Is uni possible at 22 when you've already got debts?

[Leggy_Girl]

As the title says, i'm 21 (22 next week), have debts and commitments, but i really want to go to uni. I just want to better myself and get a career on track.

I've had other goals to focus on until now, which is why i haven't contemplated this sooner, but now i really want to go. Only problem is i have a small amount of debt i need to shift (paying off a loan monthly over 3 years) and commitments like living with my boyfriend and keeping our flat afloat.

I'm totally clueless as to how you go about financing uni. I don't know how to get a student loan, how much you need, or if it's even viable for me considering my current situation.

Can anyone give me any advice please? Is uni possible for me or would it all just cost too much? My main concern is paying back what i already owe, keeping my flat, and not making my boyfriend live a student lifestyle too.

Any help appreciated!
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"One moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world." Siddhartha Gautama

[JonB]

OK. Your existing debts wont matter. Loans are provided by the government and if you are self-sufficient you are probably more likely to receive grants.

BUT! This is completely my own opinion on this situation. I think going to uni would be a complete mistake. You are 22 now. You'd probably be 23 by the time you start uni. If it is a standard course full time you are looking at least 3 years of study. You will leave uni at 26. Then try finding a career from that and you will be in your late twenties.

TBH going to uni isn't proving as fruitful as it should be and being older isn't going to help.

What course are you thinking of taking? If it is a mickey mouse course, it will be a complete waste of time. Unless of course you have a genuine interest in a particular subject.
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[Leggy_Girl]

I really want to study Architectural Technology. So not micky mouse, but very long winded. That's my other worry. Like you say i'd be in my late twenties and years behind everyone else in the field by the time i finish. Either that or a shorter engineering course but i'd have to look into what one.

I feel like my brain is rotting right now. I love learning and i've been back at college part time since September, but i need to figure out my next steps. I need focus, direction and a clear career path. I can't see another way to achieving that right now other than uni... unless i'm over looking something obvious??
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"One moment can change a day, one day can change a life and one life can change the world." Siddhartha Gautama

[ncrn]

These are the people that will provide you with money.

As you will be classed as a mature student (IIRC) you should get the full loan allowance and grants, so you could take as much as you need.

Personally I don't think you can be to late too start uni, there is a guy on my course who is nearly 30. I'd look at it this way; if you don't do it now and you get to 30 and have a mortgage and so forth, there would be no way you could get into uni.. and at that point you may have already reached the furthest you can get in your current career path with no degree?

You don't have to do a full time degree mind, my parents both did degrees part time over a 3 year period recently; this meant a lot of work in the evenings after work but they managed to do it, it did help that me and my sister are old enough to look after ourselves mind .
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[DanceLikeAMon...]

At the grand old age of 32 I decided to start a part time degree in Business Management. I'm now just a few weeks off completing the second of three years.

Now it sounds like the degree you want to do might take more study, but mine is 3 hours of lectures a week on a Wednesday afternoon or night (your choice.) This means that I can carry on working full time - although when there's assignments to do my weekends and annual leave have been spent doing school work.

It costs me £1500 a year, and I've not had a lot of free time over the last couple of years, but it's one of the best things I've done.

If you can do it part time, I highly recommend you give it a go.

[Itchy]

Go do it, in that if you want to learn rather than do the normal university thing ie go boozing , shagging etc it might be worthwhile.

In that many universities will schedule modules in the evenings also , my economics and business classes were often at 6pm ~ 9pm with all the rest of the modules crammed in to one day so that many people could do the course on day release and still work. Meaning you can still pay the bills while you learn, though you'll have to find £3K a year to study these days, though the government will loan it to you and take a 7% cut out of your wages above 15.5K until it is paid off.

I tell you though if you do it in such a manner you can expect to lose ALOT of your social life in that if you aren't working you are studying and you get to play infrequently. All I seem to remember of my 20s was work or study work or study.
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[WildGoose]

It's not something i'd want to do at 23, but I never wanted to do it. I don't buy into the whole 'career' thing, so it was never important to me.

When I find something that interests me, I buy a book about it and teach myself, don't care for the pieces of paper.

Uni is as much about going on the piss and lifestyle as it is about learning anything these days, so if you really want to learn then surely an open university distance learning type thing would be the way to go.

I do get pangs of "i should be learning something/improving myself/achieving" etc instead of just drifting along, but I soon get over it, as long as i'm getting paid enough to get by, the world will turn. Can think of nothing worse than being tied to schoolwork and deadlines yet again.
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[LimehouseCBF]

Well im in the same boat as you, im 22 in june, and thinking of going to uni at 23, im currently in 14 grands worth of debt eeek (stupid recession/buying sexy cars and bikes grr/failing uni first time) but we learn from mistakes, im hoping to go to university in Swansea for a fresh start and study motorcycle engineering, im taking a year to clear all my dept and start again, hopefully this is a right move, and if it aint then at least you tried! So the right move might be not doing it this year - but doing it next year - at least then you can control debts and save for your first few years at uni!
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[Andy C]

A friend of mine took very extended gap years (6 or 7 in the end) and is going at 25. When your 25 your deemed as an Independent student and therefore his 'household income' will be zero (unless he gets a job) meaning he gets ~£2700 maintenance grant puls up to £1500/year bursury from the University (though these vary uni to uni).

Although that means by the time your out you will be almost 30, if the course is three years you stand to be given (free) ~£12k.
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[swampy]

I'm 34 (next week), and am just finishing my 1st year of a 4 year part time Occupational Therapy degree. I'm lucky in that I'm seconded to do it through work so I get paid a full time wage. I've got four kids and a mortgage so it would be the only way I can finance this. What I would say is that I cant believe that people are suggesting you might be over the hill at 22, and might not be able to get a career 'cos you will not be in the job market until your late 20s (shock horror !). I think most of us in our 30s would agree that it aint too late to go to uni, so you should have nothing to worry about

I woud say that for me uni is not

[iooi]

[DanceLikeAMon...]

I have no idea where you live, so this is just a random Google, but you appear to be able to do that course part time so you should check at Uni's near you:

https://www.solent.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/architectural_technology_ba_pt/course_details.aspx

So you would still have 6 days a week available for you to work on whilst you pay off your debts. Once they are paid, use your course credits to switch to the full time course.

As has been said, it'll mean bye bye to a lot of your free time, but if it was easy to get a degree and work at the same time everyone would have one.

Ignore anyone who says you are going to be starting your career too late (especially when you are still in your twenties!) because plenty of professional people move between companies and roles right up until they retire. It's normally people who haven't got the qualifications to easily change who find that once they have picked a career at 18 they are stuck in it - and I should know because for the past few years I've been one of them. I want to move into a project manager role but because I can't go in at a graduate level then my salary will effectively half as I will have to go in at a junior grade. Once I've got my BA, then my starting salary will be a much more bearable £25-30k and most graduate jobs put you on the fast track for promotion within decent companies.

[Visitor Q]

I'd worry more about the 'living at home with boyfriend' thing.

If you find a local uni, then great. It will be dull and you'll miss the point of uni (the degree is secondary, put it that way).

If you bugger off and stay in halls etc you will enjoy it far more and be more likely to stick it out/get the support needed. But you've got next to no chance of remaining together.
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[GhostRider]

[G]

Is Uni now the only way you can achieve what you want to do?
Were it me, I'd maybe look at trying to get a low job in that sector and seeing how easy it was to move up, maybe then looking at doing some sort of 'accelerated' course later on - even jumping straight into a one-year masters or similar.

[chris-red]

[_Will_]

Don't bother Imho.

If you are determined to do this a a career and are 100% committed its not impossible, if its something new to learn, there are books and the 'net.
You could try the open uni.

With the way things are going in this country you want as little debt as possible.
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[Blue_SV650S]

Ok, 'Sensible' head:-

What are the prerequisites for the course? Do you have them? If not your 3-4yr plan suddenly turns into a 5-6yr plan ... 5-6yrs will accumulate a lot of dept if you have bills to pay ...

What job do you have in mind after graduation? what is the market like in that arena?

