Profiting out of college grants?

Like many students, i’m applying for a grant. I won’t get a full grant (well, highly unlikely), but i should get a 75% grant.

A full grant is €3,420.

A 75% grant is €2,565, so that’s what i’m hoping for.

Realistically, if i stay at home during college and travel up/down each day, it will cost me around €50/petrol per week. If you get a grant, you automatically get your €800 registration fee paid for you :cool:

€50 petrol a week by say 25 weeks is €1250.

So it costs me €1250 to literally attend college.

So let’s assume i get a 75% grant (€2565). That’s €1315 pure ‘profit’. Now on one hand i’m expected to live on that for a year by the government :roll:

But on the other hand, if i can up my online earnings to €25/week, which isn’t too far away atm, that’s €50/week i’ll have after travel expenses. I could just about live on that.

I’m no longer paying ‘rent’ to my parents as they know i’m working online and need time, plus i’ll be heading to college so it’s virtually impossible to pin down a part-time job, college AND this online stuff.. impossible to succeed at all 3 i should add, not impossible to do :wink:

So that’s the cash i have to live on.. not going near my savings.. it’s comforting as it means i don’t need a job until next summer AT LEAST. At which stage i should be earning enough online as i would be in a regular dead end job. So hopefully i’ll get this grant and my future as a full time daily blogger should be secure for another 12 months :mrgreen:

  • tom

    I got 50% last year and I really needed it. I lived away from home so it costed roughly €100 per week excluding rent, including books, food, nites out etc.
    I got 3 payments of €500 in the year and just when I needed them:

    september
    just after christmas
    end of march

  • http://www.smemon.com smemon87

    yeah i reckon including rent i’d be looking at €170/week to stay on campus.

    i reckon over 25 weeks, i’d save approx €2,500, multiply that by 3 and staying on campus would mean over 3 years, i’d have to fork out €7500 MORE than if i stayed at home.

    Madness..

  • http://www.lordbloggit.com/ Lord Bloggit

    You’ll save money by living at home …. I hope you live close enough to the college or you’ll spend your time travelling!

    Which means you’ll have to be very organised ….. and not forget a book etc.

    Living at home means you’ll also have some of your college socialising curtailed …. the upside being you’ll save money and not have a sore head too often! :mrgreen:

  • http://www.smemon.com smemon87

    yeah i’m an hours drive away, so i’ll lose 2 hours a day driving.. not ideal, but i’ll get over it.

    afaik my course is around 20-25 hours so it won’t be 9-5 boring hours 5 days a week..

    but like you say, i’ll be saving cash – i reckon €7500 over 3 years.

    plus i have all the luxuries of home like my double bed, 3 toilets, my own tv etc.. none of that is guaranteed if i stay away :cool:

  • Sage

    hi nice post, i enjoyed it

  • http://www.bebo.com/dannyb2275 Daniel Burke

    Hi just wondering about the grant scheme im very uneasy at the moment as i just finished my first year in lit and for many reasons, my attendance was quite poor for most of the year… If i fail a subject, and fail again in august, does that mean I will have to pay fees and not get a grant for next year?? Because a few people were saying it and I just want to make sure if its true or not…

  • http://www.smemon.com smemon

    yip, if you have to repeat a year (i.e fail a subject twice in summer & august) then you won’t get a grant for 2nd year and have to pay all yourself, including a 1500 registration fee which comes in this september.

    the stakes are very much raised from now on – there is more pressure on people to pass first time around…

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