Travelling to uni interviews....costs

reb

My daughter has been told by a friend that if neither of your parents have a degree she is able to claim back her travelling costs for her interviews at universities. Does anyone know anything about this please, or where we can get information?

:cool:

Helix

There is no scheme like this as far as I am aware. Some universities may offer to cover the costs but this will vary from uni to uni, you will have to ask them or check their websites.

Oldernotwiser

Also, some local authorities may be able to help, based on parents' income rather than background.

nimbo

of the two letters i have had one specifrically said they would not help with travle costs...

maybe if i had asked the other might have...

worth asking the Local education people...

reb

I love your signature Nimbo. Thanx for the help guys!

nimbo wrote: »

of the two letters i have had one specifrically said they would not help with travle costs...

maybe if i had asked the other might have...

worth asking the Local education people...

:money:i will stick to my budget next month:money:
:money:i will come up with a budget next month:money:
:money:i will not fill my face with chocolate next month:money:

Derivative

This bothered me quite a bit as well. Several of my University choices invited me down for an 'interview' that was little more than a formality.

Quite annoying being £150+ out of pocket for your fourth and fifth choices to essentially show you around campus.

juno

I know that if you got EMA then your school/college had some funds they could use to pay for these expenses - so you need to ask them. And some unis will cover travel costs or provide accommodation if you ask nicely.

real1314

EdgEy wrote: »

This bothered me quite a bit as well. Several of my University choices invited me down for an 'interview' that was little more than a formality.

Quite annoying being £150+ out of pocket for your fourth and fifth choices to essentially show you around campus.

£150+ for National Express?

I take it you used the train and paid fairly late?

With the level of late booked train fares, sharing a taxi could actually be a viable choice for some people, albeit that the journey might take a little longer.:cool:

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerine

real1314 wrote: »

£150+ for National Express?

I take it you used the train and paid fairly late?

With the level of late booked train fares, sharing a taxi could actually be a viable choice for some people, albeit that the journey might take a little longer.:cool:

Not necessarily at all. The OP never said how far away each University was, so even if she/he had bought a ticket in advance, £30 could well be the lower limits of what it would cost to travel there to each one.

My Uni is over 200miles away from home; if I had gone to all of the welcome days hosted by each of my 5 optional universities, I would have spent far in excess of £150 upon travel, and the cost for shared taxis (if I even knew anyone planning on attending the same unis), would have been astronomical.

Derivative

real1314 wrote: »

£150+ for National Express?

I take it you used the train and paid fairly late?

With the level of late booked train fares, sharing a taxi could actually be a viable choice for some people, albeit that the journey might take a little longer.:cool:

Well, this was more than one University. Of my five choices, four interviewed me, two of them were formalities (this is our campus, we'll give you an interview to make sure you actually do A-level <subject>). All of them bar one gave me about a week or two's notice.

No idea if this is the norm but it was all rather daft. And of course at this stage you have no idea who's going to accept you (or indeed if any of them will) so going to them all is a must.

A_Phoenix_of_Tangerines wrote:

My Uni is over 200miles away from home; if I had gone to all of the welcome days hosted by each of my 5 optional universities, I would have spent far in excess of £150 upon travel, and the cost for shared taxis (if I even knew anyone planning on attending the same unis), would have been astronomical.

Indeed. Distances to my five choices by car were 96mi, 147mi, 196mi and 210mi (two in London). Well worth paying for and I don't begrudge the Universities that had a genuine interest in cherry picking applicants - what I'm not a fan of is forcing me to look around the city and campus at my expense. I couldn't care less. Quality of education and reputation of the University are my only concerns.

My current Uni is a £60 return train ticket (bare minimum in advance) or £11 or so if I go coach travel (journey takes 6 hours and involves dragging everything I own around the Underground :P)

silvercar

My son decided not to go to 2 of the university interview/ open days. After he had 3 offers he pulled out of one as it was too far to justify the cost and he would have been unlikely to accept even a low offer in preference to his existing offers. The fifth he was quite keen on, but the interview date clashed with some internal coursework and he decided he couldn't justify the time; interestingly they then made him an offer without interviewing. Friends of his say the same thing, you can sometimes phone up and ask if they will consider offering without an interview. Of course if an interview is likely to lower the offer, and you need to get the offer as low as you can, then it is a risky strategy.

Also remember, that studying away for 3 years will involve a lot of trips to and from uni. If that journey is particularly expensive it is going to cost you money in the long term.