Parents earn enough to not qualify for larger loan - but wont help out

Not possible for a lot of us! My closest university for my subject would be Birmingham (where, incidentally, I am going for post-grad), and even that would be ridiculously expensive paying for petrol and/or the train, with the amount of time that undergrads have to spend at uni/on campus. Not to mention, it would make socialising substantially more difficult (although not impossible) - constantly having to crash on people's floors just for a night out - and I imagine the commute would either be an exhausting drive (imagine trying to get in for a 9am!), or a two connection train journey (for me) that would seriously eat into my day.

That's probably because in their day, the government was giving out grants that were so generous you could live off them alone!

Have you sat down with them and looked at
a) how much you'll receive from the government, and
b) how much you reckon it will cost you to live?

Other possibilities I have considered are:

Begging the bank for a loan. I don't want to do this particularly because of interest.

Working for a call centre from home while at university. I may have to do this as it seem like the only job with flexible hours that I can work. Ideally I will not have to resort to this as my course will be very time consuming, but I recognise that it may be my only option.

Not go to university. Obviously this is the option I am trying to avoid.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help here.

I thought there were two ways that you can apply for a loan through SF, you can either do it with your parents income or without? Then they just give you an estimate, I'm sure a friend of mine did that and she ended up with more than she would of done if it had been based on household income?

Look into it, I'm sure you can apply not based on house hold income.

Ask your parents to loan you money rather than just giving it to you?

My parents are also being difficult - no matter how much they say they accept it was different for them they still expect it to be fine.
The conclusion we've come to is they'll pay my accomm and I'll use my student loan (I only get the smallest amount) to live off.

Then you'll be fine! That will leave you with £3575 per year, which (if you assume that you'll be at uni for 34 weeks a year (term time only)) then it will leave you with £105.14 per week to live off - a princely sum!

My parents are also being difficult - no matter how much they say they accept it was different for them they still expect it to be fine.
The conclusion we've come to is they'll pay my accomm and I'll use my student loan (I only get the smallest amount) to live off.

Work and be thankful for the comfortable lifestyle your parents have given you so far, if you were from a broken home and under the 25k limit chances are you wouldn't even be considering university anyway! See this is a chance to break away from your middle class chains.

Edit: Come on people, are you really disagreeing that less poor than rich people go to university? Show me how many 16 year olds drop out of independent education at 16 to do a carpentry course? Compare that to the number of children who drop out of state education then can't even get an apprenticeship and sign on.

If you don't have to pay for accomm then the minimum loan will be fine unless you are ridiculous with your spending. Minimum loan is what £3000? Thats £1000 a term. A lot of uni terms are only 10-12 weeks.

Start selling arse.

Thanks for the prompt response! I guess I will have to contact Student Finance, as I probably should have before making this thread

I feel like there must be a way through this, though. It doesn't make sense for the government to assume your parents are willing to pay. I feel privileged that my parents have money and am thankful for that, but purely in the context of student loans isn't this policy a bit discriminatory? For my bank account, my parents refusing to pay is effectively the same as my parents being unable to pay. Why the discrepancy?

Or you could consider universities close enough for you to commute?

I would like to think the government gives extra care to the individual situations but they most likely won't. My parents are only just over the maximum payment meaning I will get no extra help. Despite my parents willingness to help, to an extent, I will be one of three of their children in university next year. They are already paying towards both my brothers rent and they are still in debt/ with little money for food/socialising/books. We tried explaining our situation to finance advisors and student england but it has made no difference and we have continually been told that there is nothing they can do.

It actually happens in a lot of European countries (as in, the vast majority of people go to university in their home town), but in England I've found that there are so many courses offered that vary so wildly in their quality and content that unless you live near a big city, it's pretty much easier said than done.

Yeah :/ I live ten minutes away from Bucks New Uni - but, no offence to it, it's nt academic enough for me. I'd have to go into London or commute by road to Reading/ Royal Holloway if I wanted to go to a top flight uni without living away - amd the travel costs plus that my parents would want rent would make it awful. Also I can't wait to leave home.

No, I understand entirely. I live in Staffordshire - which gives me a choice between, erm, Staffordshire or Keele (neither of whom do modern foreign languages, as far as I know), and aren't really my kind of place. But, yeah, I was pretty pleased, really - no extra pressure to stay at home.

I thought there were two ways that you can apply for a loan through SF, you can either do it with your parents income or without? Then they just give you an estimate, I'm sure a friend of mine did that and she ended up with more than she would of done if it had been based on household income?

There is a difference between a family having two cars (which is a necessity)