Three Quarters of Students Won't Pay Back Debt

[Goddard]

I have £8k left to pay. Paying at a rate of about £3k a year so hopefully only a few years to go. Will be a nice increase in net earnings

[bovril]

I think it's if you haven't even begun paying it back.  So basically if I earn shit for another 5 years I save myself 25-odd grand.  Talk about a disincentive.

 

I'm sure that's not true.

[ADK]

I'm sure that's not true.

 

Agree, I don't think that is true, it would be quite daft if true.

[Danno]

It's not true.

[ousefox]

imo if you pick a uni course without a plan for after uni aka, you not doing a degree for a job in the same field,  you are stupid.

 

literally throwing money away

 

sickening as well all these student protests, students are the most over privileged group of people

Disagree, how many people when 17 and applying for uni have a definitive plan for how they want their career to plan out?

 

I did Management without having a clue what I wanted to do and now I'm in my final year and I'm finally settled in wanting to go into Law, but it has taken me up until a few months ago to confirm this in my mind.

 

More of this bollocks on students being over-privileged from somebody who no doubt didn't go and experience it themselves. How are students over-privileged then? Enlighten us. I'm probably going to have to pay £60k + for my first degree if I get the sort of job I'm looking for, I get by with the money I've got but can't do all the things I would like and someone my age in full time work would be able to. I don't feel particularly over-privileged.

[Benji]

Disagree, how many people when 17 and applying for uni have a definitive plan for how they want their career to plan out?

 

I did Management without having a clue what I wanted to do and now I'm in my final year and I'm finally settled in wanting to go into Law, but it has taken me up until a few months ago to confirm this in my mind.

 

More of this bollocks on students being over-privileged from somebody who no doubt didn't go and experience it themselves. How are students over-privileged then? Enlighten us. I'm probably going to have to pay £60k + for my first degree if I get the sort of job I'm looking for, I get by with the money I've got but can't do all the things I would like and someone my age in full time work would be able to. I don't feel particularly over-privileged.

 

Take a few more months and reconsider mate.

[Guest Kopfkino]

imo if you pick a uni course without a plan for after uni aka, you not doing a degree for a job in the same field,  you are stupid.

 

literally throwing money away

 

sickening as well all these student protests, students are the most over privileged group of people

 

Well no. A lot of degrees don't really have a set pathway/occupation attached to them or there are very few jobs in that field. Very few Economics students go on to be economists or few Maths students become mathematicians. It's silly to see that everything should be vocational like medicine

[ousefox]

Take a few more months and reconsider mate.

Is it the long hours?

[Benji]

Is it the long hours?

 

Not quite - I'm too scared to contribute to the Tinder thread.

[Guest Kopfkino]

Take a few more months and reconsider mate.

 

Just out of interest and if you know, do the 'magic circle' firms or whatever they're called have target unis to recruit from like the banks do/do you need a law degree for them or do they take others? I doubt I'd want to go into Law or banking for that matter but just wondering

[ousefox]

Just out of interest and if you know, do the 'magic circle' firms or whatever they're called have target unis to recruit from like the banks do/do you need a law degree for them or do they take others? I doubt I'd want to go into Law or banking for that matter but just wondering

My friends at Oxbridge and Durham have said a few have come in for dinners etc so they obviously make more of an effort with them. However most of them will be at the Sheffield Law fair I'm going to tomorrow so they obviously look at the red bricks too.

 

They take people on from non-law backgrounds as well, you have to take a qualifying law degree after your initial degree though which is what I'll be doing.

 

Think I'm personally going to try and go for a firm that has offices in Leeds. Don't fancy London despite the nicer pay package.

[Benji]

I guess it's not unfair to say Oxbridge and the Russell group uni's will be looked upon favourably by your top 30 or so city firms but in my experience the profession has made decent inroads in all areas of diversity.  So long as you concentrate on your own grades the uni doesn't mean a lot - it might help get you that first interview but from then on you're on your own.  Where you study should never put you off applying for a certain job, whatever it is.  As Watson says some firms might put more effort into visiting certain universities but most generally visit fairs across the country.

 

Junior solicitors are usually 50:50 between law graduates and non-law graduates who have completed the GDL.  Barristers I'd expect to be more law degree focused but couldn't say for sure.

 

I would highly recommend Leeds or Manchester if you want a city alternative for law.

[ousefox]

I guess it's not unfair to say Oxbridge and the Russell group uni's will be looked upon favourably by your top 30 or so city firms but in my experience the profession has made decent inroads in all areas of diversity.  So long as you concentrate on your own grades the uni doesn't mean a lot - it might help get you that first interview but from then on you're on your own.  Where you study should never put you off applying for a certain job, whatever it is.  As Watson says some firms might put more effort into visiting certain universities but most generally visit fairs across the country.

 

Junior solicitors are usually 50:50 between law graduates and non-law graduates who have completed the GDL.  Barristers I'd expect to be more law degree focused but couldn't say for sure.

