DS 2022 entry - minimum maintenance loan etc

[HazyDaisy123456]

DS year 12 is a fairly bright lad at a local GS doing fairly well in maths, further maths, physics and ok at a forth subject (but unlikely to achieve A*|A in this). We don’t know his predicted grades as yet and expect to hear this in the next week or two.

DS says he definitely wants to go uni and we are thinking probably to study maths, physics (a combination of the two) or an engineering type degree (to fit with his A levels) but seems disinterested in courses and Uni’s at the moment.

We live in the north and his school are saying he should put in an Oxbridge application (but I am worried his personal statement may be lacking as he doesn’t have many interests and doesn’t have a part time job or a creative way to make money etc. Unlike some of his peers).

Also he will only receive the minimum Maintenance loan due to our household income so we will have to heavily subsidise him and then do the same for his other sibling a year later. By which time DH will be 60.

Any advice on how to encourage him to properly engage in the process sooner rather than later, how best to narrow down choices of courses and institutions and in some Uni’s its complicated further as you seem to have to apply to a particular halls. It seems very difficult when all open days are virtual and with him having so much school work and seemingly little motivation.

If on minimum ML how much did/do you contribute? School have said to him Oxford and Cambridge halls and food outlets are heavily subsidised so are no more expensive than elsewhere is this true or only if you have a very low household income?

Thanks all

He thinks he will be predicted 2 or 3 A stars and an A or B in his fourth subject.

Not odd at all re costs when you have two children a year apart both wanting to go to uni, both will be on minimum ML loans and DH is v close to retirement my job uncertain and him wanting to try and top up pension etc.

I phrased that badly! I meant that it is REALLY difficult to get into Oxbridge and there are very few people who choose it because it is a cheap place to study. Totally agree that affordability is a factor - you may want to avoid London, Bath, Bristol, St Andrews, but whilst cost might exclude some, at most places students can live on the standard loan.

So maybe your question should have been which are the best universities in affordable places, and Oxford and Cambridge will both be on that list, along with Newcastle, Sheffield, Cardiff and others.

Yes, if cost is a key factor, the accommodation at Newcastle looks excellent for the price, and Sheffield and Leeds also have some cheap options.

Also, @HazyDaisy123456, if your husband wants to top up his pension, that should help financially because pension contributions don't count as taxable gross income. If he's PAYE his income after pension contributions are taken out will be what counts for student finance. If they're private pension contributions I believe he would need to submit evidence of these to the Student Loan company but they will then be taken into account, and might increase the amount of the maintenance loan your son can apply for, unless you're well above the threshold.

@HazyDaisy123456

Thanks *@JennyTractorRiderGo*. I saw the Martyn Lewis video thanks. DS is doing 4 A levels (we still haven’t got his predicted grades just yet as his year are working from home again) he did an EPQ project with a maths theme during lockdown at the end of year 11.

He is also doing maths workshops to prepare him for the entrance tests in both maths and physics with school (giving up his lunch one day a week for one of them and spending an hour and a half on the other one virtually on an evening).

He said he is going to do some further reading in the hols.

No decent universities near us Durham is the nearest and it sounds more expensive than others places.

He isn’t any further forward with his uni and course choices and he may or may not be doing enough. I have nagged him to spend some time on this to no avail.

Which bit of the North do you live in without decent unis?

Newcastle uni is in the top 30 for engineering. It's also a fantastic city to live in and costs would be lower. Northumbria is a great one to consider too, as is Sunderland. Hell, even Teesside is in the top 50.

There's a big wide world out there and just because a uni is RG doesn't mean it's not going to provide an excellent education.

Plenty of universities in the North of England ,Newcastle, Durham, Lancaster, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield. Or going North all the Scottish universities

I forgot Lancaster. They offer academic bursaries too, I think, to any student getting AAA, regardless of parental income. I believe it's £1000 a year, and possibly more with a couple of A*. Another university with very good and well-priced accommodation too.

Oxbridge is cheaper and has short terms (3 of mine went to Bristol which is more expensive)
As for what parents pay look online for the maximum maintenance loan for the very poor and then minimum (for many middle class people) and it is the difference between the two yo should probably pay like in my day parents making a tiny minimum grant up t the maximum grant. I think roughly maximum out of London is about £9500 and minimum £4300 so parents expected to pay £5200 a year (£433 a month).

I would have his list of universities as Oxford or Cambridge, then Durham and Bristol so that is 3 for a start, possibly a London one if he likes the sound of London and Exeter.

As to what parents pay it depends. I paid the fees, their rent and £150 allowance so this coming academic year post grad will cost me about £50,000 for the twins (the last year ever.....) in after tax income. ouch. However that is very very rare that children take no student loan. One also has a summer job on about £1700 a month and they each have rent from a small house they let out and they live at home in holidays and next year in term time with no costs to pay -even with ALL THAT they are still not the richest around.

I've not read the whole thread OP so apologies if your questions have already been answered.
My dd will get the minimum loan only as well and we will top this up to the maximum (she starts this year) but not more. She has an offer from Cambridge. From a quick look at all the places she was applying and discussions with friends whose children are elsewhere, I think she will be paying slightly less than most for accommodation/food over the next 3 years despite being in a relatively expensive city. Her offer is from one of the more expensive colleges though and there are others which would have been cheaper (she actually applied to one of them!)
Her sibling will be going to uni two years later and I don't expect them to apply to Oxbridge but to somewhere like Bath/Warwick etc and I expect their costs to be considerably higher over the lifetime of their degree.

Oxford and Cambridge also have generous bursaries which are non repayable - and it's not just to students on the maximum student loans Oxford list here plus travel grants - my D1 gets £500 pa from Oxford on top of her loan and bursary. In addition there are college and department bursaries or grants - D1 got a book grant from her department. There are also hardship funds. They are very keen that students are not disadvantaged by finances.

We pay their accommodation and £400 a month allowance

DS has just finished his first year at Cambridge.
His rent is approx £1300 per term.
Catered meals are provided but they only pay for what they eat; these are very reasonably priced. Even the coffee outlet in college is subsidised.
His college has reimbursed him for the textbooks he has bought.

The above is for all students and is not means-tested. There are additional bursaries available for students who come from low-income families or who are experiencing financial hardship.

We have 2 at Uni at the moment. DD is in London and we pay her rent of £700 per month in shared house and she uses minimum loan for everything else. She manages very well on this and hasn't needed to dip into her savings built up from holiday jobs. We were also sending her £300 per month on top of this but she sends it back saying she doesn't need it.

DS is in Norwich and we also pay rent on private halls of £500 a month plus we send £300 a month. He doesn't send it back!

We had to top up the rent by about 2k per year, plus we put £50 a week on a monzo card for food (he only used to spend about 25 so had the rest for going out). We also bought bus pass which was £200 for the year and paid for train fares home.

He did work during a gap year and in the summer, which gave him a back up fund for clothes/gig tickets etc.

Maybe if he's not that interested at the moment a gap year might be worth thinking about? Does he actually want to go to uni? Maybe look at higher apprenticeship schemes as well.

I would only apply to Oxbridge if really interested in his subject.

In m