Student finance and accommodation

Iwantmoney

Hello, I am writing here because I am wondering about student finance and student accomodation. I live around 150 kilometers from the college I want to go to in 2016, so everyday drive is not possible for me as I am a young, unexperienced driver and driving at as early times as 6 AM is not an option for me. At the same time it's not possible for me to afford a flat in Cork, as my family doesn't earn too much money. I was wondering if there are such things as "free of charge flats" for students accepted for the CAO grants? Or any grants enlargements that would cover the cost of renting a flat? The college i want to go to is the CIT.
Thanks in advance for all the answers.

PaulRyan17

CAO grant? As in the SUSI grant? If your parents don't "earn too much money" then you should be able to get the full SUSI grant and you will be able to move to Cork and live in student accommodation. Sadly there is no such thing as "free of charge flats".

Iwantmoney

PaulRyan17 wrote: »

CAO grant? As in the SUSI grant? If your parents don't "earn too much money" then you should be able to get the full SUSI grant and you will be able to move to Cork and live in student accommodation. Sadly there is no such thing as "free of charge flats".

Is it so that then the grant mostly covers the cost of the accommodation? Because I recently found out that the cost of accommodation for a "year" (academic year) is 3.3 thousand euro.. So if i'd go to cork for four years, i'd have to sell a kidney first or something.. (The kidney part is just a joke)

PaulRyan17

Ok, so if your accommodation costs were 3,300 euro then roughly every month would be 400 if you say the college year is 8 months long. You should be able to get accomo for 300-350 a month so that will save you some money. If you use the grant wisely you will easily survive. You get your grant each year.

Iwantmoney

If the family earnings is around 4000-5000 per year, what would be the (speculated) amount of grant i would get?

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy

Iwantmoney wrote: »

i'd have to sell a kidney first or something..

That's what I done. But if you put your head down and get good marks, you should be able to land a well paying job, and buy another one.

PaulRyan17

First thing your family earn more than 4 - 5 thousand a year, I think you got your figures wrong. Second thing just go to the SUSI website

Iwantmoney

PaulRyan17 wrote: »

First thing your family earn more than 4 - 5 thousand a year, I think you got your figures wrong. Second thing just go to the SUSI website

Nope, that number is correct. I already browsed through the website, but all the information written there is witten in such a confusing way that i just simply cant understand it..

PaulRyan17

If your family earn 4 - 5 thousand a year, that is the equivalent of the minimum pay on social welfare for someone under 24. So it would be a 100 euro a week. Your figures can't be right, social welfare would pay a lot more than 4-5 thousand a year to a family.

As far as SUSI goes, if only one of your parents are working and they are earning below 35,000(could be higher, could be lower) you will get the full grant which I think now is roughly 6,000 for the college year and your fees will also be paid

Occono

PaulRyan17 wrote: »

If your family earn 4 - 5 thousand a year, that is the equivalent of the minimum pay on social welfare for someone under 24. So it would be a 100 euro a week. Your figures can't be right, social welfare would pay a lot more than 4-5 thousand a year to a family.

As far as SUSI goes, if only one of your parents are working and they are earning below 35,000(could be higher, could be lower) you will get the full grant which I think now is roughly 6,000 for the college year and your fees will also be paid

Someone under 25. Unless I missed something, I was on €100 a week until I was 25, not 24.

The Randy Riverbeast

If your family have little money you could get up to 5900 a year to cover living expenses. The 3000 registration fee would be covered so you only have to pay the student levy which is around 2-3 hundred. The academic year is only about 9 months as well so it works out at just over 620 a month once you take out the levy.

Contact SUSI with more accurate into about income and they should be able to explain it to you.

Would you consider looking into digs? They're a lot cheaper than normal student accommodation.

Iwantmoney

Deleted User wrote: »

Would you consider looking into digs? They're a lot cheaper than normal student accommodation.

Could you explain to me what the digs are and what's the difference between them?

Digs are essentially when you live in a family home as opposed to student accommodation. They're normally a lot cheaper than usual, but you'll be living with a family. It might be worth contacting the accommodation office in your college and seeing if anyone can provide you with more information.

Iwantmoney

If i would get atleast 300 euro monthly from susi grants, i think i would be able to put the things together if i found a job for the weekends. So my last question is, what is the chance of getting 300 euro monthly from grants?

Occono

Iwantmoney wrote: »

If i would get atleast 300 euro monthly from susi grants, i think i would be able to put the things together if i found a job for the weekends. So my last question is, what is the chance of getting 300 euro monthly from grants?

I got €2400 a year, in three lump sums of €800.