parents bankrupt - student grants

Derivative

Lokolo wrote: »

And surely the idea is to research this before you go?

If you did, you'd realise your loan won't suffice, and therefore you would get a job before you go.

You'd also have jobs lined up in the summers between your course... etc.

As I said earlier, in the summers is fair enough but you're still not able to really work full time if your Uni expects you to work during holidays. You can do a part time job in the summer sure. It's not that easy to organize a job that starts at the beginning of summer and ends at the end.

Working before Uni is what I would do in this situation. What I'm saying is the grants are unfair, and it shouldn't be that students who have well-off parents are discriminated against with regards to loans/grants if their parents choose not to / are unable to fund them.

Kilty_2

EdgEy wrote: »

Our course is designed to have us work 8 hours a day.

As is mine. Although I have a job now that allows me to get some studying done whilst at work, I used to work 20h a week in a call centre and still not be failing uni.

Derivative

Kilty wrote: »

As is mine. Although I have a job now that allows me to get some studying done whilst at work, I used to work 20h a week in a call centre and still not be failing uni.

I don't think it is realistic to expect people to do that for extended periods of time. I really don't. If you did it, then well done. Count yourself lucky that like Thatcher you can function with four hours sleep. I can't, and I doubt most people can. Any less than 8 hours with no breaks is going to affect my concentration eventually.

MsHoarder

Lokolo wrote: »

And surely the idea is to research this before you go?

If you did, you'd realise your loan won't suffice, and therefore you would get a job before you go.

You'd also have jobs lined up in the summers between your course... etc.

None of this applies to the OP of course, as he did do all of those, but has had his financial situation change dramatically mid-year. Sometimes life throws us these things, and he did come to MSE to see if anything could be done to help with this...

Oldernotwiser

EdgEy wrote: »

So you go to work at 9, get home at 5, get the food on, feed kids, then you have what? 1 hour of time with your children a day?

That's assuming you actually do 8 hours a day 7 days and not skewed towards the weekdays, in which case you'd basically not see your kids during the week.

I would like you to draw up a timetable for either a university student working _full-time_, or for this hypothetical lone parent. I think you're ignoring the essentials that take up time like eating, sleeping, showering, going to the shops every now and then...

I'm not a lone parent but I've advised many who study as well as work. As I said before, you go about your normal working/family day and, when the children go to bed in the middle of the evening, you study rather than watch television or go to the pub.

It's not a difficult concept to understand; many thousands of mature students study for their degrees like this.

Fiddlestick

Can the OP not move from University-supplied accomodation to a (cheaper) private let?

cloey

I think you should try to get your student funding reassed, phone up whoever funds you (sorry in scotland we have sass not sure what everyone else has) and ask for their advice, its not guaranteed but it's always worth a shot.
Also go into your student finance in uni and they are normally a great help if you arrange an appointment with someone and discuss your problems and they should be able to give you funding from the university.
All else fails? Get job hunting
Good luck.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Three things:-

1. I do believe that the OP should be able to get a loan in order to cover everything. Hey, I still believe the loss of free tuition and university grants for all was a mistake. A top rate education shouldn't, in my opinion, be determined by socio-economic group.

2. I also believe that some people here are talking from an alternative orifice. One of my friends from college went to Oxford to study physics. He didn't work during term times, but with 7 weeks to work on his first degree, he had plenty of time to devote to working full time during the holidays. He was also more sought after by companies, as they had an Oxford undergraduate who was so intelligent, he was given an unconditional offer there, rather than someone rolling in from the nearest college with a couple of D's at A level.

3. I object most strongly to any insinuation that I am potentially neglecting my daughter by studying through the Open University or that my degree is of lower quality. To give an example, last academic year, I completed 130 credits. This is in excess of that required for full time university education. During that time, I completed the majority of the work during the night. Occasionally, I had to pull a couple of allnighters to ensure that deadlines were met and I probably paid less attention to her than usual on three weeks of that time as it was for major assessments.

I had gone straight from the previous academic year and an exam on one day to the first tutorial for the next year the following evening, so none of those long summer breaks for me - I worked through them, but again, this was at night.

To give an idea of the timetable: up at 6am, showered & ready by 7, daughter up, out the house for school by 7.45am. Then there is the day to get through, daughter back home at around 5pm. Dinner, chatting, homework, parents evenings, etc usually take up until 8pm, then she goes to bed around 9.30pm on a schoolnight, I get to start work from then until around midnight. Once every couple of months, I have a day school or a couple of evening tutorials. The rest of the time, it is up to me to take responsibility for my own studying. These times coincide with her having other plans, such as seeing her father or staying on the sofa watching cartoons all morning.

