to consider selling my house to fund a degree?

[7654321j]

More of an 'am I being completely ridiculous?'

I went through school with undiagnosed dyslexia. My grades were all over the place, totally inconsistent and very little correlation to how much effort I'd put in, and ultimately, I dropped out of university in my final year.

There's always been a question over whether I'm autistic too. I have no friends and I haven't since I was a young child. I don't really fit in anywhere.

I've always worked in unskilled jobs but I find everything apart from the actual work difficult. I'm bored and I get frustrated when things are unfair/illogical/half arsed/pointless. I hate having no autonomy. I was managed out of my first workplace for poor social/communication skills.

I feel like even if a degree didn't lead to a more interesting job, I'd possibly benefit from the student support and social side of things but it's a huge amount of money to spend when I might not get anything out of it.

Is it an option worth thinking about or is it just a massive waste of money? When I dropped out, fees were £3k so it was reasonable to think 'I can always go back later' but now they've pretty much trebled, is it worth it?

“ I'm happy to have a roof over my head but there's no reason I wouldn't be able to buy again”

After this lockdown, wages might go down again. Your area might become more desirable. If you have a tiny patch of outdoor space, prices could go up. You might be able to buy a studio flat again.

No offence OP but this is such a bad idea, please don’t go near it. If you want to fund a degree, there must be alternatives.

You haven't found the right work yet and believe me the right work is out there, you just have to know yourself, understand your limitations but more importantly recognise your strengths. I suspect you've had a lot of learning what you can't do and very little of what you can. You feel you don't fit in? You are most definitely not alone there. Hate having no autonomy? Ditto. Have you thought of being self-employed? Complete autonomy, no work colleagues or dumb, useless, self-serving managers or pointless rules, It's brill. If you need to push out of your comfort zone with some further learning don't compromise your security in the process. Likewise the social side you can addess in a less drastic way, just give some thought of exatly what you are trying to achieve. Take smaller steps and see how it goes & remember not fitting in can be a blessing, you are unique, celebrate that.

I could save up university fees but it'd take years. What I'd get for my house is greater than fees and I could add to it while studying.

@postersanityisamyth What course are you doing?

I would bet everything that I own that the area that I live in never becomes desirable (largely because there are few opportunities here) but maybe I'll be surprised.

I know a lot of people really rate the OU but I've studied with them before and IMO, their qualifications are not worth what they charge now. They're really not cheap anymore. Plus, science via distance learning is never going to have as much practical as a brick university, and no employer is going to think that's a good thing.

Sorry OP, it is far too obvious that your decision making is not based on reality.

I'd rather have no degree and have a roof over my head.

Defer your decision for a year or two, these days are not the times to think on the lines you spoke about.

OP being brutal, If you’re struggling to get employers to take you on now; what difference do you think a degree will make? The job market is saturated with people with degrees, it’s not the automatic gateway to a great job that it was 20-30 years ago.

It’s going to be even worse with everything that’s going on.

Trust me, I graduated at the start of the 2008 recession in a Science discipline. Most of my coursemates went straight into retail and hospitality jobs because there was fuck all else out there for us; and even now over 10 years on I’m actually the rarity for working in something even vaguely related to our degree field.

While I agree, don’t sell your house. I do think you could get a home equity loan at a lower % than student loans to fund a university degree. So you’d still own your house, you’d just be taking out some of the equity and then paying it back like a student loan. It’s also called a “second mortgage” in some places.
www.barclays.co.uk/loans/what-are-home-equity-loans/

Another option is to refinance your mortgage with cash out.

You don’t have to sell your home to release equity to spend on a degree. You’d still benefit by keeping 100% of the homes increase in value.

OP being brutal, If you’re struggling to get employers to take you on now; what difference do you think a degree will make? The job market is saturated with people with degrees, it’s not the automatic gateway to a great job that it was 20-30 years ago
100 million percent!!

As someone further up suggested look into degree apprenticeships. Most pay the same if not more than you're on now. I know more than most about them and this is the route I would recommend anyone take over a normal degree unless going into professions. Even then there are law and engineering degree apprenticeships etc. Your company might even let you do one with them if they are a levy payer. If not, the new digital apprenticeship service is rolling out for non levy paying companies who only need to pay 10% the govt pays the other 90%.

Terrible idea. Had a friend who sold her house to pay for private primary schooling for her 2 kids. Had an accidental 3rd kid and couldn’t afford to keep up with the fees so pulled them out. She has never been able to afford a house again and every so often her landlords sell up and she has to move. Selling is her biggest regret.

Never cash in your house unless you’re desperate.

Don't sell your house. I've done LOTS of education (and I mean LOTS) over the years and I've had an amazing life in many ways so far but I've never been able to afford to buy a house or even a flat on my own.

