Fighting our way through 1st year uni (starting Sept 17)

[HSMMaCM]

Continuing the previous thread.

Exams, assessments, essays, etc.

Support, or lack of it.

Will they all get accommodation for next year and can they cook a balanced meal yet.

DDs term ends mid-June, I think.

Lol at all the veggie-craving poor students!

DD is back tomorrow. She has requested a takeaway

We just had to detour to McDs; think he is having withdrawal symptoms, as the nearest one to us is 15 miles away 😂

DS only gets 4 days off over Easter. He's home tomorrow evening and then I'm driving him and his friend back on Monday afternoon. He only has another 2.5 weeks after that before he's done his 1st year and is home for the "summer" (likely with snow still on the ground in places!)

Horsemad - You've got me craving a Big Mac now and we're 200km away from the nearest McDonalds. Will have to make do with A&W instead, who, to be fair, do half decent burgers, but it's not a Big Mac...

DS was craving "non frozen" veg as the meal plan seems to consist of frozen peas and carrots.

In other news our garden seems to be full of rats, big ones, small ones...ugh, at least six. The rat man has been but the next door neighbour's cat seems to have the upper hand (paw?) as I saw it disappear over the fence with one in its jaws (cue awkward conversation with neighbour about locking her cat flap).

If the neighbours cat is a ratter, don't poison them, or you'll poison the cat. Trap them. Or invite the cat round for tea.

OMG, imagine the cat bringing one in through the cat flap!

Hi all, Does anyone know if there's a deadline for applying for student finance for their upcoming second year? DD seems a bit unsure but we're planning on getting it done over the Easter hols. Just want to make sure it's not an end of March deadline? Possibly it is end of May, but wasn't easy to tell from the website or email they just sent us.

Seems we have at least until June to sort student finance for this year from what I've found out ( June 22nd for Student Finance England, but even then it's not a firm deadline and could still be sorted later if need be, but then may not get the funds in time for start of the new year)

DD has had 2 letters from student finance with different amounts offered! Waiting to see which is correct.

She's catching up with her old sixth form friends, but we also have a uni friend visiting this weekend

Well it does seem that student finance gets automatically renewed if they only get the minimum loan - DD opened 2 letters confirming this yesterday.

Is anyone else finding the sleeping/partying pattern of their returning student somewhat annoying - DD came home on Thurs and was out till nearly 4am Fri morning and 5.30am this morning - just the wrong time to be woken by a key in the door

Is anyone else finding the sleeping/partying pattern of their returning student somewhat annoying

Dunno about the partying, but I was pissed off to be woken by DDs alarm at 8am one day last week.

DS isn't going out too much but doesn't go to bed until early hours then sleeps all day which bugs me...

DD got up at lunchtime and went to do some work with a friend and then on to meet others - welcome to the student holiday hotel!

DS got up at lunchtime, came out for coffee and cake with us, then went to the rugby club with my dad for a few pints and now appears to have gone back to bed

Watching Meet The Parents with DD and her boyfriend

Oh the going our partying is hard to get used to DS went out at 10.30 pm the other night as I went to bed and came in at 5:30am an hour before my alarm went off. And he wasn’t quiet!!

TillyMint and Errol
I feel your pain (I need a frustrated smiley)

Haven't been here for a bit.

So ds is a bit pissed off. He has to go back to uni tonight. He's had the Easter weekend here, then has classes for the rest of the week. &. Then he gets his spring recess or whatever you choose to call it. It's nice for me to have him back for a month then but it's pretty annoying for him that he's on a different schedule to his mates from here.

Then he's back to exams with the added fun of strikes.

Anyone else's dc have that stupid Easter weekend then back to uni situation? Too lazy to read through all the previous posts.

ono we have rats in the garden too! We live across the road from the tube line.

It's better than having the one we had sharing my tomatoes in the kitchen a year ago.

tobee - Yes, mine. DS came home on Thursday night and I drove him back on Monday afternoon. He finishes the semester on the 20th and that's it until next September! It's the norm over here though (Canada) and one of his friends (in a different Canadian university) didn't even get the Easter Monday off!

Change to student loans :

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/moneysavingexpert-martin-lewis-says-student-14484700

HSMMaCM - Nice.

Unfortunately it's nothing like that over here in Canada. If DS ends up taking out a student loan, repayments have to start 6 months after he finishes his studies - no matter whether he's on minimum wage or earning a decent amount!

That link was good to read HSM, both for DD and for myself, as am thinking of continuing training in counselling at college on an advanced learner loan ( available for some FE courses)
So good to know that for both types of loan repayments will only start for income above 25k (at 9% of income over that)
Should save many people £360 a year apparently.
Also a comment that in future this will be adjusted in line with inflation.

For the first time in almost a year it felt like DS was part of the family again rather than a polite (and not very tidy) visitor. We had a 'heated debate' at the dinner table over the gender pay gap and it was just like old times, lol. How I have missed the raised voices and DS's strong views!