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Travelling to Uni

Hi,

I'm currently in U6 so I'm going to be finalising my UCAS form over the next few weeks. I'm just after some advice as to what people think of travelling to university. Basically, I live in Liverpool and I'm planning on applying to local universities in the area (Liverpool, Chester, Manchester etc) so I can live at home as there is no way I can afford to live away from home. But, I live about 15 minutes away from Lime Street train station (main train station) so I've also been toying with the idea of going to university in London or Birmingham as I can be there in 2 hours and 1 hour respectively on the train. What do people think about this? I have cheaper travel on the WCML as family work on it and I'm an 'early bird' so its not like getting up to catch an early train is going to be hard for me but I'm wondering if it might take its toll on me in the long term?

I'd be interested to see what people think about this. The reason I've been considering this is because if I get into Chester uni for example, its going to take the best part of 1 and a half hours on 2 buses and a train, despite it being only 20 miles away as the crow flies, but being geographically hard to get to.

Cheers :-)
(edited 11 years ago)
When you say that there's no hope of being able to afford to live away from home, have you actually done the sums, including
- government loans & grants, bearing in mind that if you live away from home you get more money http://www.studentfinance.direct.gov.uk/portal/page?_pageid=153,4680136&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
- university bursaries (the info is available on the website of each uni, and it differs by university e.g. Uni of Manchester gives up to £3000 in the first year including £2000 towards accommodation)
- looking at how much accommodation costs, and comparing it to the cost of travel (what would happen if your family stopped working on the WCML? And don't forget that there will still be the cost & time of a bus at the other end)
- remembering that if your family's income is above £25,000, then they are expected to make a contribution (don't forget that if you move out they will no longer be paying for your food, hot water, electricity, pocket money etc., so some spare money will become available if you move out)

Trying to commute can be a pretty soul destroying experience, I think, and if you go outside Liverpool and still live at home then it would essentially preclude the idea of having any sort of social life at uni.

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