Look at other ways of getting an education - the OU, some universities in Europe and the USA - think about distance learning.

Looking at the current situation, and assuming no other large spanners get chucked in the works, the likelihood is a LOT more universities, even the Russell Group (the ones that survive) will start offering online courses in the not-too-distant future. Universities, like the rest of us, are about to go through a restructure and realignment like nothing that has been seen for centuries.

(Anyone who thinks COVID-19 is unprecedented might like to read up on the Black Death, the aftermath of which some academics suggest gave rise, eventually, to the Renaissance and our current scientific way of thinking. (Allegedly.)

While we're all on Lockdown, have a look at some of the university and other courses out there - MOOCs, Coursera, ALISON, futurelearn, even Google Digital Garage, to give you an idea of what you might like to study. As long as we're still part of the EU/EEA, check out some of the free or very low cost degrees out there - one example iswww.mastersportal.com/articles/1308/10-great-european-distance-learning-universities.html (they tend to be Scandinavian universities that offer this type of degree - there are also some Bachelors degrees out there).

But please, don't sell your house for a piece of paper.

@7654321j I'm doing 4 years of pharmacy, having already studied for a science based degree for 5 years.

How many years of funding have you used? You get up to 5 years funding, especially if you are topping up the degree. Give them a call and find out where you stand.

Sorry OP but I agree with #Dyne... Its not a golden ticket. I get you are bored and not happy with life and its good that you want change.
But what would be different this time to last?
How would you realistically deal with being in same position but 2 incomplete degrees, debt and no home?

I get frustrated when things are unfair/illogical/half arsed/pointless.

Also, I guarantee having an academic qualification won't make you ANY less frustrated with corporate or organisational nonsense. More so, if anything.

You don’t make sense...
Isn’t one of the the points of studying for a degree is to get a well-paid job that eventually buys you a house?

Studying with young ppl wouldnt necessarily get u friends. I taught at uni for 5yrs, never saw mature student hanging around with 19yrs old kids. I'm sure it happens, but its not where u should be looking for friends.

Bored of ur job? Studying wont guarantee you a job. Imagine losing ur house, studying, then not finding a job in the field?

Look for another job, plz dont lose ur house, it is ur main security

If your motivation is to change career paths, Pick the course of study based on what you want to do next. Some employers favour certain courses/schools. I did a career switch as I hated my first job ( and was terrible at it) . Invested 12k in a masters and paid it off immediately in the first year of working afterwards. You have to think hard about what you want to do after And plan accordingly.. some degrees aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, and some jobs might not pay you back as quickly as you need

Ps: if you are after the social side of uni, my friebd went to do medicine as a mature student ( 27) .. loved the coursework but hated everything else. Her classmates were lovely, but there’s a big mental gap between. 27 year old and an 18 year old

Don’t do it, if you didn’t fit in first time round and didn’t finish your course why do you think now will be any different? You run the risk of not enjoying it and having no where to live. I would say try other ways to make yourself happy. I’m so sorry if this sounds harsh it is not intended to be.

Can you finish your first degree.? You can transfer all your credits to the Open Uni and finish the first degree.

As far as employment goes, nothing I do educationally is going to harm my ability to get a job shifting boxes around. It might not put me in a better position but it's not going to make it worse.

The big difference between studying then and now is me having more of a clue about my strengths and weaknesses. I quit my degree because I thought I was too thick to finish it. I don't believe that now.

Most of my degree level study is IT and completely out of date. I could possibly get some credit transfer for it but I couldn't just finish it.

I've done a few different courses online and via distance learning. It'd be great if more universities offered affordable MOOCs and similar. I know there was a lot of hype about it a couple of years ago but it never seemed to take off.

You own a house so you're ahead of most graduates. I understand the thirst to learn but there are more sensible ways of doing it

I did it OP, my fees were 10k per year ( 6 years) plus living. I did medicine. My situation wasn't much different from yours. It was a massive sacrifice and I'm not sure I'd have done it for just any degree ( or even for this one).I was also post-grad. I've now found myself in a set of really awful circumstances with just a couple of months to graduate..... I'm going to be unemployed with a medical degree... very little debt, but not a lot to fall back on. And no idea what I'm going to do.

OP what are you looking for specifically?

There are so many MOOCs and free courses.

If you took time out of the workplace, then you might find people don’t want to employ you to shift boxes any more, which is another problem for when you (me, anyone) needs a job.

Laks sorry for the stupid question, but with a medical degree, I’m wondering why you face unemployment?

Wait what? I didn't finish my degree but I've just got onto a Nursing degree and I've had my student finance funding approved?