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?

Some advice: apply to a rich college like John’s or Trinity. Rooms are cheaper and provided all three years. Bursaries are plentiful - eg my DS was refunded 50% of everything he spent on textbooks and computers. Or colleges like Emma, where students are paid to work in the College bar. Money should never be a reason not to allly to Oxbridge: it is cheaper than many other places.

Yes, you can, and should, actively target colleges for their ability to offer in-college accommodation for all years, their bursaries, and their working opportunities in-college.

My eldest goes to the other one. Her college doesn't allow term time working and the workload is immense so it wouldn't be possible.

She is able to work in college bar twice a term and there are lots of opportunities for paid work during the holidays. She has worked at summer and easter taster weeks, looking after interview candidates, outreach visits to schools, open days etc. Her college pays £12.50 per hour (adds up when you are working/on-call looking after prospective students 24/7 at taster weeks). Some other colleges don't pay but expect you to volunteer for free so that's worth checking before you apply.

During the long vacation many of the tutors work on their own research projects and pay students to assist them,

The university is very generous with bursary and funding schemes. Students from the lowest income backgrounds seem to be very well provided for financially and have no money struggles. They do complain that in exchange for the generous financial support they are expected to take part in many internships during holidays, which is great for boosting their work experience but limits earning from paid summer positions.

DD is going to a college where she can stay Christmas and Easter but all her friends are having to move out and therefore not pay over the holidays.
She hasn't started yet but everyone says it's too intense to work in term time but she has a job at home which she can do during all the holidays - she's managed to save up loads from this summer.
Friends whose children are at other unis definitely have much higher rents, particularly after the first year when most can't stay in halls.

I worked in the college library in term time as paid jobs were banned in my day too (1990s, so I’m feeling old right now…) I also worked my socks off every holiday: retail, temping, chambermaiding, babysitting, you name it. (This despite my tutors disapproving, I mean what planet were they on? Back then, they didn’t have much experience of state school kids and how we needed to do paid work during the vac… I think that is changing slowly now.)

I know a girl who’s second year Oxbridge now, and she works in term time but keeps it on the DL. (Bar work.) Same went for a boy in my year. We only realised when we went to the cinema in final year and he was working on the popcorn stand… we had no idea he had a term-time job. He was very worried he’d get rusticated though, so swore us to secrecy. We never told.

As for rent, I deliberately chose a college that offered in-college accommodation for the full three years, as then you only pay for 8-9 weeks a term. The downside is you have to move out completely each term as they use college rooms for conferences each vac, but it’s a small price to pay for subsidised rent.

Also went to the other one, but hopefully relevant, many of the colleges will employ current students to help out with conferences in the holidays - cleaning rooms and waiting on mostly. Also you can often do a few hours waiting on and bar work within the college in term but terms are intense and the workload is heavy.

Over the summer we had 4 months off and I actually got some overseas work arranged through college- not sure how that would work post Brexit. Friends got well paid internships through the careers service.

Think about total weekly budget. From her loan how much will be left once rent is paid? My loan covered rent and left me £20 week for food (not enough even then). No transport costs. No parental help so the rest came from my year 12 & 13 savings foe year 1 then from Christmas and summer work. Get her saving now and it will help.

I don’t pay any of my daughter’s rent. She pays it and her fees out of her loan and food, gym, clothes, going out etc comes out of her wages. This year she only plans to work during holidays so I’ll send her money more regularly than in the last couple of years.
I hope that is helpful somehow.

My ds is at the other one, but one thing to factor in is that rents at O and C are cheaper than many universities. He pays around £1400 per term. Have a look at the websites for each college and you will get an idea of actual rent costs. Only downside is that the whole terms rent is due in one lump at the beginning of term. He does as most of the others and works in the holidays (again lucky that his employer is happy to have him back each holiday)

As far as I’m aware all colleges at Cam offer accommodation for all three years, and for postgrads too. It’s the norm, I never met anyone living out (I rented privately for a while after graduating and Cambridge is EXPENSIVE so would not recommend!!). Although it’s a few more years than I care to remember since I was there so things may have changed! I know my college still accommodates everyone at least.

@feelingsareweird

As far as I’m aware all colleges at Cam offer accommodation for all three years, and for postgrads too. It’s the norm, I never met anyone living out (I rented privately for a while after graduating and Cambridge is EXPENSIVE so would not recommend!!). Although it’s a few more years than I care to remember since I was there so things may have changed! I know my college still accommodates everyone at least.

I think you are correct still. From posts on here it looks as though that might not always be the case at Oxford though? (I have no personal knowledge at all as DD did not look at Oxford but I've read posts that made me think it might be different there). But yes I think all colleges at Cambridge provide accommodation to all undergrads and postgrads, just not always on the main college site.

Terms are very short (8 weeks) although you need to be there in 0th week and into 9th week usually. Going by my D1's experience, (at Oxford) there is absolutely no time for a job during term time, the academic work is really full on. But the flip side of that is that the vacs are long, so consider vac work instead.

Also, accommodation costs are relatively low as you have to quit your college room in the vacs as these are used for conferences, b&b, literary festivals etc. I think the standard is 27wks. Food is subsidised.

There are a huge range of bursaries and grants available, my D gets a non repayable bursary from Oxford (£ks) plus book grants from her department, and £500 pa 'travel costs'. There are also extra hardship funds available.

I think you are correct still. From posts on here it looks as though that might not always be the case at Oxford though?

