UK Unis Look Way More Fun

Maybe I should have joined the marching band, I’ve always heard they have fun.

I feel sorry for UK students these days... £9,000 per year in tuition, £5,000-£7,000 in accommodation fees, plus money for everything else, resulting in large loans and most likely needing to get a job during term-time.

I'm glad I went to uni when I did:
- tuition was only £1,100 a year (£550 for my year abroad in the US, thanks to the ERASMUS scheme), which my parents paid
- my hall accommodation was £2,800 per year (a room in the same accommodation now is £5,000+)
- my student loan was around £3,000/year which covered my accommodation
- my gran gave me £1,000 per year as a gift to help out with living costs
- I worked full-time during the vacations, which gave me around £2,000-3,000 each year... so I didn't need to get a job during term-time

My parents were able to put two of us kids through 8 years of university (4 years each) for just £7,700 total in tuition. Unfortunately when my youngest brother started uni, the fees had gone up to £3,000/year and my parents couldn't afford to pay his tuition for him, so he had to get the extra loans.

Then again, if I had started uni just 3 years earlier, my tuition would have been completely free, as tuition fees were only introduced in 1998.


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In fairness, in the US though I think my books alone cost a good chunk of change. In fairness, would've been cheaper if I went to a state school....but I still have at least another decade to go in paying off my student loans and it's been 8 years since I've stopped going to uni. Stupidly, I didn't finish so four years and LOTS of debt really didn't even have a pay-off. I commuted so I can't even imagine how much worse it would've been if I lived on Campus and had to pay for the housing..... What I love about the UK is that you can get a decent job without a degree if you've made the right choices for yourself and I wish the US would follow it's lead. I'm now kicking myself because I wish I never went and just focused on getting real-world experience instead! School just really wasn't for me.

Maybe I should have joined the marching band, I’ve always heard they have fun.

Oh yeah!!! There's an instant family feeling, lots of laughs, general music geekery and oh, can they party.   

In fairness, in the US though I think my books alone cost a good chunk of change.

This is exactly why I worked in the bookstore on campus.  20% discount on my books was just what I needed.   

I didn't have the university experience.  Hindsight, I wish I did.  But I have some cool experiences under my belt as my alternative.

When I did start my undergrad at the ripe old age of 22, I worked full time so that I didn't have any debt.  My masters was paid for by my employer.  I am VERY happy to have no student loan debt.  But I did choose to stay in state and work my way through.

This is exactly why I worked in the bookstore on campus.  20% discount on my books was just what I needed.

I imagine that was the most fought over job! hah

I didn't have the university experience.  Hindsight, I wish I did.  But I have some cool experiences under my belt as my alternative.

Even though I went to Uni, I think living off-campus just gave me no real experience. It was SO hard to make friends because everybody bonded during the first week when the dorms all had their activities (ones that commuters didn't attend). I honestly have no real overly-positive experiences. I met maybe 3 people?? One of which commuted as well so we found ourselves on the train together and he was in my classes and had the same sense of humour/attitude I had so we just got along. The other two I only really spoke with while the class we shared was going on because we sat near each other. Believe they were commuters as well so we just kind of bonded over not really feeling a part of the uni's community. I probably could've involved myself more for sure, but it was hard to want to when you feel that disconnected. There was definitely a strong divide between those living there and those not. Perhaps I'd have less regret about even deciding to go to uni if I had either picked a state school (which would be more affordable) or had lived at the uni and actually had a proper experience. My experience was commuting in for classes, occasionally grabbing lunch, then going home to work a shift at the store I worked at. In the end, I hated going to school and would rather make money, so I just stopped going (and I eventually met my now-husband so the idea of staying to even sort my school out vs being with him was one I had no interest in).

I think x0Kiss0fDeath, you're starting to see a real shift in the US of people who are not thinking that a traditional 4 year, liberal arts degree is the way to go.
My nephew is a Freshman attending a technical high school, most likely to study as an electrician, but will be placed after he does 9 different exploration courses in the first half of the year. 
However, he almost actually didn't get in and was placed on the waiting list.   Technical high school (US public high school) admissions have become so competitive. What was once a place for kids who didn't necessarily fit the traditional schooling model now have strict admissions criteria, because they would be oversubscribed otherwise. 
 
