MA - is this feasible?

anewman

I'm sure you could live for much less than £8k in leeds. £50 a week can get you somewhere decent I would say, but it's luck of the draw really as to whether you end up somewhere crap, or somewhere where you have no problems at all. If you go to stay near the university itself in the bits popular with students near the Hyde Park, and Headingly areas parts of that can be a rough area. However, there are plenty of places away from the city centre that are within easy public transport distance (I do not recommend driving to Leeds Universities as there simply is nowhere to park, and anywhere there is will cost more than public transport would to get there).

Most council houses are around £50 a week and some can be in good areas. Only problem is your chance of getting one is pretty small as all the pregnant single mothers with 5 kids and asylum seekers get first pick so you'd be on a waiting list for months on end.

DrFluffy

rubuhoeikanaika wrote:

Seriously? Is that for an academic year or a calendar year?

In London it's a case of £95-120 rent pw in a private house isn't it?

rubu

Academic year, comfortably, calender year at a stretch.

I live in Central London and get by (term time) on just over £7k... I work in the summer which easily covers these two months.

rubuhoeikanaika

DrFluffy wrote:

Academic year, comfortably, calender year at a stretch.

I live in Central London and get by (term time) on just over £7k... I work in the summer which easily covers these two months.

Are you including the christmas and easter vacations in the academic year? Or just term time proper?

rubuhoeikanaika

anewman wrote:

I'm sure you could live for much less than £8k in leeds. £50 a week can get you somewhere decent I would say, but it's luck of the draw really as to whether you end up somewhere crap, or somewhere where you have no problems at all. If you go to stay near the university itself in the bits popular with students near the Hyde Park, and Headingly areas parts of that can be a rough area. However, there are plenty of places away from the city centre that are within easy public transport distance (I do not recommend driving to Leeds Universities as there simply is nowhere to park, and anywhere there is will cost more than public transport would to get there).

Most council houses are around £50 a week and some can be in good areas. Only problem is your chance of getting one is pretty small as all the pregnant single mothers with 5 kids and asylum seekers get first pick so you'd be on a waiting list for months on end.

Sweet, that's really helpful - thanks.

I'm fairly hopeful that I can get a couple of grand in grants etc, and possibly a tuition fee bursary. I'll have to borrow some, but it does look feasible.

kittiwoz

I don't know about Leeds and Sheffield but you can definitely get a house share in Manchester for £50 a week that would be pretty decent. If you're prepared to put up with somewhere that's pokey and a bit of a hole you could get somewhere for much less. £90 a week would put you in "luxury student accommodation" i.e. tiny room in huge private halls with a corner taken out for a loo and shower to make it even tinier and make your room smell because there is no extraction but you don't have to mix with the great unwashed who can't afford £90 a week rent. I don't think you could find a house share at £90 a week if you tried. You could get a two or three bedroom flat for less than that (per head) though it would be possible to pay that much on a two bedroom flat in an upmarket area. I wouldn't imagine it is much different in Leeds or Sheffield.

I think your estimate for living cost seems high if it is just you. I would say £5,000 would be reasonable (at least in Manchester and I'm assuming in other areas in the North) if you were careful with your money. I think you could do it on less if you really pulled your belt tight.

DrFluffy

rubuhoeikanaika wrote:

Are you including the christmas and easter vacations in the academic year? Or just term time proper?

Including Easter and Christmas. On my course, we 'only' get 2 weeks at christmas and 2 weeks at Easter, so no time to get work, therefore this has to come out of my 'academic year' money...

Ignatius_J._Reilly

studentphil wrote:

Most of the chaper housing goes now(Feb/ March) for next year. Plus, 50 quid will not get you anywhere decent to be honest.

I lived in a £50p/w house in Leeds last year which was decent!

Voyager2002

No: your plan is not feasible. You need to study full-time for an MA, and cannot possibly do the course justice if you need a part-time job. The work-load for an MA is really demanding, and continues through the vacations as well, right up to when you hand in your thesis at the end of the summer.

The only good thing is that since you are putting all your energy into studying, you don't have any opportunity to spend money and so will live failry cheaply. When I did my MSc I managed to claim benefit and at the end of the year I had actually saved quite a bit out of it!

Anyway, sort out some loans or whatever so that you can just study full time, and then enjoy the course.

midlandsfairy

Hi rubuhoeikanaika

I would just point out that its best not to rely on any bursaries, hardship or access funds etc. I had a couple of friends at uni who decided to do over spend and then apply for the hardship fund... low and behold neither of them got it!! your chances also go down if you are doing a post grad course of any kind as there is more money floating around to help those to get a first/undergrad degree.

My OH is hoping to start an MA this year and the budget is £7000 for living expenses etc (everything not including fees). This is round about what we both lived on a couple of years ago as undergrads and we have very carefully planned and prepped for what a MA will involve (loss of earning, fees, living expenses etc etc)

As DrFluffy, anewman, Voyager2002 and studentphil have pointed out, there are time considerations to be thought about that will restrict how much you can work outside of your MA

Good luck with it all by the way!

HTH.

kittymary

I did the Philosophy MA at Sheffield, they are a really good department, and are very good at supporting their postgrads, particularly when it comes to funding. They have some of their own funding on offer, and are considered to be fairly good at helping their students get AHRC funding. On the other hand, they are fairly competitive just for getting a place on the course, let alone the funding, so make sure your writing sample is really good.

I would strongly advise checking out what funding the departments you have applied to have on offer, many places will give you at least a fee waiver if they like you, and I'm sure Sheffield can't be the only philosophy department to offer it's own funding. Get in touch with the departments you have applied to, ask if you can visit a class, or if they have one, the postgraduate seminar, get your face known, and make sure you make it clear in your application why what they have to offer particularly suits what you are looking for.

I have to agree with previous posters that it would be a challenge to hold down a job while doing your MA. The amount of reading required is far greater than for undergraduate study, and an 8000 word MA level essay takes far more work than 4x2000 word undergrad essays. Also, you will get more out of it if you really immerse yourself in the life of the philosophy postgrad, getting involved in the extra things offered in your department, like reading groups, extra seminars, a bit of part-time teaching if you're offered it, and spending time with your fellow postgrads. you might even find the time to get work on a paper for publication, or give a paper at a conference, both of which would be useful when applying for the PhD funding, not to mention your future career in philosophy, if that is what you are aiming for.

Have you considered studying part-time? You would then have enough time to work, and the fees would be split over the 2 years. It's not an ideal way of doing it, but better than working while studying full time.

Being a philosophy postgrad is great, I'm really grateful that I had the opportunity to do my MA, even if in the end I decided that the PhD was not what I wanted to do just yet. I hope you manage to get some funding sorted out,

Good luck!

Kitty