The workload isn't that onerous. I've had time to take driving lessons, clean the house, move house, do the garden, take the cat to the vet, do shopping (but I used Ocado during the busiest period), I play bass in a club, practice/rehearse, continue bass tuition, attend parents' evenings, help with homework, vegetate in front of TV, everything I would usually do. And yes, I have had time to go out, play pool, have a couple of drinks, go on fieldtrips, attend residentials, drag the family out to go rockhopping, squabble with random peoples on MSE :whistle: and generally manage without causing her to be permanently psychologically wounded, along with a fairly reasonable amount of sleep - six hours is probably the amount most adults get by on.


So, yes it is annoying, it is worth checking if the OR has taken into account that there are obligations to the OP (assuming that this hasn't already been done, but the parent concerned is fibbing about it as they want the money for themselves, as they are obviously less efficient with handling it than they could be). Not having a job during termtime is acceptable, as to lose a top University place would be foolish in the extreme, but there is no reason why the OP can't get themselves some form of employment during the copious periods of downtime from Oxbridge.

But don't start looking down on other people who manage more than you do, as they are grown ups who have experience of far more hardship than you ever will.

Oldernotwiser

jojo_the_tightfisted wrote: »

three things:-

1. I do believe that the op should be able to get a loan in order to cover everything. Hey, i still believe the loss of free tuition and university grants for all was a mistake. A top rate education shouldn't, in my opinion, be determined by socio-economic group.

2. I also believe that some people here are talking from an alternative orifice. One of my friends from college went to oxford to study physics. He didn't work during term times, but with 7 weeks to work on his first degree, he had plenty of time to devote to working full time during the holidays. He was also more sought after by companies, as they had an oxford undergraduate who was so intelligent, he was given an unconditional offer there, rather than someone rolling in from the nearest college with a couple of d's at a level.

3. I object most strongly to any insinuation that i am potentially neglecting my daughter by studying through the open university or that my degree is of lower quality. To give an example, last academic year, i completed 130 credits. This is in excess of that required for full time university education. During that time, i completed the majority of the work during the night. Occasionally, i had to pull a couple of allnighters to ensure that deadlines were met and i probably paid less attention to her than usual on three weeks of that time as it was for major assessments.

I had gone straight from the previous academic year and an exam on one day to the first tutorial for the next year the following evening, so none of those long summer breaks for me - i worked through them, but again, this was at night.

To give an idea of the timetable: Up at 6am, showered & ready by 7, daughter up, out the house for school by 7.45am. Then there is the day to get through, daughter back home at around 5pm. Dinner, chatting, homework, parents evenings, etc usually take up until 8pm, then she goes to bed around 9.30pm on a schoolnight, i get to start work from then until around midnight. Once every couple of months, i have a day school or a couple of evening tutorials. The rest of the time, it is up to me to take responsibility for my own studying. These times coincide with her having other plans, such as seeing her father or staying on the sofa watching cartoons all morning.

The workload isn't that onerous. I've had time to take driving lessons, clean the house, move house, do the garden, take the cat to the vet, do shopping (but i used ocado during the busiest period), i play bass in a club, practice/rehearse, continue bass tuition, attend parents' evenings, help with homework, vegetate in front of tv, everything i would usually do. And yes, i have had time to go out, play pool, have a couple of drinks, go on fieldtrips, attend residentials, drag the family out to go rockhopping, squabble with random peoples on mse :whistle: And generally manage without causing her to be permanently psychologically wounded, along with a fairly reasonable amount of sleep - six hours is probably the amount most adults get by on.


So, yes it is annoying, it is worth checking if the or has taken into account that there are obligations to the op (assuming that this hasn't already been done, but the parent concerned is fibbing about it as they want the money for themselves, as they are obviously less efficient with handling it than they could be). Not having a job during termtime is acceptable, as to lose a top university place would be foolish in the extreme, but there is no reason why the op can't get themselves some form of employment during the copious periods of downtime from oxbridge.

But don't start looking down on other people who manage more than you do, as they are grown ups who have experience of far more hardship than you ever will.

:t:t:t:t:t:t

Derivative

Fairly impressive.
I should reassess my opinion of what is a good night's sleep then I guess. If I were to go extended periods on 6 hours I'd forget how to read after a while. My problem not others.