 

I would highly recommend Leeds or Manchester if you want a city alternative for law.

Would it be okay to PM you about your experiences once I start looking at firms I want to apply for? - I haven't totally gone off the idea of London yet.

[Guest Kopfkino]

My friends at Oxbridge and Durham have said a few have come in for dinners etc so they obviously make more of an effort with them. However most of them will be at the Sheffield Law fair I'm going to tomorrow so they obviously look at the red bricks too.

 

They take people on from non-law backgrounds as well, you have to take a qualifying law degree after your initial degree though which is what I'll be doing.

 

Think I'm personally going to try and go for a firm that has offices in Leeds. Don't fancy London despite the nicer pay package.

 

Is the conversion basically like a masters in terms of funding and everything?

 

 

 

I've only really broadly looked around for what to do after uni so far. Three years is a long time to change your mind and develop different interests anyway. Tbh it would be nice to just get an offer at the moment

[leicsmac]

Why does this not come as any surprise to me?!

 

Just 2 examples I can talk about -

1) I know someone who is running away from her debt, she's staying out of the country travelling, for aslong as possible, fuck knows how's financing and can afford to do so.

2) And this answers alot to my first point - There was a Uni student who worked with me during the summer, he was telling me, almost bragging to me how he was already thousands of pounds in debt, he answer to it? When he finishes Uni in a few years he's gonna leave the country go travelling, because he reckons - How true this is I don't know but I can only take his word for it, if you are out of the country for 7 (I think he said 7) years the debt gets wrote off.

 

 

theres a lot of bullshit when it comes to student loans

 

if hes out of the country travelling for 7 years he'll never pay teh student loan again because he'll probably only be able to get shit jobs when he comes back to the UK

 

 

I don't think the 7 year rule is true my son's been in Norway for that long and he's still paying it off even though he hasn't earned any money in England in that time.

 

 

Yeah I can second this '7 year rule' not being true.

 

Exactly. I've been paying mine off despite spending 3 years (and counting) out of the country in the last 4.

 

But don't let the truth get in the way of a good rant about people you don't like eh fellas? 

[leicsmac]

imo if you pick a uni course without a plan for after uni aka, you not doing a degree for a job in the same field,  you are stupid.

 

literally throwing money away

 

sickening as well all these student protests, students are the most over privileged group of people

 

Yup, because we all know what we're going to do for life at the age of 17 and that hasn't been comprehensively debunked earlier in this thread.

 

Come on Lav, you've picked a pretty high horse there and it's perhaps time you got off it?

[katieakita]

All systems get abused would rather someone try and better themselves than sponge off the state as a profession, see plenty at the Post Office with no interest in work, no intention of working and see benefits as a career choice.

[MooseBreath]

Why do people have to choose their degree at 17? If they don't know what they want to do then they're better off waiting until they do. In what other area of life would you spend £27k on something you're not sure you want?

[leicsmac]

Why do people have to choose their degree at 17? If they don't know what they want to do then they're better off waiting until they do. In what other area of life would you spend £27k on something you're not sure you want?

 

There's something in that. There's too much pressure on people to go to uni straight out of college when it is a pretty big commitment of life and money.

[FoxesAreBlue]

I'd love to go to uni and study Law but with a mortgage now and my current career path progressing nicely I can't see how I would work it. More research needed p'raps!

[lavrentis]

Tbh I get the abuse towards me, totally justified and Watson I graduated this year

 

I just think you have an idea what you want to do at 17, surely you have interests, something you're good at.

 

I just knew far too many people who did a really niche course and not really got anywhere.

[Benji]

Would it be okay to PM you about your experiences once I start looking at firms I want to apply for? - I haven't totally gone off the idea of London yet.

 

Sure.

[ousefox]

Is the conversion basically like a masters in terms of funding and everything?

 

 

 

I've only really broadly looked around for what to do after uni so far. Three years is a long time to change your mind and develop different interests anyway. Tbh it would be nice to just get an offer at the moment

 

Most people do the GDL to get their qualifying law degree which is a one year intensive course. I'm going to do a 2 year Masters instead, but that's only offered at Sheffield and Bristol I think. Some firms pay for GDL, just depends if you've managed to secure a training contract already - which is quite difficult but I know people who have. Otherwise it has to be self funded.

Sure.

Cheers.

[Rincewind]

For students interested in writing (other than for exams)

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/10350114/The-Telegraph-Student-Writers.html

[Matt]

So if people don't know what they want to at 17 why don't they get some life experience first?

In some other countries I'm sure people go to Uni when they are abit older, when they have an idea of what they want to do and have abit of money behind them to fund it.

Surely that is a more sensible choice having an idea of what you want to do and having a head start on funding it rather than going in blind not having a clue what you want to do and getting thousands of pound of debt that you might not even follow through in with your career?