Cambridge University

Aloha everyone,

I am a GCSE student who lives in East London. I am an A* student, and I have dreams of going to Cambridge University, however my family will not let me live on campus. I come from a working class family, and I do not think I will be able to handle the living costs there anyway.
I would like to stay at home here in London but attend university over at Cambridge. I was wondering if you had any travel advice for me, including sites that may offer discounted tickets.
I know it's a tad early to start thinking about this, but this dream is very important to me.

Thanks in advance :smile:

Reply 1

Legendary Quest

16

You get money from Student Finance and universities give grants to pupils from low income backgrounds meaning you would be able to cope with the living costs.

Do you want to move out? Is it just the money that's making you want to stay at home?

You can get student discounts for your train tickets and railway card.

Reply 2

1144297

9

Original post by sadiadventures

Aloha everyone,

I am a GCSE student who lives in East London. I am an A* student, and I have dreams of going to Cambridge University, however my family will not let me live on campus. I come from a working class family, and I do not think I will be able to handle the living costs there anyway.
I would like to stay at home here in London but attend university over at Cambridge. I was wondering if you had any travel advice for me, including sites that may offer discounted tickets.
I know it's a tad early to start thinking about this, but this dream is very important to me.

Thanks in advance :smile:

Hi,

This post should probably be the University of Cambridge forum - http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=15

At Cambridge it is pretty standard that you stay in one of the Colleges for the years of the course, and I think there is a rule saying you have to live within 3 miles of a church in the center of it (link at the bottom), so you may have to move if you want to go there.

In terms of living costs you would apply for a student loan which should provide money to cover living costs. I've put a link to the amount of money you could expect to get at the bottom. Most of the colleges have pretty decently priced accommodation at around ~£100 per week, and because they only have 30 weeks in college that comes to around £3000. The lowest student loan for outside London living alone is £3821 so even if you only got that (which if you come from a working class family is very unlikely!) you would still have enough to cover it.

Also, if you were to travel from London each day you would have to factor in the cost. Just from looking on the National Rail website, a train from London to Cambridge is £6.00, but if you hope to commute you would probably have to leave earlier, so it would be more like £20. Doing that every day Monday to Friday (or Saturday depending on the course!) could come to £100-£120, which would basically be the same cost as living in college. Additionally, if you live at home you would get lower maintenance loans so that cost would be even higher! Not even counting Oyster cards, etc, for getting to King's Cross (which afaik is on the same line as Cambridge).

Overall, I would suggest that you should see if your parents would let you go as you would have additional money. If they still won't, it might be a good idea to look at universities in London. You didn't say which course you wanted to do, but Imperial College in South Kensington is practically on the same level as Cambridge but would be easier to get to if you wanted to live from home.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/financial-support-for-full-time-students-of-higher-education-in-2016-to-2017/financial-support-for-full-time-students-of-higher-education-in-2016-to-2017

http://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/new-students/manage-your-student-information/personal-information/residing-outside-universitys

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

nexttime

22

You can't do this.

a) That commute would cost way more than just living in Cambridge
b) That commute is far too time consuming to be doing alongside a Cambridge course
c) It would ruin your social life and ability to be part of the university, one of the best bits of going there
d) Its not allowed by the university anyway.

Cambridge is entirely affordable - its one of the cheapest universities in the south as its short term times limit accommodation costs. That would also allow you to spend lots of time at home. But you will have to live there in term time.

Reply 4

Platopus

19

Original post by sadiadventures

Aloha everyone,

I am a GCSE student who lives in East London. I am an A* student, and I have dreams of going to Cambridge University, however my family will not let me live on campus. I come from a working class family, and I do not think I will be able to handle the living costs there anyway.
I would like to stay at home here in London but attend university over at Cambridge. I was wondering if you had any travel advice for me, including sites that may offer discounted tickets.
I know it's a tad early to start thinking about this, but this dream is very important to me.

Thanks in advance :smile:

The maintenance loan you receive is proportionate to your family's income. For example, my mum doesn't earn much so I will receive almost £8K from Student Finance. Cambridge University itself also has a scheme offering grants to especially low income students. I have an offer from Cambridge, which I doubt I will meet, but if I do then I will be living in Cambridge purely off of my maintenance loan with no help from my family. Therefore, I assume you would be able to do the same.

Reply 5

TiernanW

15

Your parents won't let you live on campus? What on earth is wrong with them? You'll be 18/19 I presume when you go to university, so do what you want. God, I'm sorry but what is up with your parents?

Reply 6

sadiadventures

OP

13

Original post by TiernanW

Your parents won't let you live on campus? What on earth is wrong with them? You'll be 18/19 I presume when you go to university, so do what you want. God, I'm sorry but what is up with your parents?

Hi,
You really don't need to be so rude. Not that it's any of your business, but I am my parents' only daughter, and they want me to stay at home. Big deal. It's not like they're preventing me from seeing daylight or anything.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 7

TiernanW

15

Original post by sadiadventures

Hi,
You really don't need to be so rude. Not that it's any of your business, but I am my parents' only child, and they want me to stay at home. Big deal. It's not like they're preventing me from seeing daylight or anything.

Please forgive me, it wasn't meant to be like "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR PARENTS?". If your parents want you to stay at home and you agree with it, then by all means. The impression I got from your post was that you had absolutely no choice in the matter.

Yeah when I read over that post I see where you are coming from. Unreserved apologies.

Reply 8

Serine Soul

18

The workload at the uni is high and you don't want to be shifting yourself to and fro everyday

PM me, I am from a very similar background to you, but live much further from Cambridge, I know how if feels to have such parents

Original post by sadiadventures

I am a GCSE student who lives in East London. I am an A* student, and I have dreams of going to Cambridge University, however my family will not let me live on campus.

As an undergraduate, you are obliged to live within 3 miles of Great St Mary's Church in the centre of Cambridge. You can't commute.

http://www.cambridgestudents.cam.ac.uk/new-students/manage-your-student-information/personal-information/residing-outside-universitys

Reply 10

Doones

21

Original post by sadiadventures

Hi,
You really don't need to be so rude. Not that it's any of your business, but I am my parents' only child, and they want me to stay at home. Big deal. It's not like they're preventing me from seeing daylight or anything.

It's not an option to commute as a Cambridge undergraduate.

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(edited 7 years ago)

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