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Bye Bye Grants

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Comments

  • #52
    professore
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,857 ✭✭✭professore


    meoklmrk91 wrote: »
    I pay all my own bills, including keeping my car on the road to get me up and down to college.
    :eek::eek::eek::eek:

    Things have changed since my day ! Back then there was one guy in my degree course with a scooter - he was the posh one - that was it!


  • #53
    meoklmrk91
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,085 ✭✭✭meoklmrk91


    professore wrote: »
    meoklmrk91 wrote: »
    I pay all my own bills, including keeping my car on the road to get me up and down to college.
    :eek::eek::eek::eek:

    Things have changed since my day ! Back then there was one guy in my degree course with a scooter - he was the posh one - that was it!

    Well considering I live 45 miles away from college I doubt a bicycle is going to hack it.


  • #54
    pinkdiamond
    Closed Accounts Posts: 78 ✭✭pinkdiamond


    I have to move to Manchester next week until September to work a minimum of 40 hours a week, a minimum of 5 days a week. I don't want to go. I want to stay at home in Galway, but I have no choice because I have to save my money over there to pay for my fees, for the bus to college and books.

    Tell me this: why is it fair that I have to do this, when someone in the EXACT same position as me gets it FREE?

    My friends on the grant have gone to California on J1 cos they don't need to save anything. Like me, they live at home during the college year. I would have liked to gone with them.

    As my dad is self-employed, he had to buy a second house to rent out when he retires as his self-made pension- so my parents have two mortgages and three kids in college.

    Screw the grant. If students are that badly off, what's the problem with taking out a student loan??


  • #55
    innominat
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38 ✭innominat


    I am going back to school as I have been unemployed for 2 years. I live in rural area so jobs a scarce and I dont have the money to support myself while I job search in Dublin or other cities. People would work if there where jobs. And I will do anything im not fussy.
    I will not receive a grant to go back to school and I will have to pay for degree and live on what I have saved.
    I think grants should be available to people as not all people can afford college. I do agree loans are an option but young people should not be sadled with huge debt to get an education. If grants are scrapped then fees should be kept to a reasonable amount.
    Iv met many americans who average 20,000 or more in student loans and some in top schools paying out 40,000 a YEAR in fees I dont want Ireland to head that route.


  • #56
    pinkdiamond
    Closed Accounts Posts: 78 ✭✭pinkdiamond


    The difference is that registration fees are not costing €40,000 a year. They cost €2,500.

    If your serious about college- you will be able to get a job afterwards where a €10,000 loan can be paid off within a few years at no great stretch.

    If I hadn't got a job in Manchester for the rest of the summer, I'd probably be taking out a loan to cover my fees. So why is it fair that some students have to take out loans while others get off paying registration fees altogether?

    And how are so many of ye so narrow-minded? "Education is not only for the rich" Do ye think that just because some of us students don't receive the grant- we are rich!? Would it not make us poorer because we actually have to use our own money to pay for our fees?


  • #57
    Andy-Pandy
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,848 ✭✭✭Andy-Pandy


    I get the grant, last year I got about €2400, and this is pretty much what i had to live on for the academic year. I am in my mid 30's and i do not get the back to education allowance due to the fact that i worked as a bicycle courier for about €300 a week right up until i went back to college. I was paying PRSI and income tax for nearly 20 years previously. I believe that i am fully entitled to it.

    On the other hand I know people that did the smart (but unfair) thing. They quit there jobs and signed on about 6 months before they started their degrees. They now get €188 a week that i can only dream about.

    Not sure where this post is going, it just seems an unfair system that does not reward people who try to do the right thing. Last year I had a 6 month work experience to complete, every single other mature student in my class was able to continue getting their €188 a week during this time, but because i was unable to be available for full time work, i received nothing, and had to struggle by for 6 month's with out a penny (accommodation and a small amount of food was given to be during the work experience).

    Not quitting my job and going on the dole before i went back to college is one of the biggest regret of my college years. I've the same to look forward to next year. The only plus side i have is that this summer ive no work experience to complete and for the first time since i started my degree i am able to work for money and not for free, and should have a bit of cash saved to help me out this year.

    It's all been worth it though, going back to college is the best decision ive ever made.


  • #58
    Viva La Gloria
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 682 ✭✭✭Viva La Gloria


    I had a part-time job all throughout my degree, doing at least 20 hours 3 days a week and I still managed to get a first by giving up my social life completely and spending nearly all of my free time in college. I got €780 maitenance from the council in my final year and really wasn't expecting that at all because I had the job, but my parents' income has been reduced greatly over the last few years, especially since my Dad got a 15% pay cut and was reduced to a three day week. So I used the grant money to buy a couple of books, a travel card, and then the rest as rent to my parents.

    I'm hoping to do a masters in September and because it's going to cost €8,000, I'll need to get a loan from the bank because the most I'll be able to get grant-wise will be €2,000 if I'm lucky. My job won't even cover much because I also have a car and need to keep that running and am trying to give my parets rent money because I'm 24 and still living at home.

    It really does frustrate me that there are people who get grants and who squander it on utter ****e instead of what they're supposed to use it for, and some of them rarely even come to class...such a pain. I wish there was some sort of condition based on attendance but I don't know how that could be implemented. But at the same time, there are also a lot of people who use their grant money wisely and for the right purpose.


  • #59
    Mudmask
    Closed Accounts Posts: 145 ✭✭Mudmask


    I get the €6000 grant and I only get it because my circumstances are so bad. I would LOVE to be able to pay my own way or be supported by my parents but it just isn't possible.
    Even though I get the full grant, I am still dreading go back to college in September because I know I'll still be in debt or seriously stuck!!
    As for getting a job, I have literally been applying for them left right and center.
    So people saying that the grant should be scrapped are talking rubbish. I think being paid social welfare every week would be much more expensive than helping me get an education so I'll be able to get a job for myself in the future.


  • #60
    areyawell
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,435 ✭✭✭areyawell


    @pinkdiamond - May as well scrap the dole and put doctors,teachers,gardai on minimun wage as well sure. When you get a job the now the amount of tax people pay for the rest of there lives will have the grant paid of in a couple of years. The grant is needed, the bank will rarely give out loans these days to anyone unless they have some sort of income. Stop talking crap cause you had to work. boo hoo! Without the grant I would have not been able to go to college, would be working in a supermarket somewhere


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  • #61
    silversky
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 148 ✭✭silversky


    chattycatty wrote: »
    I am not saying every student parents is not declaring their means,just their a rather large proportion of the self employed and farming community children who are in receipt of grants that do not deserve it.

    So true, I've seen it in numerous colleges. The people who don't need the grant are getting it handed into their hand. Grand for them they can do up their accounts in a certain way but for the normal joe soap who actually needs the grant...well we're fecked.


  • #62
    irishbarb
    Registered Users Posts: 130 ✭✭irishbarb


    Well I am moving to Cork in September for college, my parents can literally not afford to give me a cent towards college or support me, and the grant will pay my rent only. I have no idea how I am going to buy food, never mind going out. I'm looking for a job, but with my lack of experience and the way things are right now, it's not looking likely that I'll get anything. I was on the dole this year after I left school, and could not secure a job for the life of me, even though I've sent out about 60 CVs. I think it's funny that the dole will give me 400 a month to sit at home all day everyday in my parents house, but nearly 100 less to move away and educate myself.

    I'm going to have to go to college as well as work evenings and weekends to put myself through college. Anyway, my point was that there are some of us out there that really rely on the grant to get an education. Not all of us have a nice few grand of college savings in the bank, or Mammy and Daddy to support us. Not a penny of my grant will ever be used to buy drink.


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