Student loan. no really it is the best thing you can do for yourself.

you said you're not entitled to financial aid? do you think this is because your parents (may) earn alot?

you can a get a "non-means tested" loan which basically gives you the full amount without taking your parents' earnings into account, its a good way.

also, if your parents aren't actually earning that much you can get a £1000 grant (non repayable) to aid. again if you are staying in London to study your loan amount will also be higher :)

as for repaying the loan; don't ever panic about that...

put it this way; i've started "re-payments on mine..." or i would do, but this is the thing; it is paid back directly out of whatever pay you earn, like PAYE tax, and on top of that, if you're not earning over a certain amount/ year you dont even start to pay.

for example: i am working 20 hours a week at £6.50/hour, not the greatist money i'll grant you, but it pays my rent, food bills and still leaves me with money to play with. My Partner (BF) works 40 hours a week at just over Nat. Min wage; he gets paid just under a grand a month (after tax :( )
Neither of us earn enough to start repayments. last i heard you need to be earning over 16k/year to even START repaying, and even then i's means tested, so you wouldn't lose more that a few pounds a week, its less than tax and Nat Insurance.... (and I'm STILL waiting for my £900 rebate from last year >.> )

not only all this, but if you still havn't paid back your loan by the time you hit 35 /40 (that kinda time) it gets written off. seriously.


the student loan really is the best loan you will EVER get; its a low interest, gets taken minimally and doesn't affect your credit rating...


And on top of the loan, do you know about student accounts at banks? you can start one while you're still in college, with a £1000 non chargeable overdraft, and that increases every year you're in Uni... yea, i know, Debt = Bad, but this is useful; for a student, being in debt is beyond the norm, and the only time you get in trouble is if you go overdrawn on your overdraft (yes, people do it...)
after you finish uni, the over draft will slowly shrink, so you need to keep up on it, but that happens over about 5 years, so it's manageable :)


have a shop around with banks, and see if you can talk to a financial advisor, it think you need to now...



(and yes, the job situation sucks, it's why i'm holding on to mine with my teeth... the other girls i work with have all had their hours cut to practically 0; i got smart and got me a min. hour contract last year...)
but don't forget; alot of bars around your chosen Uni will be hiring temps in and so on, so get applications in there, as soon as freshers' is over ;)

can i ask, where are you planning to go? :)


Wow... i ranted :eek:


Mod mode: Theif, Keaton. Pack it in both of you, or you'll both have an Infraction.

LOL, who would marry you?

See this is the thing that annoys me... my parents money has NOTHING to do with me. I don't take money from my parents. I'm not sure what they earn now, all I know is it totals above £60,000, not including taxes. My parents money is not my money, I have no money therefore I am poor :p

Also, what they don't take into account is how many brothers/sisters you have. I have 2 brothers. Maybe my parents could afford to pay for me, but a) I'm not going to take any money off them because it's not mine, and b) if they have to pay for me they have to pay for my brothers too. That's why I want a job. I want to pay at least some rent and for my own food.

So in the end I'm not entitled to anything... and I don't get money off my parents either. I'm not poor enough to receive benefits and they aren't rich enough to pay for me... Looks like I get the bad end of the stick financially.

Though of course that is not to say I don't appreciate my home life at all.

Thankyou soooo much Gwen that is extremely helpful!

I'm going to Bradford, since it's the closest and it's pretty decent.

(post deleted)

Id say sign up for loans and grants, my parents dont make a great deal of money and neighter do I, but Im gonna have to make that work somehow and and Art school is hella expensive, so I will be paying those loans back forever but it will be worth it, once i have a career. ^_^ I still have to move and everything to start school forget to mention that, so I still have those other fee's.

haha, living away from home was the reason i went to uni! xD

and its not benefits like state benefits; its a loan... leaving home to scam benefits would only result in her have even less money :p

crap; i can understand that is ALOT

but the course should be able to provide some of the equipment.. most proper courses (at art & design Universities at least) have stuff students can use, on a loan like the libraries...

that and the computers (/macs) at the course should surely have said programme on them for you to use there?

you'd still need to buy it after the course, but it gives you more time to save up for it... also look into "Student" licensing on some software; Adobe does it, i got CS2 for £300 (normal rrp; £500/£600)

if your course can't provide any of that for you then look elsewhere, other ones might be able to

No I know you weren't having a go, I go into rant mode at the whole system when I just think about it haha xD

Seems we are both in trouble. I also need to fork out for the computer, the software, A LOT of software [Maya, Zbrush, 3DSMax etc.] I'm using student learning editions but I can't have the Maya logo slapped all over my final project :/ I did a photography course, I can see where you were coming from, when he told me how much the camera I was holding cost I was mortified haha!

My friends for some reason are not bothered about the whole money thing.

Maybe I should just chill out but I want to be ready and clued up about the whole thing!