Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 4, UCAS & offers (and thinking about exams)

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from the previous thread.

Just wanted to thank everyone on this thread as it has given me lots of useful information.
We are going through the accommodation woes at NTU, now looking at the private halls as all the city centre halls (except one, which DS really didn’t like at all) are fully booked. Very hard for students who haven’t yet been able to make their firm choice.

DD has pressed the button this evening. No insurance so it’s go big or go home 😂

That’s fun @Shimy. I will ask DS for some money back as he’s doing better than average for his uni.

Exciting vancleef!

If your dcs are only eligible for the minimum 4k maintenance loan, how much money are parents giving? We've worked out that if accommodation is 5550 pa (and bath and Oxford Brookes could be more ) then we'll have to pay 180 per month to top up accommodation costs then how much living allowance? Dd has saved a small amount and wants to get a job also.

Oxford Brookes is really expensive. Lincoln is too, which is suprprising : but I think they might argue it reflects the relative luxury of their accommodation, but it seems out of step with regional prices. Most Lincoln accommodation is nuding £6000. That said, there's probably none left, judgin by yesterday's bunfight. Hull (on campus) accommodation is not only lovely - it is also £100 a week!

fazackerkly we have an older one now in third year. We give him a (very generous) £500 a month and pay rent (he has not taken out any loans). We will probably do the same for DD although her living costs may be higher (Midlands vs South East).

Oh ok we can't afford that. I was hoping to get away with 75 a week. That seems loads to me but I was a student about a gazillion years ago

Do you mean £75 a week rent? Or £75 a week extra 'pocket money'?

fazackerly I appreciate that we are at the top end of the parental contribution scale, and NB no maintenance loan so if you take off £4K from the £6k we give him that is a better benchmark of “pocket money” over rent. It’s our choice not to go down the loan route, mostly because it works out cheaper than the school fees we have paid for years!

We make up the difference between the loan DS actually gets and what the maximum loan would be. DS is in year 3 at UEA so has had one year in halls and two in private accommodation. DS appears to have been living well on the equivalent of the maximum loan. He can often be found dining on salmon or brie 😁 Aldi is definitely a big favourite at UEA and DS spends between £20 and £30 per week on food. Having said that, he is not buying expensive ready meals and is cooking from scratch, much to my great astonishment. He does party but not to excess and doesn't spend money on daily coffees etc. He has saved some of his money as he has electives to fund in the next two years of the course .

For UEA at least, that maximum loan amount does seem to be a good guide to what they need (obviously other cities/universities might be really expensive, I don't know).

DS2 will hopefully be going to university in September, and possibly UEA too, so we will have two years of topping up 2 loans 😛

Yes, I've read on another thread that topping up to the maximum loan figure is the rule of thumb. I would have thought that students should be able to live on £3K (assuming rent is in the region of £5.5K) as long as they're reasonably frugal.

Interestingly, now that DS gets a monthly allowance he seems to be really careful with it (and long may it continue).

I certainly don't expect to be in a scenario where we are having to be super frugal to fund him leading a (relatively) extravagant lifestyle.

We also sort out food and stuff during his holiday time home with us though the rent and utility standing orders continue once they are out of halls so they don't need so much in holiday time, especially year 1.
Having said that we have a weekly standing order for DS splitting our contribution over 52 weeks so he gets a chance to build up a little comfort amount in the bank over the holidays.
If all else fails, there seem to be plenty of ad hoc, flexible campus jobs around.

The other approach you can take (if they don’t qualify for the max loan) is to pay for halls/rent & they use maintenance loan for food & pocket money. It depends on the child really & how good they will be at budgeting to make a term’s loan last.

Halls seem very expensive everywhere. But often catered work out cheaper especially if it’s an old style hall with its own canteen. I’m not convinced the system where they get a card to use in the cafes is very good value.

Ds will want self catered as he likes cooking.

Has anyone been to see the accommodation at Sheffield? We didn’t get a chance on open day.

We saw Sheffield, most of it is in a complex a mile or two away but I've forgotten the name. It was like a self contained village, shop, bar, club and canteen so ultra convenient. We really liked it, its like living on a campus but studying in a city. Very nice

Not been on the thread for a while - congrats to all those who've got offers etc.

I asked DS this morning if had heard from Manchester yet, the last of his 5 choices. He told me they declined him last week! Yeah, thanks for telling me What is it with these boys who don't give anything away!

Anyway, 4/5 ain't bad and now he can at least firm Loughborough and have oxford Brooke's as his insurance. Although, I can guarantee I won't be told when this is actually done and 'what's the rush, I've got til May 1st anyway'!!

Thank God he is taking a gap year otherwise I would be tearing my hair out about accommodation if this thread is anything to go by!

I think(!) he is planning on going on an offer day at Loughborough but can't be sure.....

Don't you just love 'em!

75 a week not including rent.

What's the maximum maintenance loan?

Thanks sluj I think he would like that set up. I know they have some blocks in the city centre near the uni too

fazackerky that should be fine - food around £20-30 a week, £5-£7 a week laundry (a cost that’s often forgotten about), socialising £theskysthelimit 😉, plus any club subs, bus pass, books and stationery, subscription to referencing service (DS says this is the best thing he has invested in as a student) photocopy card etc which tend to be one off costs in the first term. The first term can be spectacularly expensive relatively speaking so it’s worth having a student account with an overdraft facility to cover those one off costs in the expectation that any excess in future terms will cover the deficit

decorhate we actually found catered hall to be a waste of money in that DS hardly ate there (dodgy food at inconvenient times) and most people ended up heating ready meals in the corridor kitchenettes 🙄. In retrospect after the first few weeks where the Hall canteen was a good way to meet others, he would have been better off in self catered

I think they are very hit & miss Van Cleef. Dd was lucky with hers (she also wanted self catering but didn’t get it).

What's the maximum maintenance loan?

The rates for 2019/20 are here:
www.gov.uk/student-finance/new-fulltime-students

Full-time student 2019 to 2020 academic year:

Living at home::
Up to £7,529

Living away from home, outside London:
Up to £8,944

Living away from home, in London:
Up to £11,672

You spend a year of a UK course studying abroad:
Up to £10,242

Dd’s accommodation will need topping up (just did calculator) but she has a couple of savings accounts I started plus she already has a monthly allowance of £250 (to learn budgetting). All in all she won’t starve and intends to get a job.

A monthly allowance of £250 whilst still at home????!

She buys absolutely everything herself : shoes, clothes, school lunch, toiletries, travel and saves a little. It actually saves me money.

Blimey, that's still loads! I reckon ds costs me about £20 a month!