University costs - how much?

racing_blue

If I wanted to pay it all for 1 child at a top deck uni:

4 year course
fees
accomodation
living costs

what should I budget?

cheers

realaledrinker

My son is now in yr 2 of a 4 year course at Bath.

Year 1 fees £3.375 - now £9,000!!
Year 1 accom £3,900 (no meals); now paying £335/m in a flat plus utilities
Year 1 set up costs - laptop, printer. Has to be a Mac Book Pro so say £1,500
Year 1 everything else £4,400 - food, books, transport incl home visits, booze, girls, etc. (There is immense peer pressure in Year 1 to get smashed on a regular basis hence budget high)

I have budgeted year 2 & 4 as above - not working out too bad thus far.

Year 3 is a problem as he is spending a year abroad - could vary from no cost if he lands the plum placement with a major insurer in Buenos Aires to ??? if he ends up at a Uni in Spain (where the Erasmus grant of €400/m kicks in)

Sorry for the ramblings but a decent google should fill in the gaps.

We had been putting £150/m aside in an endowment which paid out £33k so hopefully will not get spanked too badly at the end of it all. BUT Now have the worry of putting a 14 year old through Uni, where we haven't had the same foresight!

Sobraon

For DD2=>£50K

cannyscot_2

Our eldest started at Cambridge this year. 3 year course so bit cheaper. Basic would be 27K fees and 22.5K for 3 years costs plus about 1k for start up and other stuff.


So above is for 3 years -you would have to factor in the 4th year-depends on what it entails-many 4th years mean they can earn depends on the course.

DragonQ

I broke even without a job at uni (student loans at the end roughly equalled what I had in the bank). Since I had £6k grants per year I guess that's how much I spent.

But I'm a tight git.

unimaginative_user_name

Before you agree to pay all uni costs yourself it's worth looking at the student finance section on the main site. You could end up paying more than your child would have to pay back in loan repayments. What sort of career is your child hoping for?

It might be better if you want to help your child financially to give them a deposit for a house once they've left uni. So few young people have enough for a deposit these days but can afford student loan repayments so it might be a better way to go.

Masomnia

Totally agree with UUN. If my mum had the money to pay me through uni, I'd have asked her to give me the money towards a deposit instead. But then you have to do what's best for you.

kidmugsy

Wasn't it MSE who argued that the way to look at student loans is not as conventional loans but instead as a device for exposing the borrower to a higher rate of income tax for part of his life?

mike88

If I had to fork out this kind of money I would insist that they studied for something that would lead to a career. Courses such as media studies, drama and even traditional subjects like history and geography are not particularly likely to help secure a job after graduation.

grey_gym_sock

mike88 wrote: »

If I had to fork out this kind of money I would insist that they studied for something that would lead to a career. Courses such as media studies, drama and even traditional subjects like history and geography are not particularly likely to help secure a job after graduation.

so if you were my parent, you wouldn't have paid for my philosophy degree. which would have been a mistake, financially as well as in other ways.

if you force them to do a degree they don't want to do, they might as well forget it and get a paid job right away.

real1314

mike88 wrote: »

If I had to fork out this kind of money I would insist that they studied for something that would lead to a career. Courses such as media studies, drama and even traditional subjects like history and geography are not particularly likely to help secure a job after graduation.

A 1st or a 2:1 in any subject will be worth more than a 3rd (or a fail/drop-out) in a specific subject for many careers , and whilst some degrees might seem more appropriate to come careers, it's not necessarily so.


e.g
Government Accountants:- any degree at 2:2 as a minimum
http://www.thegfp-treasury.org/finance/graduate_recruitment.aspx

Law Profession:- takes 1 year extra for non-law degrees than for law degrees (or the same if you have to re-take a year of your law degree).
http://www.lawsociety.org.uk/careers/becoming-a-solicitor/

It would make sense to think carefully about the balance between the likely achievement and the potential for employment as interacting factors.
:cool: