I'm not confident of finding any job in the current climate.
EDIT: to add, when you say social life, you seem to be implying that consists of constantly getting pissed in the student cliched way. What it actually consists of is a couple of meetings a week (free, but I normally have a pint), a drumming group on a saturday morning (cost £3 a week) and visiting my parents every other weekend. About once a month I'll do something more involved on the weekend relating to one of the groups I'm involved in. That doesn;t always cost money, when it does it's less than twenty quid, often less than a tenner.
This will be my last post to this thread I think, because I feel I'm having to justify my self when other students spend shitloads more on crap and then live for free with their parents over the holidays. Remember as a mature student I have to keep myself 52 weeks of the year, not 36.
Sorry to rant
i wasnt implying anything about your social life, sorry if it came over that way. fwiw, my social life at uni consisted of going to work and mother/baby groups. my advice-dont get knocked up twice during a 3 year degree, its just bad planning
. i also had to keep myself and my family 52 weeks a year, which is why i had to work part time
you implied that you didnt want to get part time work due to your social commitments, well what about night work? where i work (residential education/care), several of our nightstaff are students, who will bring in uni work to do with them over the course of the night. or just working a couple of weekday evenings
as a mature student, you are going to have an advantage over other students looking for part time work because you are more likely to have a good cv, you are going to be seen as more relaible/mature than a 19 yr old most likely away from home for the first time, and because you are able to work all year round, not sodding off for months at a time. most supermarkets and factories are going to have part time work, and probably would be able to be flexible. even if you worked 3 nights a week, for 6 hr shifts, on minimum wage, you are still going to be approx £100 better off pw, even 2 shifts or 12 hours is still £68.
what i'm trying to say is that your debt is going to be around £2000 accumulated over 4 years. you could easily pay it off with a part time job, plus save some as a safety buffer. of course you would earn more with a full time job over a year, but what would you be happier with: another 3 years out of your life before you start your career, a year of which is spent doing 40 hrs a week in a job you dont particularly enjoy for not much wage, or 2 years, with say 40 hrs a week ( i'm assuming this is what your course claims to be in total hours ie lectures plus own work time) of a course you enjoy, with a few hour of paid work .
Student loans can be deferred. If your salary is below I think 19,000 pounds a year, you don't need to pay them back.
With an overdraft, on the other hand, the bank will be on your back to pay it off practically as soon as you finish. So you'll have to go and do a shit job to pay it back even if you don't want to, meaning no time to get sorted with a proper graduate career.
in the Uk, your student loan is considered to go into repayment in the april ( ie the beginning of the financial year) after your graduate, so long as you are earning above £15,000 per annum (£288 a week) . the amount you pay is 9 % of the amount of your wage that is above the threshhold amount. so, i earn on average £16,000 per year, i pay about £90 of my student loan back. its worked out monthly, so if you earn more or less in 1 particular month, your repayment will change too. depending on what year you took out your loan, its wiped after you reach 65 ( if you took it pre 2006) or 25 after graduation ( post 2006)
In Canada ( from what my canadian friend has explained to me) , the loan is considered in repayment on the day of graduation, however you dont have to make any payments during the first 6 months if you choose not to ( although you will still be being charged interest). if a person is finding it difficult to repay their loan, they can apply for assistance, which can include a period of non payment, the goverment paying the interest on the outstanding balance,and if after 10 years of graduating you are still struggling to pay off your loan, the goverment will help you make repayments, as all loans are to be repayed in 15 years. the percentage of wage repayment is 20 %
which i'll pay when the currency sinks a bit more