KFDancer, that sounds like an incredibly wise way to do it!!   

In fairness, in the US though I think my books alone cost a good chunk of change.

Yeah, I was surprised to find that purchasing the books was a requirement in the US... and that they are so expensive. My degree was in physics and I only purchased 1 book in 3 years, at a cost of about £35 (other degree subjects, like English and Law required more books though). For my year abroad though, I had to buy books for each class, which cost a fair amount.

In fairness, would've been cheaper if I went to a state school....but I still have at least another decade to go in paying off my student loans and it's been 8 years since I've stopped going to uni.

I finished uni in 2005 but didn't start paying back my loans until 2010, because I didn't earn enough until then... and by that point the loans had gained about £4000 in interest. After 7 years, I've paid back at least half of it, thanks to earning more (so paying back more) while working abroad. Hoping to have them all paid back in the next few years.

What I love about the UK is that you can get a decent job without a degree if you've made the right choices for yourself and I wish the US would follow it's lead. I'm now kicking myself because I wish I never went and just focused on getting real-world experience instead! School just really wasn't for me.

Yeah, it's good that you can go into a more vocational job here without having to go to uni - I know plenty of people without degrees who are in good jobs .

Several of my colleagues (in their 40s and 50s) started in the job at either 16 or 18 and have worked their way up, with some gaining Open University degrees through the company over the years. These days though, you need a degree to get the same job because the company wants the role to be more flexible and enable people to move into scientific research if they want - and because of the competition for jobs, often you end up needing a masters just to get a look-in. So in our office we have people with no degree, people with a BSc, people with an MSc and people with a PhD, all doing the same job role .


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I think x0Kiss0fDeath, you're starting to see a real shift in the US of people who are not thinking that a traditional 4 year, liberal arts degree is the way to go.
My nephew is a Freshman attending a technical high school, most likely to study as an electrician, but will be placed after he does 9 different exploration courses in the first half of the year. 

In some ways, I kind of hope that's the case...but it seems like the amount of degrees I'm seeing required for jobs in the US just keeps going up level after level. Like some of my friends back in the US can no longer get away with just a Bachelor's degree, they are needing to get a Master's They are in their mid-late 20's and have had to get the next level up degree to qualify for anything beyond pure entry level (the jobs that will actually pay for you to survive on your own outside of your parent's house). it's realllyyyyy scary. What I love here is that companies here are willing to give me a shot regardless of what level my education is.

The professions in the US really are degree-heavy. You can, for example, get a job (maybe) as a bottle-washer if you have a biology or chemistry B. Science degree and want to join a biotech company. (I think this is primarily because there simply are so many people with degrees - my BA uni, in 1991, had approximately 10,000 students walk in the graduation ceremony for that year. Just from that Uni. Multiply by the number of Uni's in the States....)  You pretty much have to have a Masters to do anything in social work... etc., etc.  Having worked at a Uni for a couple of decades, it was getting hard to go to work every day at the end when I'd hear kids going for their BAs at $25,000 a year cost (state school) and being so proud that they had jobs as baristas lined up after they graduated....   And nobody got through in 4 years, the place was overcrowded and they couldn't get into the classes.

