Applying for Uni 2019 Part 8: Results Day - congratulations, champagne, clearance, commiserations... Our DC will get through it whatever happens.

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from our previous thread.

Good luck to all DC awaiting results and university places.

School question: Is it only the SLT and the Exams Officer(s) who get to see the results today?

Pay is £6.15 per hour at 18, zero hours suit DS he can take or leave shifts but is taking on extra when others want time off.

@errorofjudgement I understanding withdrawing even if it's an unconditional. Theoretically the friend only has one A Level if she's failed two of them, unfortunately this is looked at differently from three A Levels at EEE

I didn’t do my maths very well it seems! Never mind.

Also good point about paying regularly - may make more sense to use the maintenance loan (£4K) to part cover accommodation and we top up, then we pay living expense direct to him. Perhaps weekly initially and then as he settles down it’d be good to switch to monthly to encourage budgeting.

Might also save us a little money as him having the £4K would be probably on the high side for living expenses.

Just means we’d have to think what a reasonable amount would be - any steer from those with recent students would be welcome.

Ds accommodation is 6k. Loan 4k. We have agreed 75 a week plus phone plus paying the extra 2k accommodation costs. Gym is expensive but if he thinks he'll use it he can pay monthly.

dd did Henley Regatta & Festival (would've done Ascot but she was still doing exams), she's done a couple of polo days in Windsor too (& was meant to be doing Boadmasters!). They pay well around 8.20-8.50 an hour but limited hours. Her proper job pays 6.50 but hours have dwindled to nothing over August so she's back to looking again. She's saved pretty much everything she's earned which is good going - hoping to save 6000 over her gap year.

I know no one is assuming this, but has anyone looked in to the accommodation ts and cs as to what happens if a student drops out/ leaves etc? The one I was just looking at implied you were tied in to a year's payment regardless?

Friend paid her ds accommodation and he kept the 4k loan for annual living expenses. He blew the lot over 2 terms which meant friend had to pay accommodation plus living for the last term!

We will do £75 per week, but will pay for books when needed through Amazon whatever. Also will negotiate on whatever else he needs.

We are paying accommodation and the he gets the loan (the bit he is entitled to which is just over £4000) in full. It made most simple financing imo.

But the loan is paid in three instalments?

Brownie I've heard of that happening with alarming frequency!

Mr Klaw, about money. I did a thread asking from a slightly different angle - how much does a student 'need' to live on after rent, self-catering (so would have to pay for food as well. Obviously I realise 'need' is a variable concept!).

Very wide range of replies, but students getting anything between £50 and £100 a week over and above self-catered rent seemed to be 'normal' (and there were amounts above and below this range as well!) I think some people paid phone and travel separately.

I do often think people over-estimate what students can earn in summer holidays these days, with zero hours contracts. Shifts being cancelled etc, NMW - yes the pay does all add up, but sometimes not to that much! Obviously it depends on the area you live in. But even if some mners dc can earn large amounts, I don't think all can.

I have too but I don't see how : they get paid three times... presumably what they mean is each time they run out of money?

is it October, January, April that they get it? I assume if hall fees are termly they will be paid to coincide with the loan coming in?

True sooner the job opportunities around here are shit, as is the transport.

Piggy yes, I think sometimes the ts and cs do provide that students have to pay for the year's accommodation even if they drop out - possibly if the student office can't relet the room? It crops up as an issue on mn when students want to drop out. Not sure if there is an initial grace period with some.

Then of course once they re into private house rentals in Yr 2 and beyond you get into the requirement for a parental guarantor. Im always surprised that this never gets any newspaper publicity as it's a significant additional demand on parents - I can only assume that (perhaps suprisingly?) dparents are very rarely required to pay out on the guarantee.

Laniakia I'm sorry to hear about all that is going on with your DD, it's stressful enough just going to university. They might be all grown up (in theory) but you still can't help feeling like you want to take the illness and upset away for them.

