-1970s and definitely did not have time for a PT job in term-time as there were competitive exams each term. And yes, Bristol is a wildly expensive city, so I feel your financial pain.

One point that I haven't seen made is that the course may frown on gap years (as do many STEM courses). One of DC's friends went to Imperial for Astrophysics and was forbidden to take a gap year: apparently the maths skills go downhill too rapidly.

No. Not both of them combined.
Thats for one student.
But there’s plenty available in Bristol for less if you start looking in Oct/Nov of your first year for your second year in private rented accommodation.
Plus there’s lots of halls available at Bristol Uni for less.

It’s wildly different isn’t it?!
Bills are NOT included for her in the £215pw either 😂
In a way I wish the loans were weighted as to the city’s economy like it is in London!
neither of dds accommodation choices last year or this year have been anywhere near as nice as our our house, the second private rented one is of a much better standard than last years offerings though.
she has had a en-suite both years.

For those querying how rent can be £8k, when you are in second year accommodation etc students will likely be paying for the whole year, as paying private landlords, which works out at £154pw which I would say is average for some areas. DS pays more than that currently in uni accommodation but that isn't for the whole year

I never had help from parents. I had a part time job and a student over draft was interest free and then interest free for the 3 years after you graduate? I graduated £3500 in my overdraft and paid it back over 3 years

You do realise that all degrees are not equal! Bristol is a good university and a degree from there will probably mean your life chances are better.

There are excellent alternatives to Bristol in cheaper cities, I listed some upthread.

I think we can all agree the system is broken. And the current experience is VERY different from even a few years ago!

Any chance either of them can be persuaded to join the military as an engineer. The engineering programme is pretty good as long as they can pass the fitness and health requirements. I believe fees are paid and they are paid a salary.

www.royalnavy.mod.uk/careers/joining-options/funding-and-scholarships/university-cadetship-entry-uce

My dd is peeved because her scheme on paid £4K a year bursary!

Here’s a few in Bristol that are still available on rightmove after just looking at the first two pages
The cheaper and better properties will already be taken for next year as students ‘in the know’ don’t leave it this late to look for next years accommodation.
Theres still, however, places that are reasonably priced. Bills on top of these prices as well though.

The cheapest is @ £2200pcm so £440pcm/rm so £5280/yr based on 12 months plus bills.

I highly doubt it is for both - that would only be £4k a year each, which is very very cheap for a student hall (DS2 in lboro paid £4k for his first year but that hall is more than that now and it is the cheapest I have come across).

And for a private student rental (which is usually for 12 months) £4k would only be £333 a month so about £80 pw errrrm I don't think so.

£8k a year for a private house share rental is sadly not unusual in cities like Bristol.