You don't want to be slamming yourself tens of thousands in debt and have no 'career' at the end ... also your current experience will have little meaning 6yrs down the line ... so no going back ...

Neither of these are show stoppers, but needs to be carefully considered.

'Live life' head:-

If its summin you are passionate about then do it ... better to regret summin you have done and all that

If you go for it and get into a career you love, the how awesome would that be?!!?

Go for it girl!!
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[Leggy_Girl]

Thanks for all your advice so far guys

I've got so much research and thinking to do.

A part time degree or Open University would be preferable because i can study and earn at the same time then, as a lot of you have said. It's just deciding whether it'll be worth my while, effort and cash.

I'd always wanted to do a part time HNC as that's only two years and will help you go into studying a full degree if you want. Only problem is the uni expect you to already to be employed within the construction industry, which i'm not. I've tried getting in before but no one would take me without CAD experience. So i've been studying CAD at college part time for the last year and i'm going to hopefully take the advanced course this September, along with a few week long courses specific to construction. I was hoping to get some form of work experience (unpaid or otherwise) in this year too but this recession has blown my plans out of the water. No one has the spare cash or resources (that i've spoken to so far) to entertain work experience noobs, let alone give them a job where they can work their way up.

I'm not willing to give up though. I don't know if that's stupid and stubborn or grit and determination, but i want this. I thought uni might be the way forward because i could study through this 'economic blip' and hopefully have a qualification i can use when we come out of it. I know work and life experience is normally what employers look for but i would need the piece of paper that said i was qualified as well. HNC, degree or diploma.

[Visitor Q]

[TomR6]

I know it's a bit different but I got taken on as a Trainee Engineer for Local Goverment, I get ok pay and they put me through uni on day release. Might be worth looking into, It's not 100% CAD work but a big chunk of it is.

I only have decent GSCE's aswell, not even A-Levels..
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2005 Yamaha R6

[Kal]

The longer you leave it the more difficult it is to do something about it until you become unable and are left with the regret.


"Life is what happens while you busy were making other plans" which is a senitment summed up in the 13th Warrior;

"Merciful Father, I have squandered my days with plans of many things. This was not among them. But at this moment, I beg only to live the next few minutes well. For all we ought to have thought, and have not thought; all we ought to have said, and have not said; all we ought to have done, and have not done; I pray thee God for forgiveness."


It is rarely the things you did that are regrets, its the things you didn't do...



like not wiping your fingerprints off of the safe
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Kal...
I Like To Hoon It Hoon It I Like To Hoon It Hoon It I Like To Hoon It Hoon It Ya Like To (HOON IT!).
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[G]

[Visitor Q]

I have this intense fear I will do far too much education and wind up in a shit job that I'll hate anyway.

Bah, worth a shotty anyway.
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China traffic/travel bike vid - When I make a sweeping statement, please add the word 'statistically' in to the sentence before you bitch...
From September 2014 to January/February 2015 I will not be using any English, nor reading any. As such, I won't be on here. PM at will, but I won't be checking/posting unless in emergencies. Certainly not for the first couple of months. Please berate me savagely if I break that rule...

[Egret]

I agree with a lot of what has been said here. I've been to university, got an engineering degree, still paying off the debt. If you get a good degree from a good university, you will be very unlucky to regret it.

As has been mentioned university is what you make of it, you can go through enjoying it doing enough to get by, but there is also the option to do any number of other extra curricular activities which can and will look good on your cv. This could be anything from achieving a high level in sport to learning a language. Equally there are numerous academic opportunities unrelated to your course to get involved in and these can often lead to work.

I spent my time focused more on sports than academics, but I have several friends who are currently employed directly from the academic work they were doing. I know whilst at university I missed out on learning any number of languages (including C++ ) as well as the option of industrial placements.

What I'm trying to say is that if you are genuinely interested in learning and a degree of academic flair about you then a few years isn't all that long, just be sure that the bit of paper you have at the end is worth something, because (as can be seen here) many people don't see the time spent at university as valuable in itself.

EDIT:

I meant to say that you shouldn't worry too much about student debt. You may be paying it off for a while, but the payment is linked to income, so you only pay off what you can afford, they will never cripple you with the payments