HELP! Should I cancel my uni offer/take gap year?

After all the celebrations yesterday over my results - A*AA. I thought I had made it into uni. However I think my accommodation offer is the more worrying aspect of it all... My accommodation charges £150 a week it's £5980- something a year (Yeah I know crazy!), I've seen some uni's do like 90 pounds others even around the £70 mark. I received my accommodation offer, however what I didn't realize was that it's paid in instalments with the first payment next month will be £2300, for the fist 3 months, same amount again for the next 4 months and finally £1200 for the rest - May onwards . I am entitled for the full student loan and grant altogether £7177 (because I'm poor and come from single parent background ) , however the instalments in which they pay is just enough to pay for the accommodation fees for the first 2 instalments... Which leaves me with NOTHING for living costs until May 2014 . I'm currently unemployed to and have been looking for work since leaving college in June....

I have to pay 210 pounds a week.
Are you applying to London? They are more expensive, but you get a larger sum from SFE.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Does your University not offer any additional funding? I am in the same boat as you, but should hopefully be getting £2500 worth of bursary (and a £2000 fee waiver) from the University - because my house income is less than £16,000. Could you also open a bank account which offers a larger overdraft, or see if your current bank account could be changed to a student account. Because fees are often at the wrong time compared to the payment of loans and grants most student bank accounts offer a no charge overdraft. (HSBC offers up to £3000, especially if you explain the instalment issue). Lots of my friends had the same issue, and they just went over into their overdraft knowing they'd have to pay it back with what was left with their last instalment. Your money would still be tight though, so it would be definitely worth looking into additional funding. Good luck!

If you take your total accommodation costs from your student loan you are left with about £1200 to live on over your first year at uni.
How much you'll have per week to spend will depend on how long your terms are and if you will be supporting yourself financially over the holidays.
Assuming you will have financial help over the summer and you have a 39 week accommodation contact you'll have £30 a week to live off.
If you get a student account with a decent overdraft to cover the two terms where accommodation costs equal your student loan instalments, and budget well you will be absolutely fine. Student accounts have large overdrafts for a reason and they are interest free so make use of it.
If you want to be out of the overdraft at the end of the year stick to the £30/week budget and your last student finance instalment will take you out of it.
Living on £30 a week may not sound like much but its perfectly doable (I lived on less my first year of uni) and you can always search for a job while you're at uni to supplement this.

If you want to take a gap year then that's your choice but don't feel like you have to.
hope this helps

I do get £7177 a year and my accommodation is £5989 for 40 weeks. BUT......It's paid in 3 instalment in the first two instalments in Sept next month and Jan 2014 my rental fee is going to be £2300 in both of these instalments. I will receive 2290 - something through loan and grant at the exact same date as my rent. And LITERALLY everything will be taken plus a little more out of my own funds. The last instalment is on April however it's a lot lower at 1200, which is fine as my loan and grant will remain unchanged at the same amount. But I'll have NOTHING until that point. My family will support me but I don't know how long they will be able to, we have financial woes atm.

After all the celebrations yesterday over my results - A*AA. I thought I had made it into uni. However I think my accommodation offer is the more worrying aspect of it all... My accommodation charges £150 a week it's £5980- something a year (Yeah I know crazy!), I've seen some uni's do like 90 pounds others even around the £70 mark. I received my accommodation offer, however what I didn't realize was that it's paid in instalments with the first payment next month will be £2300, for the fist 3 months, same amount again for the next 4 months and finally £1200 for the rest - May onwards . I am entitled for the full student loan and grant altogether £7177 (because I'm poor and come from single parent background ) , however the instalments in which they pay is just enough to pay for the accommodation fees for the first 2 instalments... Which leaves me with NOTHING for living costs until May 2014 . I'm currently unemployed to and have been looking for work since leaving college in June....