Student Loans 2012

Char_pdc

setmefree2 wrote: »

Oh my - what the heck is fresher's flu?
£30 for a night out - what does that go on? Club entrance, taxis, just booze?

When Freshers move into halls for the first time together they are living in a different evnironment and mixing with people from all over the UK and also abroad. On top of this, people can be burning the candle at both ends in a lifestyle they aren't used to - getting up early to go to lectures and partying until the early hours of the morning.

One/other/a combination of this results in most Freshers coming down with colds/sore throats etc. When this happen in the first few weeks of term, its commonly referred to as "Freshers flu".

Most Freshers events at my uni were held in the Students Union, so £30 covered a ticket to get in and drinks (with some change). I didn't have to pay for a ca/travel home as my halls were close to the Union. I would imagine this £30 varies between unis though

setmefree2

Char_pdc wrote: »

Most Freshers events at my uni were held in the Students Union, so £30 covered a ticket to get in and drinks (with some change). I didn't have to pay for a ca/travel home as my halls were close to the Union. I would imagine this £30 varies between unis though

So there are actually Freshers events that cost approx £30 each. How many off these events do students go to in the first weeks?

wintersunshine

katie89 wrote: »

I've just graduated, but my parents didn't set me budgets/ give me cash/ want to pay off my loan. They helped me work out the loan assessment form, which was based on their income, but its always been (silently) understood that my decision to go to university was just that, and any debt incurred from it would be mine, not theirs. I find it bizarre that anyone would expect their parents too, but maybe thats just me.

If your parents didn't pay for you to go to Uni then the taxpayer did! Presumably setmefree is a tax payer so she (and the like) paid for you to go to college.... you should be very very grateful!!!!!

amiehall

Unless you're a very low earner, you're expected as a parent to make a contribution towards living costs. If your child receives anything other than maximum loan and grant support, that's based on the state's presumption that you will provide for the remainder of your child's living costs.

Char_pdc

setmefree2 wrote: »

So there are actually Freshers events that cost approx £30 each. How many off these events do students go to in the first weeks?

With regards to cost, perhaps you might spend £30 - tbh I think it depends how much you drink and how long the bar queue is though.

My Freshers week was in 2005. Most events were £4 for a ticket, apart from the Freshers ball, which was more expensive (maybe £15 but I can't really remember). At the Freshers ball they usually have more going on and also hire some sort of "big artist" - think mine had Big Brothers (I didn't know who they were though!).

I went to 3 Freshers events over the first 4 days...but got bored because they played the same songs over and over and over again! After that I went out with some mates from halls into other clubs on their student nights - which was then more to get in and more expensive for drinks. So I think I went to 4 in total, over the 3 weeks of my "Freshers week"

HTH

setmefree2

wintersunshine wrote: »

If your parents didn't pay for you to go to Uni then the taxpayer did! Presumably setmefree is a tax payer so she (and the like) paid for you to go to college.... you should be very very grateful!!!!!

I'm a high(est) rate tax payer - I pay for many many poor kids to go to college and then I get pilloried for providing for my own!

Hey you couldn't make this stuff up.:rotfl:

Lokolo

setmefree2 wrote: »

Oh my - what the heck is freshers' flu?
£30 for a night out - what does that go on? Club entrance, taxis, just booze?

Thats entry to a club (£5) plus £5 for a taxi home and cheesy chips. £20 on drinks which are £1.50.

My budgeting skills go out the window when I've been drinking.... I have to leave my debit card at home

He may not want to drink everynight though during freshers, I sure didn't. And if they stay at home it will be a lot cheaper as he can get alcohol from supermarket.

melancholly

Braveheart100 wrote: »

I googled "student debt + parents" and came up with this.

I found plenty more like that.

It's just your opinion that parents should not be involved. Looking around the internet I found plenty of evidence that it wasn't a view shared by many.

man, this is frustrating. have you read my posts? from post 60 "if more parents taught their kids financial planning and budgeting, or how to do basic cooking, more students would come out of uni in less debt."

i haven't ever ever ever ever (is that clear enough?) said that parents shouldn't be involved.... i've just said that they shouldn't be making the final decisions for the students or without the students. parents should educate their children and help them (blimey - how many freshers can't even work a washing machine?!). too many don't even know the terms of the student loans because parents (or indeed teachers) just tell them to sign the forms.

you know what, it won't even apply to the OP here since, with more posts, it's clear that they're certainly not doing this without their son and completely taking over (not that you can tell that immediately in a few lines of text!). but that doesn't make my point invalid for other people or other situations. teaching someone to do something themselves is always far better than just doing it for them - as a general point that shouldn't engender so much anger (perhaps there is a problem in what has been said generally and what as been interpreted specifically - must make that clearer if it has been as apparently unclear as this). the modern phenomenon of helicoper parents is increasing and it's scary when you see the results.

i'm being misquoted and accused of things that i have neither said nor intended to imply (and can't see on re-reading!). for all of you who think i'm the devil - please feel free to poke on through my post history. i had financial help from my parents - i'm grateful for it. they gave me money and i also worked. i have never said parents shouldn't financially contribute. i never would and i never have. i'm incredibly grateful for what they did for me, financially, emotionally, practically.....

(incidentally, what hasn't been discussed at all is whether it is worth students taking the full loan even if not needed, since the repayment terms are better than any other loan they'll ever get. that way they can have a large sum in savings for use later as a house deposit or something like that - the terms from the SLC won't be as good as they have been but may well be better than any commercial loan. less useful than a few years ago when savings interest rates were higher, but worth thinking about.)

The_One_Who

evespikey wrote: »

With that being said, I would always encourage my child to get a part-time job so they learn the value of money- providing it meant part time, that is under 10 hours. I wouldn't want them working over 10 hours- university should be a full time job and luckily our top universities (Oxford) recognize this.

Most universities, if not all, say that students should not work more than fifteen hours a week. Oxford and Cambridge do not allow their students to work during term-time at all.

katie89

wintersunshine wrote: »

If your parents didn't pay for you to go to Uni then the taxpayer did! Presumably setmefree is a tax payer so she (and the like) paid for you to go to college.... you should be very very grateful!!!!!

I am, and never said I wasn't; i'm fully aware that I've been lucky in being able to go to uni. My parents are on low incomes and when I went to uni I was fully aware that I would accumulate around £20,000 of debt for the privilege. However, it is money I have to pay back, hence "debt". My debt, not my parents.