Correct. I lived in all three years (and accommodation for 3rd years ran right through the academic year) but half of 3rd years at my college had to live out in private rentals. This was a central and old college. The situation differs by college according to their land, budget, and history.

DD graduated in the summer. She had zero time for any sort of job in term time. She also didn't have time for work in the Christmas and Easter vacations either. We booked a week's holiday for the Easter of her 1st year as I had a big birthday. Whilst she enjoyed it, she fretted about time away from her studies, even just one week. She did paid work in summer for most of the vacation. Her college and course recommended doing work related to her degree after her 1st year, which she followed, but that was not very lucrative, then Covid put paid to work in the summer of her 3rd year. Her end of year 1 job was very good and came from a friend of ours whose intern had let them down at short notice. Normally they took on someone with more experience but DD coped fine.

As far as room rents go, DD's college has a range of room prices. The 1st year block is most expensive but they are most sought after for conferences, so rent is only payable for 10 weeks (?) per term. In her 3rd year, DD lived in a shabby house owned by the college. She loved the big kitchen and the cheap rent. Because it wasn't used for conferences but was used by overseas students who couldn't stay in. their normal rooms, she was allowed to leave some stuff there over vacations. DD's college can accommodate all undergrads and integrated Masters students. She is back there now for a PhD but has chosen to live out, even though she was offered a room as she wants to experience something different.

DD graduated in the summer. She had zero time for any sort of job in term time. She also didn't have time for work in the Christmas and Easter vacations either.

Mine likewise - she reckoned 'vacation' means when you have to vacate your room, not holidays. She had a few supervisions and also mock exams outside of the 8 week 'full term' but within the 10 week 'whole term'. And then vacation assignments and revision/consolidation. The idea that terms were only 8 weeks and she'd have loads of free time at home was quite inaccurate! She did engineering, and I know Malbec's was NatSci - not sure if all courses require quite so much work at Xmas and easter.

But she got good paid internships during all 3 summer vacs and also an IET scholarship.

Her first years accommodation was a 30 week contract iirc; the next two years she opted for 39 weeks because she liked working in the library out of full term - though covid threw a spanner in the works. Her 4th year she chose to go for private rental with 4 pals because they didn't know what their colleges would be doing, but that was a CV related decision. (Though one of the group was at Caius which doesn't guarantee 4th yr accommodation for home students anyway)

My DH lived out in his second year at Oxford, but I think it was still organised by the college.

Just to echo what everyone else has said - the summer is the time you can work (and maybe a bit at Christmas if there are seasonal jobs in local shops). And she might find some well paid internships in the 2nd and 3rd years. I didn't have a job at university but I managed to find some work in the summer holidays despite it being the early 90s and there not being much around at the time.

And of course, the hope is that it pays for itself in life time earnings.

Terms are really short so it's not many weeks each time. I volunteered in a charity shop and did a lot of extra curricular stuff so I probably could've managed a job time wise but not sure how easy it is to get a job that accepts you in 10 week stretches.

Actually I did do library duty in my college and that was paid. I think the wages went on my college card and I could use the money for meals in college.

Please don't let this discourage her though. It's an amazing university, looks brilliant on your CV and has been a real tonic to me to know that I studied there at times when the rest of my life felt like a car crash!!

Thinking about it, other people did bar shifts in college and that must've been paid too unless it was paid in beer? This is all 20 years ago but there were things you could do to make some cash that must've been officially encouraged.

Yeah, as busy as Oxbridge is, most students somehow make time to socialise and can fit in a few shifts of in-college work. A college with a library that pays students to mind the desk is a winner. I also used to take the unpopular late shift behind the college bar at the termly (God, I know how cringe the word is) "bop".

I graduated late noughties, FTR, which I acknowledge is a few old years ago, but kind of the point of Oxbridge is that it doesn't change that fast...

Uni holidays are long, particularly so at Cambridge. Holidays are 26+ weeks, so she can work full time for half of the year. This is what my sister did when she was at Cambridge, and it worked well for her so I followed her lead when I went to uni. It was actually much better not to work in term time, left time for work and play.

I really wouldn't work in term time. It's so busy and full on.

What does she want to study?

The terms are short and Cambridge accommodation is much cheaper than most places and guaranteed for all three years.

My Dd is only 12 but DH and I were thinking we ought to at least have a sense of how uni is financed these days, what the costs are and how much we might need to find to give Dd and Ds if they choose to go.

I worked out the accommodation cost in my old college (trinity) was around £3000 a year. Halls in Manchester were double that - £6000+ a year.

It is very very cheap to live in cambridge.

College room the whole degree, no transport costs other than an old bike, social life mainly massively subsidised college bars and societies, only 24 weeks a year, plus plenty of bursaries prizes book grants hardship funds.

I'll be encouraging mine to apply on that basis alone 🤣

@JulesRimetStillGleaming

Thinking about it, other people did bar shifts in college and that must've been paid too unless it was paid in beer? This is all 20 years ago but there were things you could do to make some cash that must've been officially encouraged.

Yes you could get a job in the bar of the jcr but that was the only thing permitted.

@JulesRimetStillGleaming

Please don't let this discourage her though. It's an amazing university, looks brilliant on your CV and has been a real tonic to me to know that I studied there at times when the rest of my life felt like a car crash!!

I relate!

When everything else seems like a car crash I can think well at least I got into cambridge and got my degree. I can't be totally hopeless! 🤣