We had DS last year who didn't engage with any social media chat at all and was fine and Dd this year who is the opposite! I'm sure both approaches will work, they are both very different characters.

We are going to have three years of two dc at university to help with at the same time, as DS is doing a MSC, so four years and Dd starts this time. Ouch - the joy of having 18 months apart dc in age.

Last year, and with halls at Lancaster being (relatively) cheap, ds's maintenance loan just about covered this cost and we stuck £50 a week in the account in term time, to cover all costs apart from his phone (£12 per month). He'd saved money in the summer by working and there was also other monies he'd accumulated over the years. He's extremely low maintenance in terms of social life and drinking etc, so got by on less than this. I don't give him any money when he's at home.

I'm not sure what to do re Dd yet as her accommodation is a lot more, I'll possibly leave her with her loan (minimum) and pay the halls, I need to think about it! She's also worked all summer but has probably spent more socially than her brother too.

Luckily, I have an endowment policy (remember those?!), from my first ever house that is due to mature in October (woefully underperformed its expected value) which we always kept paying as the 'university fund'.

We've just done a Home Bargains swoop for university stuff...

We will give DS £300 a month but I have told him he needs to find a part-time job, even if only working five or six hours a week. And we won't give him money over the summer vacs - he will have to earn it himself.

I have just clocked that DS needs to update SFE because he's going to his insurance rather than firm choice (as detailed on the initial application). Only realised because of something I read online.

Lots of different things to do that one wouldn't automatically consider unless super, super organised (or with prior experience).

I assume the departments are likely to get in touch with our DC ahead of their start date, with possible reading to do, books to buy, etc...?

I am feeling a sense of worry about the amount of money that might need to be forked out over coming weeks.

Me too newmodelarmy. Crapping myself at the book list, sports kit, deposits etc

He blew the lot over 2 terms

As Piggywaspushed commented, the loan is paid in three instalments. Although he could have spent the whole of the third one in a week, I suppose.

DD got BBB, so will be off to Birmingham as per. We will do the same as we did with DS1 in the first year; I am paying for her accommodation and she will have her (minimum) maintenance loan to live on. And although she intends to apply for work as a lifeguard at the sports centre, I will not be asking for repayment - it's due to our household income that she is only entitled to the minimum loan, for a start. And the money I am giving her is from an inheritance from my mum, who would almost certainly have insisted on paying for the DC's accommodation, had she still been alive.

I’m thinking about £75 a week too - but waiting to see exact cost of accommodation , then factor in the maintenance loan and see what’s left to contribute. It’s like extracting teeth getting any info from DS. He will have to communicate with me though if he does actually want a contribution! He hasn’t worked at all over the Summer so has no savings. No email yet but I will keep asking

A few things I found helpful last year was to just stick a few extra bits in the trolley at each supermarket shop. Tin of beans, packet of pasta, rice, washing up liquid etc. They don't get tons of space anyway and it did spread the cost.

Also - their stuff gets trashed quite often, so if you buy new saucepans etc, keep them for yourself and give the dc the old ones!

Small air dryer is useful for towels etc. A doorstop for propping the door open in Freshers and being socialable!

Some storage containers if they are organised enough to batch cook.

Two pans is plenty, some students I saw had loads, I got DS one that doubled as a wok (high sides) and one to boil pasta.

Airer, rather than dryer.

@puppypower1 thanks! One thing we were wondering about was bringing appliances for the kitchen - we’d like him to take a rice cooker as he is half Japanese so rice is almost more of a staple for him than potatoes, and it’s really easy to make and freeze batches. Any idea if those would be allowed in kitchens?

Financially it sounds like 50-75 per week depending on catered or not is about right. We cover the phone but it’s only £8 per month so we’ll keep doing that.

It was distressing to see how much brand new student kitchen and home stuff had been discarded into bins last summer in Hyde park Leeds when I was there. Please please ensure they take their things with them when they move out.