How much Money for a Mature Student...

Wiggynut

I have another thread on this forum but as this is a different subject (good advice on UCAS info) I figured I should start another.

I've done a search and didn't find anything similar. (the others were single parents or had parents themselves etc).

I would like clear advice and what other mature students have gone through in connection with Maintenance Grants, Bursury's, student loans etc.

I'm in London - no family, kids etc, no savings
(fyi: 'free' meaning that I do not have to pay that back!)

ie: Max Student Loan per year £6,475 have to pay back
HE maintenance Grant £2,085 'free'
bursury for university: aprox: £300 ? depends but free?

(Fees: (depends on course I guess?) £3,000 have to pay back)



so if I take the max student loan per year (I will try and work in holidays etc and possibly part time job too but just in case - worst case senario) then I will have approx: £8,860 to live on.

Rent will be approx: £4,600 per year £4,260 for food, clothing, books etc.

I would prefer not to take out the maximum student loan as I will have £10,000 worth of debt just for the course fees (which scares the 'cripe' out of me - I once owed £8,000 but I was working and getting paid monthly but that was scary and never want to do again :rolleyes: ).

If I add the max student loan on top I could end up with £30,000 - will be renting rooms for the rest of my life I guess

I doubt I'll be able to save anything for uni either as I currently owe £2,500 and need to pay that in the next 7 months - might have to move twice too - and my job could end anytime as the company might be going bust - temp contract so no 'rights'.

can anyone who is a mature student let me know what they did or give some advice to a nervous and not particulary confident newbie entering the student 'world'?
I'm trying to find out as much as I can so that my over active imagination will shut up and can concentrate on what I actually need to do and feel some what in control.

:cool:

impy78

Hi there, it's me again.

Well.

I didn't really get that much help to be honest, but that because I did a private arts course with no recoginsed qualification at the end, so that could be different now.

I wasn't eligible for a student loan, due to the above, and our school didn't qualify for the DADAs (Dance and Drama awards) until halfway though our course!

I received a scholarship/bursary of £3k from the school, and I raised £3k myself through sponsorship, fundraising events and a website myself.


Altogether the course itself was £13k and then it probably cost me £11k for the year living in london (but that was walking to school every day, plus I was living with non students, so I still had to pay council tax).

I ended up having to get a loan with a guarrantor, as i was rejected for a career development loan.

What course are you doing though? There are lots of independant awards depending on what you are studying

Wiggynut

hiya

I want to do Digital Media as I've worked and trained myself as a photographic Retoucher, worked in typesetting, DTP, film etc... so it matches my interests etc... I've always wanted to study... never too late and all that!

I've just had a go on the student finance calculator and it comes up with:

'Maintenance Loan £4,855
fee loan of up to £3,145 (subject to the cost of your course).

depending on circumstances, the amount of maintenance grant and maintenance loan you are eligible for may change when you make your application and a full assessment has been carried out.'

I'm guessing that the 'Max Student Loan per year £6,475' that I mentioned in before is separate from the Maintenace loan but I would obviously prefer to not take out loans etc unless absolutely necessary!

so that means I could have 4,855 + (HE Grant) £2,085 + Bursury £300 = 7,240 per year... - £4,600 rent = 2,640 food, clothes etc... :eek:

*sigh* this is all very scary as I've worked and earned my own money for 21 years and if I'm skint I only have to wait a week or so to get paid... been unemployed before with no benefits but I just hibernated and only popped up to find work... really don't want to do that through Uni as the whole uni life is part of the experience and people skills etc.
I'm scarying myself... I'm still going for it though cos I'm nuts!

dmg24

Hi Wiggynut,

Could you study outside London? You would save a lot ... x

bestpud

I just wanted to mention the Hardship fund at you uni though. You can apply for help if you find things a big struggle or come across unforeseen financial problems while you are at uni - BUT only if you have accessed all other forms of funding, so you will be unable to apply if you don't take out the full student loans available to you.

Hopefully you will be fine without the full loan and without needing to apply to this fund but it's useful to know the implications at this stage I think.

Good luck with your course btw.

devils_nose

The maximum grant for 2008/09 is over £2,800 and many university bursaries are more then £300 aswell (unless you already know where you are studying and what is on offer?)

I got everything I could when I came to uni in October and I have to say I have been living on that and not much else with little problem - I work in the holidays to build up my "rainy day" fund but rarely have to dip into it. Works out at a little over £9000 per year and I'm not in London so you must have access to more than I get

I would be more wary of how you will be able to pay back the debt you have accrued before uni than that you will get from the student loans company, at least repayments of student loan are tied to your earnings so they will increase as your salary does.

Wiggynut

dmg24 wrote: »

Hi Wiggynut,

Could you study outside London? You would save a lot ... x

No - I tried leaving London but there was no work (my type of work is rare in london nowadays let alone elsewhere - I tried other jobs too - even ended up in a call centre :eek: ) so I came back to London

I will get slightly more in London but it will still work out at £9,000 with full student Loan, bursary etc.

I'm sure career development loans are not viable if you study full time as you already get the fee loan... plus I only want to borrow a small amount as I'm heading for a £20,000 - £30,000 debt which is scary enough.

will work though - I think I heard somewhere that Uni only takes up about 6 months of a year!!! so it should be fine... I just want to get as many facts as I can.

Still not heard anything from Learn Direct and I didn't get to the library last week... can go tonight though.

It will be strange not being paid each month... I usually just manage to get to the end of the month so planning for each term will be hard... well, I'm great at the planning bit... just keeping to it will be hard.
but I am mentally bored at the moment and Uni will kick start the brian into gear so I wont have to be 'entertained' by new books etc... Ie: spending money when I dont' need to.

thanks for you help - much appreciated.
:beer: