One thing I found when I was at Uni.. my bedroom was spotless during exam week cause I would rather do that than study hahahahaha
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One thing I found when I was at Uni.. my bedroom was spotless during exam week cause I would rather do that than study hahahahaha
yeah mine to, and that you would do anything rather than study unless it is the night before the exam
Textbooks, dont make good pillows, i discovered this last night again! i really must learn to stop doing it.
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Originally Posted by Siobhan
yeh i agree, the whole house is spotless when theres work due!Quote:
Originally Posted by Katy
Thats true for me now!Quote:
Originally Posted by Abi
What kind of accomdation are most of you in and what would you recomend?
Caterd? self catered?
en suite? shared?
I'm ensuite, self catered. There's five of us in a flat sharing a kitchen.
I'd recommend houses as opposed to traditional halls. They're more sociable as there are more people around and you can just pop next door. Here we have loads of security things so we can't just pop across the court and knock on someone's door. And you also get post delivered to your house :p
A typical house has 5-6 bedrooms, a kitchen/diner/living area, bath, shower and two toilets. You sacrifice floor space if you go in ensuite.
The traditional halls here have up to 12 people sharing a kitchen, three showers and three toilets.
I wouldn't go for catered halls because the canteens are generally only open weekdays and if you don't have breakfast or all meals every day then you're wasting money. I know Bristol catered halls don't have a cooker, just a microwave and sink.
Most unis offer a meal ticket option for self catered. Here its £35 for ten meals a week. A meal is a main, pudding and regular sized drink.
Depends if you can cook or can be bothered to cook. There's always the takeaway if you don't feel like it.
If you go self catering, paper plates and bowls all the way :thumbsup:
I'm in a self-catered en-suite halls. There are 5 of us in this flat, and 11 flats on a floor. The flats vary from 4-7 people in each. I would def recommend this set up because you have your privacy in your flat, and know your flatmates inside out. But you also know every other person on the floor, and can just go and knock and see whos in when you feel like it.
Don't do self-catered. Everyone hates it. Plus cooking becomes a very social thing here.
Yeah, cooking is a bonding exercise in the first few weeks. Highly recommended as a way to get to know your flatmates and what foods they like.
Yeah at first I thought catered cos I dont want to worry about money and stuff but im starting to think more towards sefl catered
Im just so worried about money, my mums like 'you better get a job, cos what are you gonna live off'
I have no idea where to look about loan information and what I get
Abbie, don't worry about getting a job. I know a few people who have jobs but they are locals and it makes sense for them to keep their jobs. The majority of students here don't have jobs. It will depend on how much you get for your loan and the cost of living at your uni as to if you need a job.
Don't stress about it, my mum was the same until I gave her all the info on grants, loans and bursaries. BTW, every university has to give a bursary to students who are paying the full £3k+ tuition fees. It's means tested but you will get something. You should get your full entitlement through around July and your accommodation allocation when you confirm in August so you can budget then.
On the student loans company website, there is a calculator that can estimate how much loan and grant you will get. As your dad is a lecturer I don't think you will get the full grant (was about £2500 for this year for earnings under £15k) but if your parents earn less than £60000 pa then you will get a partial grant.
Set up a student account at a bank that offers 0% interest on a decent sized overdraft and will convert to a graduate account after you graduate (no interest on grad accts). I'm with HSBC and I've got a £1k 0% overdraft, which goes up every September by about £1k to a max of £7k in the fifth year.
Ok some of that makes sense to me, Im not good with numbers and banks, thats why im trying to read up on the stuff now, so I will finally understand it when the time comes :p
I manage to live off my loan and i have been self catered, i find it easier as sometimes we share food and cook together.
Last year there were 12 of us to a kitchen, it was interesting to say the least, this year in the house it is a bit less hectic!
Shop around with your student account. Don't go for the freebies, they are usually rubbish deals. And stay away from the Halifax. They messed me around like nobody's business charging me for unauthorised overdrafts when it was their fault.
in my first year i was self catered with shared facilities with 5 of us in a house. i definitely think self catered is best as you can cook what you want and as others have said its very socialable, and also i went to eat a few times with friends who were in catered and the food was disgusting! also, it might differ slightly from uni to uni, but at my uni if youre in catered you only got breakfast and half a main meal paid for or no breakfast and a full main meal paid for during the week and only breakfast at weekends which isnt good when the size of the catered kitchens here were the same size as the cupboard in my house and only had a microwave, sink and small fridge for 8 of them!
i think it depends whether shared or ensuite is best, the house ive been in the past 2yrs is ensuite and i absolutely love it as i can get up as late as i want for my lectures and not have to worry about someone else being in the bathroom and spend as long as i like in there and not worry about other people needing to use it. although i had shared facilities in my first year, there was 5 of us sharing a shower and 2 toilets, which worked out quite well seeing as mostly we didnt all have early lectures at the same time. if you are thinking about having shared facilities id definitely recommend looking at what they are like first as some unis i looked at the bathrooms were disgusting and shared with lots of people and the halls at my uni have horrible bathrooms as well but luckily the ones in the houses were nice and we had a cleaner once a week so you didnt have to clean the bathroom after everyone else had used it. id say definitely dont rule out shared facilities straight away before youve had a look at the accomodation, as although i wanted ensuite to start with, it was a lot more expensive (it was over £1000 more expensive at my uni) and as long as the bathroom is nice and theres not too many of you sharing then its not as bad as you might first think, especially as i managed to cope being the only girl sharing with 4 boys for the whole year! id definitely recommend going self catered though unless the catering at the uni you want to go to is excellent!
i agree about the jobs. most people i know dont have jobs and we havent starved yet! the few people i know who have jobs, although they have more money, are always so stressed cos they dont have time to do everything. ive found as well that its easy to earn extra cash by helping the pyschology students with their experiments (can get between £2 - £5 for a 20min experiment, some even pay £20 for 1hr!) and you can get paid £5 an hour for doing campus tours when needed or even just staying in your room all day while campus tours are happening so people can look at what your rooms like, so you might have something like that at the uni you go to if you ever need to earn a bit of extra moneyQuote:
Originally Posted by Abigail
Don't stress about it, my mum was the same until I gave her all the info on grants, loans and bursaries. BTW, every university has to give a bursary to students who are paying the full £3k+ tuition fees. It's means tested but you will get something. You should get your full entitlement through around July and your accommodation allocation when you confirm in August so you can budget then.[/QUOTE]
when did that come about, the university bursary thing? do you have to apply to the uni directly or should you just automatically get it? as i dont think ive had it, unless ive just not noticed!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Abigail
i agree with that. my overdraft is either £1.5k or £2k and interest free, and is definitely very useful having it! although some banks dont just give the overdraft to you, you have to ask for it when you set up the account, as my housemate has had problems trying to get hers changed as she didnt originally ask for the full overdraft and so only got given £100, dont know what bank that was though. also, although most of the free deals are rubbish or not that useful in the long run, its worth looking at them as some might be benefitical to you, i get a free railcard with mine every year and for the next 2 years after i graduate which gives me a third off of all train journeys which is good for me as i use the train a lot, although obviously worthless to people who dont!Quote:
Originally Posted by Abigail
It's on the last page of the loan application form about bursaries. Don't tick the box, then the SLC will send details of your loan and parent's income to the university, who will then assess how much bursary you receive.Quote:
Originally Posted by di marco
I don't know if it's just for 2008 students onwards. Ask your student services about it. Ours are paid in two instalments at the end of Feb and end of March.
Bursaries differ between each university, actually. We get payments in December and April, for a start. Also, you apply to the university directly when you get here, whether you ticked that box or not. You give your name in, they look up your details, and send you a letter telling you how much they will pay you - Its very easy.
We give student bursaries to a variety of students and some are not means tested.
They are generally for £1000 a year and are paid in monthly installments direct into bank accounts.
students have to apply at the time of accepting a place directly to the University.
I work at a University in Edinburgh, so the system will be different to most English universities.
thanks everyone :) i might ask my housemates and see if they knew about it/got any money and then go and see the people who sort out the bursaries and stuff on campus and ask them
You spend so much time travelling on trains that you know the exact times between stations and could do the conductor's job for him.
I love this thread! Just been reading the tips and observations and thought I would dig it back up...
I can't wait for uni now. I am so excited but I am really nervous too!
I think I worked out that I can spend like £30 a week or something like that as a reasonable budget.
i'd advise having a bit more put aside for September as you always spend more, textbooks, joining clubs, freshers week.
yeh i agree. some weeks you will need more than that, like katy said freshers week and also near xmas and end of year. though some weeks ive got by on £10 so spending more on some weeks wont matter
With regards to those, only buy the core books for your course that you will use for the whole three years. The rest you can get from the library and there's no point spending good money on books that you will only use for one module.Quote:
Originally Posted by Katy
Also, your university might have a e-library facility where the books are online. At Staffs we have access to four or five online ebook sites with millions of books. TBH, I've only used it once as it's a right faff and I prefer real books to a monitor when looking things up.
The module leader for one of my modules insisted we all buy a particular textbook, which was around 40 quid, for a 12 week module. I kept refusing to fork out so much when a) it wasn't necessary; b) I wouldn't use it; c) I can get it from the library. Stupid woman :rolleyes:
So yeah, don't buy text books straight away. Your lecturers will let you know which they reference from most often and which you will get most use out of.
yeah definitly buy them after you start. Also try second hand, i put all mine on amazon and buy them from there to, most are in great condition and are really cheap in comparasion to what you usually would.
Thanks for the tips! I will try and save more money then so I can spend more than £30 a week :D
I was thinking of buying some books after I get my results.. but I might not bother now or if I do, I will get them second hand. I think some of the second year students are offering to sell their books to first years, so I might see if I can get some of the core books from them.
yeah thats a good idea davey, spent an absolute fortune my first year and some of them i never even looked at.
The max i spent on a book last year was probably a fiver and it was rrp at 45 quid, because it was second hand. There are usually notice boards in the librarys where other students advertise there old books. I was spoeaking to my friend yesterday and he is going for the first time in september and the excitements kicking in.
I just cant believe how fast it has gone.
Ah ok, I'll have a look in the library when I get there as well :) What uni is your friend hoping to go to? The excitement is kicking in for me now as well - after some initial doubts, now it is so near.. I just want to get there. I still am nervous as well but it's a mixture of nerves and excitement.
hes going to nottingham. the nerves will soon pass im sure once your there. I found i was too busy to be nervous!Quote:
Originally Posted by DaVeyWaVey
although textbooks are often in the library, before you dont buy any and assume you will be able to get them from the library check out how many copies the library actually has. as the library at my uni sometimes only has 1 or 2 copies and so unless you are really organised and get the book out a few months before a deadline/exam you might not be able to get hold of it
Okay, so I have 2 years to go at college before I start Uni but I'm looking around on the internet and have ordered a few prospectuses, just for a bit of research really, but I'm just wondering does anybody go to Liverpool University? I'm curious about it because me and a friend are planning on going to the same uni and getting a flat together because a relative of hers owns some houses around the area and we can get it for cheaper and that. Also I've had a career change I think. I was gonna do midwifery but I plan on moving to the states when i'm done studying and the midwife part is not the same over there as here and so it'd be hard to get a job where I'd understand it all properly so i'm thinking that i'm gonna do my nursing degree first so I can cover all the different aspects and maybe even choose a different branch. But anyways, yeah I was just wondering if anybody went to Liverpool?
thankyouu
Do you mean Liverpool John Moors?
I've been doing a bit of research on nursing and LJM comes 13th in the top 20 in the country according to the Independent (24th April 08)
In the Guardian league tables for 2010, LJM comes second from bottom (72)
If you are really serious about moving to America after you graduate, you'd be better applying for the top five or top ten universities. York, Leeds and Sheffield are all excellent unis (not the metropolitan ones) and easy to get to. Also, find out if employers over there prefer diplomas or degrees.
After you graduate, you could do a shortened midwifery course (about 18 months).
Most universities have two intakes of nursing students in January and September each year
Thanks for that.:D It's not the John Moores one it's University of Liverpool.
Obv it's still early but like I say I wanna get some info before I start really considering places. When do you start like going for open days and that? Do you do it first year of college because a few people I know are in their first year and have already said they've been and decided where they want to go.
You can go visit at any pont. Most universities have open days every week, usually on Wednesday and Saturday throughout the year.
Also, I forgot to mention. Don't choose a university just because your friend is and you can get cheap housing. A good degree from a good university is more important than saving a few grand over the duration of your course. There's no guarantees that you will both get offers and both get the results needed to go, especially if you are applying for something as competitive as nursing and other medicine courses.
Yeah, that's what i've been thinking, I did have UoL as an option before she mentioned she was gonna try and get in here, my second choice if I don't get in is one closer to home so I can still live at home.Quote:
Originally Posted by Abigail
Thanks for the info
like abigail said, dont go to a uni cos your friend is going. if its still the uni you want to go to after youve looked round some then obviously that would be good but dont rule others out til youve seen them. also even though quite a lot of unis have open days throughout the year, quite a lot of unis have their big open days in october so if you wanna start looking early you might wanna see when the unis will be having theirs. also even though you can go anytime, remember that as you wont be going to uni for a few years some of the info you get given might be slightly different from what it would be when you get there as it wont be catered for your year (if that makes sense). also maybe have a look on american job websites to see what sort of qualifications the jobs over there require. its good that youre thinking about it early though
Im looking forward to it now but Im also for the first time starting to feel really nervous, I dunno, everything just feels a bit surreal at the moment
Nervous is good in a way though i suppose, where is it your going again?Quote:
Originally Posted by Abbie
Your all have a great time when you get there, and it will go so quickly i remember posting on here how nervous i was, cant believe i am going to be in my third year!
I think its nervous in a good way, I cant really tell at the moment, it doesnt help that I just got back from holiday and need to get back to normal, but there is no normal since its still a long summer and Im sort of inbetween education if you know what I mean
Exeter.......well hopefully