Anyone else find this at university/bit of a moan

Former Member

I think the situation is more aparrant as I'm based at the animal/agricultural campus of my uni. I'm somewhat in the minority at my campus, as it tends to attract more 'middle class' students (alot of equine students have their own horses on campus) and I'm from a typical 'working class' background, coming from an ex mining town and all that jazz. Whereas alot of my peers have been in some sort of private school and/or getting a fair amount of help from their parents (e.g. 2 of my flatmates get their rent paid by their parents, which is just over £4k for the year).
And as my course is an exotic animal based one and its very difficult to get placements/experience in zoos in the UK (they always want a decent amount of experience before you're even considered for a job). So your next best bet is to get some kind of placement abroad. Which alot of people are doing, but because I don't have parents who are willing/able to help me out and I'm also tied down to a part time job I can't do this. Now I can't help but feel at a total disadvantage because I don't have the resources to be able to do things like this (though I have managed to save up for a uni trip to africa so it's not all bad). But some on my course have already spent their summers abroad working in allsorts of places and I have no experience whatsoever. There also aren't any zoos within reasonable driving distance for me to get a placement at as they're usually full time lasting 2 weeks or more. I'm terrified I'm going to leave uni, wanting to go into a very competitive field of work and be right at the bottom of the pile as I'll have next to no experience. I want to do a masters degree but I don't think that will be an option either because they're soooooo expensive and they're not usually funded, and that's not including living expenses.
Sorry just wondered if anyone else is feeling like this too? It's no ones fault what kind of family they come from but I can't help but be jealous of the ones who are getting a leg up because their families are in a position to help them out, whereas I'm tied down to a part time job to bring in extra money. I don't mean to be whiney but I can't help but feel a bit meh about it all sometimes.

Former Member

Could you apply for the ALF? All Universities have to offer it.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/UniversityAndHigherEducation/StudentFinance/Extrahelp/DG_171615

Have you thought about going to a farm and helping out there for food and board? I know of some farms that take on young enthusiastic people, you'll get the shitty jobs like cleaning out the stables, etc. but there's always work to be done and it would give you good experience. It might be worth taking a break from the part time job for a few weeks and see if you can find something like that?

Also, have a look round your industry and see what kind of financial support is available out there - you'd be surprised!

edit: also, I got the full whack because I'm from low income and found -without- a car it is happily enough to last me the whole year, and I work in the summer to build up some savings for when I graduate. Maybe (and I don't mean this to sound horrible!) you need to consider how much you /really/ need a car. It sounds like you might be out in the sticks which is fair enough. But a lot of people at my uni for example have cars and dont actually use them other than going to the supermarket once a week and the occasional trip to the cinema! If you think how much it costs to run a car, it's really a big thing to think about if you're having to make sacrifices elsewhere.

Former Member

i agree with shyboy. also have you tried out the careers office? i went a while ago and didn't expect much but the representative for my course is pretty much a genie of information! was great. he seemed really up to date with new schemes that i could benefit from too.

Former Member

Yeah I'm going to see if I can speak to my course leader after xmas see if she can give me some pointers. Tbh, I do need my car because my campus is out in the middle of nowhere and as it's an old diesel, it's pretty cheap to run. I probably could manage without it during term time but in the holidays/summer I need it to get to work and get around in general.