If you are studying for a Masters or PhD, how are you funding it?

[Machine1234]

£30k for a Masters at Warwick. And that's with an alumni discount 😭.

Student loans don't cover higher degrees and personal loans for that amount is not possible, not to mention repayment would start straight away.

How do people afford it? Is there are specific bank loan/ personal development loan that I've missed?

[2014newme]

With no experience in finance ams a non financial degree any type of experience would be beneficial

[wizzywig]

Self funded all of my ones. And yes £30k is really high

[thebigbluedustbin]

Never do a PhD without full funding (covering tuition) and a stipend from the university.

[Hulder]

Warwick is just out to get international business students and milk them - your nephew needs to think harder about where to do his Masters and what in.

Plus he is being offered jobs - they may not be what he wants but in Management Consulting, he is getting offers and the idea is that you work your way up. My DH started as a management consultant for one of the smaller firms straight out of Oxbridge and by his own account, he was useless to start with - salary reflects this.

Finally what exactly does he think his living expenses will be in London? He needs to be thinking about a flatshare, no car, etc - which is how most young professionals are living there at the start. Is he instead thinking he'll be renting alone, driving back to Bath, eating out a lot... - because that isn't how anyone really lives there.

[Summerswallow]

Also, getting a bit of work experience is a good idea as he'll have missed the boat for most grad schemes starting in Sept. His application may also look better in a year's time anyway so this isn't a disaster at all.

[Machine1234]

Thank you for your pointers and suggestions, this is really useful info for me to use a basis for my chat with nephew and identify how to move forward.

@Summerswallow he had a couple of offers for unpaid summer internship and got to the final stages of securing a paid graduate job with an investment bank but it unexpectedly reduced the intake of graduates for this year and so he missed out.

I think he does need to take the time to focus and identify where exactly he wants to go career wise and seriously consider graduate schemes rather than half heartedly apply for them whilst holding out for doing a masters.

I'm seeing him tomorrow so I can update on what he's actually doing.

Thanks all for your input!

[Summerswallow]

The thing is, he should not be so dismissive about getting a year or two of work experience in finance/business if that's what he wants to go into, even on a low wage. Even academic studentships these days are more likely to go to student who not only have academic prowess but also can demonstrate a longer term interest in pursuing a career in that area, by way of work experience, internships, working in the field. It's not uncommon to have students with both. So, if he has no finance related experience to date, then that should be what he's acquiring, otherwise as WayHay says, the suspicion is that he's not really into this he just doesn't know what to do and doesn't want to do engineering. Some relevant work/work placements would help here, even to get a Masters scholarship (I have just looked up a couple of scholarships and that's what they are wanting, not just a 2:1 or whatever).

[eatyourveg]

ds is starting his masters in september and the sfe covers the fees but there is no maintenance loan so he will be living at home and commuting to London.

Has he looked at scholarship hub website? They have a list of places that offer funding for masters. See here

[2014newme]

Also it's totally normal to have to relocate after graduation. My graduate job involved moving every three months for a year.
If he has saved up £10k for a masters then he could use some of that to help move.
Staying in rural area is a really bad move, you have to go where the work is when you graduate.

[2014newme]

I took out a career development loan but my fees were nowhere near that.

[WeyHay]

Your nephew needs to slooow down and do some actual research. It would also be beneficial for him to work, perhaps in the field he's trained for. Then he comes to further study with some experience behind him.

The Warwick course is obviously priced at a market premium for international students. There are other masters courses which are not but will probably give him what he needs.

But I don't think he knows what he wants or needs. I think he needs to take a break from study, work in his field, and then make the move to finance. But iif he's doing it for the fabled high salaries he'll be disappointed.

And working in London will be necessary unless he looks north: Leeds, Newcastle, Edinburgh.

[Summerswallow]

I just looked up our Masters in Finance at the uni I teach at, it's £12,000 which is standard for a Masters- with a loan, that's only £2000 to find and he could live with you!

[Summerswallow]

Is he only being offered internships in London, or actual jobs with a wage?

If internships, I agree, this is usually a route for those with free living/parental support.

If it's a low paid foot in the door, he should definitely think about taking it -surely that's cheaper than £33,000 for a year, even if parents subsidised him a bit. He can get a house share and live off baked beans, it's not undoable.

I wouldn't encourage him to go for a 1 + 3 which is a funded Masters plus a PhD unless he actually wants to become an academic in that area, or is very very sure he will like the subject. Quant PhDs tend to do very well in the City, but it depends how good he is at maths. If he wants to go this route he would need excellent UG quals (like a first) plus apply all over the country (jobs.ac.uk is the place to look as someone else said).

