How much financial help did you give dc at uni?

[candle18]

My oldest is moving away for uni and I have another two who are younger, 13 and 15.
It obviously depends on what someone can afford but did you fund quite a bit of your child’s time at uni or did you expect them to work as much as needed to subsidise student loan.
Trying to decide what would be reasonable.

This might not help as we are in the US. We completely fund ds’ university education. He goes out of state to an engineering school and while I realize it is not expensive by US standards, we pay 40K a year, so he would have had to come up with 160K (4 year degree) which would be impossible without student loans. The only way we could do this is because my mother died a few months after we got married and my brother and I split her estate and dh and I invested our half for 18 years.

We also fund an additional (at least) 8K per year for other living expenses and flights to and from home. He has worked every summer since he was 16 to pay for his university spending money and books. Books alone (used when he can get them) are a few thousand dollars.

I’m a sleepless Brit, so can answer in that context. I took the full Student Loan levels as a starting point (the maximum eligibility for a student with no family income). I decided that they needed at least that to survive.

Then I looked at rent levels and a rough weekly budget.

One of mine went to a small college in an expensive city. Another one to Oxbridge. The one at Oxbridge needed less overall as the rent was so reasonable, so I made up the rent difference in addition to roughly the same contribution to each.

I paid my contribution directly to their rent accounts so that they’d still have the full experience of budgeting their own funds for everything else. Then I kitted them out with stuff they needed to get started.

$40k a year is eye watering @TowerRavenSeven

There is no right or wrong here - it's entirely up to you depending on your circumstances.

Dd is starting in September.
She'll be just 21 by then, but has been financially independent for 3vyears, and even if she'd lived at home she wouldn't have got financial support from me as I simply couldn't afford it as a single Mum on disability benefits.
She's managed for three years though so it can be done.

3 kids 18 months apart. we paid them 75 a week for food and expenses. part time jobs were rare as hen's teeth. entry level jobs filled by housewives returning to work. they had student loans as well 5.6K a year which didn't cover much more than tuition. all three were in uni's away from home (we lived in a small town with not even a community college).
we got through it, and continued with the 75 a week that we then paid onto their student loan. paid those off asap as a gift.

We’ve saved up a certain amount for.each child over the years (several thousand at this point) and that’s what they’ll get. DD (17) hopes to go next year so she knows what’s available to her.

£2k a year towards accommodation and £120 a week for living expenses. Rest is student loans.

We pay her rent (800pcm), she has student loans and a part time job to live off.

£1100 to each per month
In Scotland so no fees
They work summer holidays only
No loans

It depends how much loan they get. My dd gets tuition loan and maintenance loan. The maintenance loan covers her accommodation and leaves her about £60 a month spare. I give her £100 a month so she has £160 a month for food/ toiletries etc. she then works part time to fund her social life.

In Ireland so a different system. The standard fee on all universities (pretty much) is €3000 per year. (grants are available for fees and costs for those who cannot afford the costs. These are not due to be paid back). We were not elgible for these grants.

We paid fees and provided a car, food and any running costs on the car. We also covered any additional costs such as books and equipment which in both cases were minimal. We did not cover any socialising costs or clothes. Both my son and daughter worked part time during the uni year and full time during holidays if they could.

The intention was for both to finish uni debt free.

We paid their accommodation in full every year, they lived on the student loan and worked in holidays to pay for their socialising, phones, clothes etc.

I'm glad to see your post. We give our sons £1000 a month in Scotland. They pay their rent and living expenses from that and don't need any loans. Most people say we are mad and giving them too much!

We will be topping up to the equivalent of the full maintenance loan, have discussed this at length with DTDs so they could make accommodation choices knowing how much they will have left.

Both my DSs received minimum maintenance loan due to our household income. So I paid the rent and they used the loan for food....and booze.
I also seemed to provide shopping whenever I saw them!

You need to look at what you can afford and what help is available.

You can't give them what you don't have, shouldn't be getting into debt to fund them and they need to do their bit by working in the holidays and also in term time unless their course is very full on.

They also need to apply for any extra grants that are available, as well as the standard student finance. Plus they also have to accept the budget options if there isn't endless money available for them to live in the nicest accommodation, have the nicest clothes, have expensive hobbies, live on takeaways, run cars etc.

DS at uni now. He has his student loan, approx £4k if I remember rightly, he does small amount of shifts at a pub near his digs and we give him £150 pm to help and his GP's give him £40 pm too. Rent plus bills are £550 pm...He's surviving.

We topped the maintenance loan up to the £9k so it worked out about £30 a week plus paid for gym membership, a app she needed for her course at £10 a month , then little extras here and there . She got a job and also started doing gel nails which has turned out to a lucrative little sideline.

We paid £350 a month rent for her. She didn't get the full student loan amount.

Dd had a job at uni. I didn't have much spare but I set up a online shopping account for her and paid for her food and essentials.
I paid her mobile and bought her train tickets when needed.
I put any spare cash I had at the end of the month into her bank.

glad to see your post. We give our sons £1000 a month in Scotland. They pay their rent and living expenses from that and don't need any loans. Most people say we are mad and giving them too much!
I don’t share this information in real life !

We have always paid the accomodations (ranging from £400/month to £650/month) & they have lived on the (minimum) loan. One child had enough at the end of the year for a cheap holiday, the others had jobs during the year. All worked in the summer. Technically you are supposed to top whatever loan they have up to the full loan but accommodation is incredibly expensive in some towns & that wouldn't be enough without a job. Jobs are often tricky if the want to be home at Christmas/during the holidays or have heavy courses.

How much of a loan do they get?. If it isn't the maximum amount you should make up the difference at the very least.

I currently have both of mine at uni.
one is living there so we pay accommodation and £100 pm towards food. Other is at home so lives rent free.
both live off their loans.
I pay for their mobile phones.