Your thoughts on university

whodathunkit

stebiz wrote: »

Let them be who they want to be Claire. If they want to go let them. If they want to stay at home and study let them. Be there for them.

My daughter went to a Grammar school and left in 6th form. She got Top grades in her GCSE's (All A's and A*s) but she also found that most of the kids were so far up their own backside because Mummy and Daddy wanted the best Red Brick Uni for them, little did they know that the decisions were being made for them.

Mine is now doing a couple of years at College for her A levels and then who knows. Too much pressure on them. Let them enjoy life. Seeing how some of those snotty kids are coming out of school thinking how better they are than others puts me off this education upper class altogether.

A down to earth guy/girl with morals and a steady average job or a Osborne/Cameron daughter/son, with I'm so much better than you attitude, I know what I'd prefer.

Oh and incidentally I left with 1 O'level in the 1980's have a great wife, lovely kids, new car, a few houses I rent out.

All good, but no mention of a job.

stebiz

whodathunkit wrote: »

All good, but no mention of a job.

I work for myself at home but with rental income I don't really need to as the properties are unencumbered and were by the time I reached 40.

VJsmum

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

Not all parents fund living expenses!

No, but we will have to.

The other issue is that it is rumoured that the £9000 cap on fees will be lifted to make it unlimited. It really will come down to the money then.

Might be good news for my Uni though where we will not be able to charge what we like as the laws of supply / demand will be against us. Also, for a vocational course like mine it might be even better news - one of my sales pitch lines to prospective new students is "You will be paying your fees back, because you will earn enough." Our average graduate salary last year was £27,000 pa - admittedly that figure is swayed by part time students working in the industry. At various drama school open days, my DD was told "DOn't worry about the fees, most of you will never earn enough to pay them back" :cool:

Buzzybee90

VJsmum wrote: »

No, but we will have to.

The other issue is that it is rumoured that the £9000 cap on fees will be lifted to make it unlimited. It really will come down to the money then.

Might be good news for my Uni though where we will not be able to charge what we like as the laws of supply / demand will be against us. Also, for a vocational course like mine it might be even better news - one of my sales pitch lines to prospective new students is "You will be paying your fees back, because you will earn enough." Our average graduate salary last year was £27,000 pa - admittedly that figure is swayed by part time students working in the industry. At various drama school open days, my DD was told "DOn't worry about the fees, most of you will never earn enough to pay them back" :cool:

You never have to.

theoretica

To give a very different experience and family background from some on here, I come from a family where everyone goes to university. It never occured to me to discuss whether I would or not - I didn't know of anything else I wanted to do so I went. The discussions were on the relative merits of Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial and which STEM subject would I enjoy more. For me university was a wonderful place to spend eight years while I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I don't need to justify why I chose to go - people don't ask! When I finally left, it was a combination of my academic experience and holiday job which got me a very sought after position. I am sure I could earn much more in a different field, but doubt I would enjoy doing so as much.

ciderwithrosie_2

claire21 wrote: »

Ciderwithrosie

Your son knew what he wanted to do and what he needs to get. That sounds great.

I have a fear of them not having a clue what they want to do (like me at 18) so how are they ment to decide what they want to do at uni if they go?

I can see the more I write the more I think how I was back then and perhaps wrongly think my kids will be the same as me.

It's only really in the last year he's decided on what he wants to do and what he needs to do to get there. He really disliked the whole school experience from day1 and although he always went with no problems, there were lots of detentions, phone calls and meetings - we were all so relieved when he left and managed to do well enough in his GCSEs to get him onto a BTEC extended diploma at college. He always said he was going to be a chef, then went for an open day thing and decided it wasn't for him, so had to choose something else. He went for graphic design, as he's always been creative, just didn't take art as a GCSE.

Near the end of the second year he discovered a passion and natural talent for special effects make up and prosthetics and that has been his goal ever since. I don't know whether it'll be to his advantage or not that there are only about half a dozen universities in the country offering this sort of course, and he's been offered Bournemouth and Birmingham on the proviso he passes the Foundation art course he's on now (a sort of one year stepping stone course, where you get to specialise in your chosen media and build up your portfolio). Bournemouth is really hard to get into and so we were really chuffed he got an offer.

However, the halls are about £450 a month, they want about £900 for equipment/course materials during the first year and he needs a laptop and all his household stuff yet. I've estimated we'll be funding him about £250 a month on top of his maintenance loan and very small grant. He's got a job in a nightclub at the moment and will probably need to pick up some work while he's there if he wants any sort of social life or new clothes!

CH27

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

It's only really in the last year he's decided on what he wants to do and what he needs to do to get there. He really disliked the whole school experience from day1 and although he always went with no problems, there were lots of detentions, phone calls and meetings - we were all so relieved when he left and managed to do well enough in his GCSEs to get him onto a BTEC extended diploma at college. He always said he was going to be a chef, then went for an open day thing and decided it wasn't for him, so had to choose something else. He went for graphic design, as he's always been creative, just didn't take art as a GCSE.

Near the end of the second year he discovered a passion and natural talent for special effects make up and prosthetics and that has been his goal ever since. I don't know whether it'll be to his advantage or not that there are only about half a dozen universities in the country offering this sort of course, and he's been offered Bournemouth and Birmingham on the proviso he passes the Foundation art course he's on now (a sort of one year stepping stone course, where you get to specialise in your chosen media and build up your portfolio). Bournemouth is really hard to get into and so we were really chuffed he got an offer.

However, the halls are about £450 a month, they want about £900 for equipment/course materials during the first year and he needs a laptop and all his household stuff yet. I've estimated we'll be funding him about £250 a month on top of his maintenance loan and very small grant. He's got a job in a nightclub at the moment and will probably need to pick up some work while he's there if he wants any sort of social life or new clothes!

That's roughly what we've had to do this year.

nickj_2

whodathunkit wrote: »

Not everybody wants to work in business, much less work for themselves. The people you mention are the exceptions, not the norm.

they may not be the norm , but it does prove that a degree isn't the be all and end if you want to get on in life ,

DUKE

Some people at the top get there because of who they know rather than what they know.

angelil

Is nobody else here worried about the attitude to debt shown on this thread (especially given the main aim of this website)?

Can it really be good for the economy to have so many people taking out loans that they (and the Student Loans Company) know they will be highly unlikely to ever repay? I don't think so. Personally, I'm just waiting for the implosion.