That said, I wish I would have had the vo-tech option. I tried, when I was in high school, to take small engine repair and that sort of thing, but girls were not allowed into those classes so they put me in "arts and crafts" instead.  I got a high school diploma for those wasted years.  I went to college, again liberal arts because that's where I was directed. And couldn't find work if I listed it on my applications in my hometown. (A very blue-collar kind of place.)  I moved to another city and got a job on an assembly line, then was able to move into their computer room as an apprentice, and ended up 10 years later running large mainframes for a blue chip company for a decent income.  Enter the oil crisis: the company downsized. I could never find a job full-time that paid enough to live on and for daycare and medical expenses, or I probably would have not gone back to University. I spent a lot more years at Uni, borrowing all the way for childcare, etc. Graduated with a Masters that wasn't worth the paper it was written on in the job market. And a really big student loan bill that I've been paying on for years, and that will follow me to my grave. Oh, well. No other choice, really.    The books expense. I remember clearly my last semester in the PhD program. My books tab for that semester was $900, most of which could not be sold back because the bookstore wasn't going to use them the next semester. I still have two of 'em. (Max Weber, the only ones worth keeping.) I had one mandatory book per week per class to read and review, and up to three supplementary readings (per class per week).  The library in their wisdom did not have most of them or I'd have borrowed copies. 

Never did "the college experience" as I was either working, riding the bus to-and-fro, in the Library studying, or taking care of the Daughter.  So, I have the degrees, but none of the social stuff that should have gone with it - which would, in retrospect, probably have been more valuable.

But really, in hindsight, I would have been a very good small appliance repair person, had I had the chance at that training, and probably would have ended up owning my own business. I really wish that they gave kids that option in US schools. But they try to funnel everyone to University, suited for it or not.

Somewhat ironically, the only place that has ever asked to see my actual degrees (or cared that I had them) is the part-time job I've applied for as a retired person, here in the UK.  And since they are from USA schools, they need to have a statement of equivalency on top, to see exactly what "they're worth" here. (Ok, I had to do the Naric thing.) 

My last job was in retail in the US and it said Bachelor's degree preferred on the job listing.  So I can definitely see that a lot of jobs just expect you to have a degree. 

At my job here most of us have degrees because we went to one of the universities in town and just stayed after...but there are a few others with the same level of jobs without a degree at all.  And it's not necessary at all in any job I've had. 

I imagine that was the most fought over job! hah


Even though I went to Uni, I think living off-campus just gave me no real experience. It was SO hard to make friends because everybody bonded during the first week when the dorms all had their activities (ones that commuters didn't attend). I honestly have no real overly-positive experiences. I met maybe 3 people?? One of which commuted as well so we found ourselves on the train together and he was in my classes and had the same sense of humour/attitude I had so we just got along. The other two I only really spoke with while the class we shared was going on because we sat near each other. Believe they were commuters as well so we just kind of bonded over not really feeling a part of the uni's community. I probably could've involved myself more for sure, but it was hard to want to when you feel that disconnected. There was definitely a strong divide between those living there and those not. Perhaps I'd have less regret about even deciding to go to uni if I had either picked a state school (which would be more affordable) or had lived at the uni and actually had a proper experience. My experience was commuting in for classes, occasionally grabbing lunch, then going home to work a shift at the store I worked at. In the end, I hated going to school and would rather make money, so I just stopped going (and I eventually met my now-husband so the idea of staying to even sort my school out vs being with him was one I had no interest in).

This is eerily similar to my experience commuting for my first year.  Very few friends, even then just people who happened to be around that it was convenient for both of us to be together.  Like you, I thought those people who lived on campus must be living it up.  For the second year I lived on campus and it was mostly the same with the added disadvantage of being there all the time! 
Over the next few years I had some good times and met more friends but it took some time.

Probably would have happened faster if we had a student Union with beer on campus. 

Like you, I thought those people who lived on campus must be living it up.  For the second year I lived on campus and it was mostly the same with the added disadvantage of being there all the time! 

I went knew some people who went to my uni from high school and the local music scene so unfortunately I do know they were living it up! lol My uni was in a nice part of Boston so I definitely wouldn't have hated being there all the time by any means! haha

There is such a shortage of affordable housing for students that is of decent quality

Not anymore!
Every time I've seen a new block of slick, modern flats built in a convenient location in Glasgow (in the last 3-4 years), they have always been for students.

Hmm, well the last time we were looking at UG housing was for Spring of 2016, and there wasn't anything that wasn't twice the cost of the Uni halls available, and some of it was pretty sketchy looking. Glad they are filling in the blanks spots, then!