Cambridge and paid work

[SusannaM]

DD is pondering over applying to Cambridge (she's year 12 now), but is really worried about the no working in term time rule. She won't get a full loan and although we have saved up some money for her, we won't be able to sub her much. She currently works and I've no idea how she'd manage uni without a part time job.
Is the no work rule strictly enforced?

Would she be able to keep her current job near you, and work there in the (long!) Holidays?

It varies by college. I would definitely not recommend she works during term. It is far too full on, and she would lose out massively on the social side of things.

However , because terms are so short (around 8 weeks), she will have plenty of time in the vacations to work as much as she likes.

The terms are much shorter than at other universities. My DS simply worked all the time that he was home. Fortunately his gap year employer was always happy to have him back.

As others have said, terms are short and very intense. Not sure it’d be easy to find a job for 8 weeks at a time (it’s difficult to get accommodation to stay in Cambridge outside term time too) and would be very tough to juggle. But about four months holiday in summer and a month for Christmas and Easter so most students work then.

There is literally no way she can work and attend Cambridge. It is far too intense, its absolutely nothing like other universities. Terms are 8 weeks so it is not for long. That is only 8 weeks of rent and food, both are heavily subsidized if you eat in college. No transport costs, she needs a cheap bike. Colleges also provide financial support for those that need it.

Holiday work. Mine all worked during the long holidays- terms there are only 8 weeks so that leaves a lot of time to earn. It would be such a shame to miss out for a very short period when she can’t work.
What does she do now?

I would work in the very long vacations and save!

Terms are very short so lots of opportunity to work outside term. More importantly the university and colleges give very very generous grants. Look carefully into to the financial support available - she may well be much better off, even without working, than at other universities. Cambridge are very keen that finances don’t stop any able candidate attending.

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/fees-and-finance/financial-support/cambridge-financial-support

That is only 8 weeks of rent

Do they only have to pay rent whilst they are actually on campus? That would be a huge help, I've been calculating rent for the year.

I doubt we'd get any financial help, we are not at the bottom of the scale earning wise. But a really bad run of redundancy and other crap financial stuff has left us with debts to clear.

@Etinox
She works in a restaurant, mainly waiting on.

Rent in college definitely wont be for 52 weeks. It could be 39 weeks, but many places also have shorter rental contracts too.

The best thing you can do for her is reassure her that she won’t have to work in the term time. Rough guide to typical student funding amongst my kids and peers.
Fees and living expenses- gov loan
Rent- parents
As pp have said there are lots of bursaries and scholarships that she could put towards rent and reduce your contribution. The student loan element is enough to live on.
They then worked over the summer, enough to save and travel.

Get her to learn some admin/IT touch typing skills then she can join some temping agencies to be available as soon as each term ends.
Regardless of which uni it's easier said than done to find a well paid temp job just for the Easter holidays in eg a restaurant unless her old job will keep her on.

Most colleges rent out the rooms for conferences etc during vacations, so students are only charged for approx ten weeks each term. And this applies across the whole degree not just first year. Does mean you have to move all your stuff in and out three times a year though which is a bit of a pain!

Do they still employ students in eg the college bars? They used to for 1-2 shifts a week a long long time ago...

Rough guide to typical student funding amongst my kids and peers.
Fees and living expenses -gov loan
Rent -parents

Sorry, can't bold the whole quote, no idea why.

That's kind of not helpful, as we don't have the money, but she won't get a full loan. We have two sorts of friends, the ones that sub their kids a lot and the other type whose kids have a term time job.

I had also been worried by friends saying they were stumping up for a whole years rent. (Which was especially difficult as their kids were home in lockdown and not even using said accommodation). No way on god's earth do we have a spare 500 a month.

Her current job might keep her on, temping agencies don't generally take students on for holiday clerical work here as there is no real local demand. She struggled to get the job she has.

@feelingsareweird

Thank you, that is really helpful. Although the moving things in and out will be a pain, as we don't live on the mainland, she will just have to learn to be a minimalist

Speak to the college about getting financial assistance - sometimes there are grants. Don’t work during term as it’s really hard to keep up with work and if you don’t keep up, you can find exams a shock at end of year.

When I was there many moons ago no-one worked as we didn't have time because the short terms and level of work made it pretty intense.

However we had rent that was heavily subsidised by the college for the whole 3 years (no-one rented privately) and we only paid when we were there.

I was not well off but I worked every holiday at home at a local hotel and that was enough. I still had a small grant back in the day and I used my maintenance loan. My parents did help me but I don't think it was too bad for them. Certainly there were a lot of grants and bursaries at college level. I recall I had all my books paid for without my even really asking.

Cambridge is actually quite a good place to go if you don't have loads of money because they do and they are happy to spend it on you!

I also had no idea how rich some of my mates families were until I went to stay at a few places in the holidays and my jaw dropped. At college we were all pretty equal. It was the 90s and we were all trying to look lo fi and grunge so you couldn't really tell.

DS's college stipulates no paid work during term time for undergraduates. I doubt they would have any way of policing this, but in reality it would be difficult to fit in a lot of hours in term time. The course is already the equivalent of a full-time job.
Last year DS had lectures 6 days a week and spent about 50 hours a week studying.

The university and colleges themselves offer some paid work, including outreach work to potential applicants from under-represented groups, and contacting alumni to encourage financial donations.
Many of the students do paid work in the university holidays.

[quote SusannaM]@feelingsareweird

Thank you, that is really helpful. Although the moving things in and out will be a pain, as we don't live on the mainland, she will just have to learn to be a minimalist [/quote]
Most colleges have some storage space for the holidays, and students who don't live on the mainland UK would have priority for this.

I went to the other one, but:

• I lived in college my first two years and only paid for termtime. The college runs conferences during the academic breaks for much more money. It was a pain lugging all my stuff out of my room to storage by myself every term, but I managed.
• I worked in both the college bar and library. Jobs in college are exempted from the "no working" rule. Some of these jobs pay cash. Some just subtract money from your room and board bill, or that used to be the case. I could also study during my library shifts, although many libraries are now just open but unstaffed out of hours if they don't have valuable stock

-I temped full-time in holidays and made good money, as I typed fast and had reception experience. There are also sometimes holiday jobs going in college. Some of my peers worked as college "scouts" (cleaners).

Ps. One thing I'd flag for the above is that many/most students probably do need to live in for the full academic year Oct-June in their final year, because they will spend the holiday time studying/prepping for finals.

Thank you, some really helpful comments here. Obviously the chances of her getting into Cambridge are slim, but I just wanted to be prepared.