Think before you take a gap year to earn money

If you are considering taking a gap year for the sole purpose of earning money (esp. from a general/basic job) then think again. If you look at it this way you will see that you are actually losing money by taking a gap year.

If you do not take a gap year then you can compare the year after you graduate (with your highly sought after degree) to your gap year before uni had you chosen so. Graduate salaries are alot higher than gap year salaries. You will land a better paid job which hopefully will be related to your degree and will be able to work your way up the career ladder. In this year after you graduate you would have definately earned much more money than you would had during your gap year.

So the solution is (if your main reason for a gap year is to earn cash) is to miss your gap year. You can take out a loan to cover your uni finances and also make advantage of the interest free overdrafts if you require more money. As student loans repayments are only linked to inflation, you will not be faced with crazy repayments.

So as tempting as it is to earn some quick cash during a gap year, in the longer term it will be alot wiser to not take a gap year to JUST earn money.

Reply 1

nikk

Wrong. Things arn't as black and white as that :rolleyes:

Reply 2

Sarky

I wouldn't have been able to afford to go to uni if i hadn't of taken a gap year. :rolleyes:

Reply 3

frost105

Your ignoring the experiences that you can get through a gap year.

Reply 4

Onearmedbandit

Good luck convincing any potential lawyer that they'll earn more money right after their degree.

Reply 5

Onearmedbandit

Sarky

I wouldn't have been able to afford to go to uni if i hadn't of taken a gap year. :rolleyes:

Same. I could never afford to live in London without the extra cash.

Reply 6

Sarky

Onearmedbandit

Same. I could never afford to live in London without the extra cash.

You copied me pompey scum! Love you really :p:

Reply 7

Onearmedbandit

Sarky

You copied me pompey scum! Love you really :p:

Are you coming to any of the numerous, world-renouned festivals and/or celebrations being hosted in Pompey over the summer? :biggrin:

Reply 8

hallucination

I'm on a gap year (admittedly my second) and I earn nearly 21k...I'll be surprised if I even match that after graduating....

Reply 9

Sarky

Onearmedbandit

Are you coming to any of the numerous, world-renouned festivals and/or celebrations being hosted in Pompey over the summer? :biggrin:

Nah i'm going home to London. I don't want to but i need to make money :frown:

Reply 10

rmyl

ilovemonkeys

I'm on a gap year (admittedly my second) and I earn nearly 21k...I'll be surprised if I even match that after graduating....

oo, maybe you could go back to that place after graduating??? is it linked to your degree at all. they might want you back after that, and they may even pay you more because you're more qualified :smile:

Reply 11

ChemistBoy

The point about the loans: Student loans don't cover all your expenses so you would probably have to take out a personal development loan from your bank and they do have crazy repayment schedules, I say take a year out and earn some money first if you have to, you will end up paying less out than a personal development loan and you only miss out on one year of being a graduate, so it really isn't a big deal at all.

Reply 12

hallucination

rmyl

Well this isn't really a job I'd want to continue to be honest...not much chance of career progression!

Reply 13

fivebyfive

Don't think thats true. It's not all about making money in the long term, the money i've saved will help me get through uni without worrying too much (hopefully).
Also i am sure the experience i've gained will make me far more employable, most graduates will have little or no work experience at all. Plus all the life experience gained. All big +'s.

Reply 14

Dr. Blazed

You seem to be assuming that you'll earn more in the year after you graduate than during your gap year, which won't necessarily be the case, and that you can automatically take out a loan to cover all your costs - you really can't. Some of us are going to have to work our arses off for a year to be able to afford to go to uni, so do try and understand how the real world works.

Reply 15

Apricot Fairy

This was a totally pointless and ill-thought through post.

1) I'm earning £18k in my gap year, which is more than the average graduate starting salary. I could easily be on less after I've got my degree.

2) I have to pay full fees and I get the minimum loan, which is about £3,145 this year. Self-catered accommodation in Bristol, plus tuition fees, will come to over £3,500 by themselves. Then there's food for a year, clothes, course books, train and bus fares, going out...

How do you suggest I pay for it all? Winning the lottery would be nice, but it's not guaranteed. If your parents give you lots of money to see you through, well that's lovely for you. If you pay no fees and get the maximum loan, you're laughing, especially if you go to uni in a place where the cost of living is fairly low. You'll get about £4,500 per year to spend on accommodation and anything else you need to buy, which is more than enough to survive on.

Why not think before making pointless, inaccurate posts?

Reply 16

JennLlama

As a Scottish student studying in England, I have to pay full fees (£1,250 I think this year) and get only the non-income assessed loan (around £1,950 if memory serves). Which leaves me £700 to cover accommodation, travel, food, ... If my parents weren't helping me out, I'd be pretty stuffed and a gap year would have been a very good option. It's not enough to say that you'll earn more after university - what good would that be if you didn't have enough money to go to university in the first place?
Jenn xx

Reply 17

danni_bella

NikNak

Wrong. Things arn't as black and white as that :rolleyes:

Can't always draw those conclusions (as in, the one the first poster of this thread made) :frown:

NikNak and several others here, e.g. Sarkey, Frost105 etc. have all made good points :smile:

Also as a student who took a GAP year a few years ago before I started uni, I have no regrets and as a matter of fact had earnt enough to even pay first semester uni fees upfront! :p:

Of course there are exceptions to every rule. Depends what you do in your GAP year.

Reply 18

Flicker

i agree with everything people have said re: loans not covering your expenses and the money being useful, and would also like to add that my gap year working (to save money and gain experience) will mean that when i graduate i will have an extra year's maturity, experience and references on my CV, which will hopefully mean that i have better job prospects at the end of it. there's also a high chance i can get a summer internship with the company, either on this site or another (perhaps in the states) and so it certainly would not be beneficial for me to have gone straight to university - i would have missed a lot of opportunities.

I don't even understand the original poster's point really - after all, you still graduate even if you've had a year out, and then earn a graduate salary (hopefully) as you would have done if you hadn't had a year out, granted - but you'll have the same expenses whether you go now or later, but some more money to help pay them off.

i have had a direct debit set up this year that pays money every month into an ISA, as well as money saved separately for quicker access. i plan to leave the ISA intact until i graduate, when i can use it to pay off my loan.