It's a little upsetting for students to come out of UG uni and find the playing field still isn't level, and those with money/properties/live for free, can do internships all are advantaged- he'll have to box clever in the current climate, but I don't think doing that Masters at Warwick is the be all and end all, he should look for a finance Masters at around £10 grand if such a thing can be had, and finance it through the student loan system. Or has he looked in Europe, although the Masters are still quite expensive, there may be options there which are still cheaper than Warwick/living costs cheaper.

Or, based in the SW you have Plymouth, Bristol, Bath, Exeter plus Cardiff and the Welsh unis for a commutable Masters if you wouldn't mind him living with you (you may!) Many Masters courses are structured so students don't have to come in every day but do intensive blocks of teaching.

[Needmoresleep]

D's is about to start a Masters in a similar subject (econometrics) and yes fees are high though not quite as high as the ones quoted. He also had to decide whether to opt for a 10 month more expensive course in London (including a compulsory summer school) or a two year course at Oxford. The scope to live at home in London helped tip the balance.

I would ask why your son wants to take the course. It sounds as if he wants to use it to convert from engineering to finance. In the same way as he might take a law conversion course. Not my field but even if starting salaries are higher for those with finance masters, they may not be higher than say engineering grads with a couple of years finance experience. (Especially after discounting the cost of the course.)

DS would love to work in economic research ideally in the public sector. So no prospect of a vast banking salary and a hugely competitive field. He therefore wants to keep the door open for a PhD. He suggests:

1. Reputable PhD offers will essentially include funding via a teaching package.
   

1. It is worth researching the status/reputation of any institution/course from the perspective of recruitment for the next stage. Reputations vary and international employers particularly can lay more emphasis on 'the school' than we might be used to in Britain. (But perhaps less obsessed about Oxbridge😁) For further academic study, grades matter.
   

1. Expect to work very hard. I hear this is true for many highly ranked Masters in sciences as well as finance/economics but certainly at the LSE it is suggested that Masters students arrive, register, enter the library and are not seen again until final exams. Well regarded, yes. Fun, no. DS has been warned that even making more than a couple of PhD applications during the year might be too much of a distraction and has decided to take a gap year after for job search/applications. His expectation is that he can pick up some teaching/research assistantship work during that year.
   

1. If there were time there would, potentially be a lot of work out there from first year students struggling with their compulsory maths courses and willing to pay for tutors. Or research assistantship work. But given how short the course is and how much it costs, it would not be worth it.
   

Some Universities can offer funding. Often richer places like Oxford, though inevitably there is a lot of competition.

[LionsOnTour]

That sound a really promising that he got so far along with the interviews and assessments - it's impressive!

[Machine1234]

Lions, yes I think he is rushing things a bit and needs to give himself a bit of time to apply for jobs more calmly now that exams are out of the way.

He did have a lot of rich international students on his course and I do think this is clouding his judgement quite a bit.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

machine, I did look at those specific courses.

I suggest he looks too.

[Machine1234]

Teddy, he seems to do really well at the assessments and interviews and managed to get quite far down the road with one of the investment banks. He went on a two week residential/internship thing only to find out that particular bank was in a period of crisis and so the number of graduates they took on for this year had been slashed significantly.

[SerfTerf]

He's talked about taking a year to work and save and then apply to University of Bath. The masters course costs much less (around £15k, still an eye watering amount to stump up in a lump sum) and he can live at home.

That sounds sensible. But he doesn't need the year out, does he? He could work in the summer or part time. Is he really not able to figure any of this out for himself? How could he not know about postgraduate student loans? He's not being a bit economical on what he's telling family for some reason, is he?

He's not actually "disadvantaged" for the big 4 scheme s either.

[LionsOnTour]

A 2:1 engineering degree from Warwick is not at all shabby - maybe he should just give himself a bit longer to find a graduate job. Spending £25 k on a masters seems a bit excessive.

[Teddybahr]

Yeah it's £33500 for the msc in financial mathematics too, I think both courses are "geared at those determined to get into the City and make mega bucks hence the high fees "

I don't think a 2:1 would make an applicant outstanding category, although a 2:1 from Warwick is still obviously hot property on the graduate market!

Just wondering as well, was it the assessment centres he was attending which didn't give him a shot at all the really high paying posts? The paper qualifications might be the red herring iyswim, if he's not doing well enough at assessment centre?

[SerfTerf]

They do, I mean.

[SerfTerf]

Student loans don't cover higher degrees

There is. It's £10k for a masters. Added to what he's saved, that's plenty to do a comparable course at an RG uni. The finance courses all charge a premium but Warwickshire has gone beserk there. (They're clearly after the international students above all else.)

[Machine1234]

Back in the late 90s when my friends did their MScs they cost £3k