Unexpected gap year help
After results day I spent a lot of time thinking about the course I applied for, biomedical science, I visited a clearing open day at the uni I had firmed, and I wasn’t feeling it at all. The amount of hesitation I have had on whether or not I should study Biomed is unhealthy and it’s probably most sensible to take a gap year, and figure out what I truly want to study, however I am worried that I will now be unwillingly behind everything because I made a rushed decision in January. If I take this gap year, my main focus would be saving up, and gaining my drivers license, but I want to know if there’s other ways I could utilise this year so it doesn’t go to waste?
Hi there!
It is indeed very sensible to take a gap year if you're not feeling like biomed is for you. You won't be behind anything, you have until January next year to make a decision on what you want to study in university and it seems like you'll put your gap year to good use! Saving money and getting your driver's license are very good things to get up in your gap year and just by doing them it will ensure you didn't waste your gap year - having a job will make you more mature. If you want to get up to more things, you might be able to use some of the money you'll make from any job you have to travel, and you should definitely use the lack of studies during your gap year to take up anything you've ever wanted to do! I took up the guitar during my gap year and it was great fun
It is indeed very sensible to take a gap year if you're not feeling like biomed is for you. You won't be behind anything, you have until January next year to make a decision on what you want to study in university and it seems like you'll put your gap year to good use! Saving money and getting your driver's license are very good things to get up in your gap year and just by doing them it will ensure you didn't waste your gap year - having a job will make you more mature. If you want to get up to more things, you might be able to use some of the money you'll make from any job you have to travel, and you should definitely use the lack of studies during your gap year to take up anything you've ever wanted to do! I took up the guitar during my gap year and it was great fun
Original post by Scotland Yard
Hi there!
It is indeed very sensible to take a gap year if you're not feeling like biomed is for you. You won't be behind anything, you have until January next year to make a decision on what you want to study in university and it seems like you'll put your gap year to good use! Saving money and getting your driver's license are very good things to get up in your gap year and just by doing them it will ensure you didn't waste your gap year - having a job will make you more mature. If you want to get up to more things, you might be able to use some of the money you'll make from any job you have to travel, and you should definitely use the lack of studies during your gap year to take up anything you've ever wanted to do! I took up the guitar during my gap year and it was great fun
It is indeed very sensible to take a gap year if you're not feeling like biomed is for you. You won't be behind anything, you have until January next year to make a decision on what you want to study in university and it seems like you'll put your gap year to good use! Saving money and getting your driver's license are very good things to get up in your gap year and just by doing them it will ensure you didn't waste your gap year - having a job will make you more mature. If you want to get up to more things, you might be able to use some of the money you'll make from any job you have to travel, and you should definitely use the lack of studies during your gap year to take up anything you've ever wanted to do! I took up the guitar during my gap year and it was great fun
Very sweet reply, thank you so much
guitar sounds very impressive! I’ve started to calm down about the whole “wasting a year” thing too because I know the time will go fast and it’s not like I’d be sat at home 24/7, I’ll do the exact opposite haha. Just afraid that I am being too ambitious about saving money, I’m aiming for around 10k hopefully.Original post by lvghtings
Very sweet reply, thank you so much guitar sounds very impressive! I’ve started to calm down about the whole “wasting a year” thing too because I know the time will go fast and it’s not like I’d be sat at home 24/7, I’ll do the exact opposite haha. Just afraid that I am being too ambitious about saving money, I’m aiming for around 10k hopefully.
guitar sounds very impressive! I’ve started to calm down about the whole “wasting a year” thing too because I know the time will go fast and it’s not like I’d be sat at home 24/7, I’ll do the exact opposite haha. Just afraid that I am being too ambitious about saving money, I’m aiming for around 10k hopefully.Glad to help
. Yeah, the guitar is great, always wanted to learn and so I took my chance!Saving 10k is probably overambitious, even while living with your parents, but it'll really depend on how much you earn monthly and what your expenses will be - travel to and from your job (seems cheap if you look at it daily but it adds up, quickly!), plus any other miscellaneous expenses you might like to do - which are OK to do! It's your money, yes, you should save a nice amount of it for a rainy day but you shouldn't also become a penny-pinching person who refuses to have fun with their money.
Once you know what your wage will be, it'd be a good idea to program your bank account to directly transfer a certain amount of money onto a savings account every payday - this you'll have to look at yourself, there are different types with its benefits and drawbacks... I just want to say that interest sounds mighty fine but you have to have big (and I mean big) amounts of money to make it truly worthwhile, else you're just looking at a couple dozen quid a year at most, which is nice but not a massive difference.
I personally was on a zero hour contract (evil stuff, should be illegal. Avoid these if you can) so my pay check was never the same and became less and less as they kept firing people from the office and replacing them with even more incompetent people... and then I had a money drain of a (now ex-) girlfriend which didn't help matters. In the end, once I knew what my student loan was... I realised that my savings weren't necessary at all and that I would have a couple thousand leftover from my loan which I intend on sticking in a savings account... so I decided that most of my savings at this stage would be better spent travelling, so this summer I went to France and did a tour of the UK! That's something you might want to consider doing too, when the time comes.
Hope you have a great year!
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