Hi,

I need to buy a new laptop after my old one gave up the ghost yesterday. My preference is to buy another Chromebook, however i'm starting a Masters in Social Research in September and it did occur to me whether I would be better off having a Windows machine that could run MS Office.

What do people think- is this necessary? I know that Google has a free alternative to Office but being an extremely proficient user in Word/Excel/Access (due to work) I wonder if it makes sense to learn a new programme?

Any thoughts welcome. I'd rather keep costs down but my main priority is having something sufficient for my course.

A fairly 'light' topic for a Friday :)

I'm going to start my Master in September and was considering whether to buy a new laptop for it. I currently have a Chromebook, which I find perfect for my day to day stuff, but I was wondering whether I will need a Windows machine in order to run MS Office software. I'm doing a political research course which will inevitably require data manipulation.

Is it still possible to get student rates for MS Office?

Also - what is the normal thing for people to take into lectures/seminars now? Does everyone have laptops?

I emailed their parking department last week and they sent me some very curt replies along the lines of "sorry but no". I range the accommodation office earlier today to talk about general stuff and when I mentioned parking the adviser sounded a bit more hopeful and started looking into it for me . . . . . only to then tell me that I need to ring the parking department!

I was going to ask actually whether people felt that owning a car on campus is that important. I just don't want to sell mine.

I already checked with the scheme and they said that if I jumped through a number of hoops that they would consider letting me let it out for a maximum of one year. That doesn't really help me. Anyway, I feel that it's time for a change.

Thanks, I will give the accommodation office a ring to ask them for some advice.

I was looking at options for parking my car and I found one person who would be willing to rent their driveway for £500 for the year. It's only 5 mins walk from campus. I'm not sure it makes sense to be honest but I'm going to face real problems if I try to sell the car as it's cat d.

Thanks for the advice so far.

I can't rent out the house as I bought it using a 'help to buy' shared equity scheme and they strictly prohibit it. I did check with my mortgage company whether they would increase my mortgage so I could buy them out but they said they wouldn't on the basis of returning to studies and no longer having an income. Also I probably need some of the equity to do the Masters.

Does anyone think it would be a bit 'odd' for a 35 year old to live on campus if it's more normal for postgrads to house share? It's been 10 years now since i've shared a property with anyone and I have to say that I much prefer the idea of having a studio room to myself - even if it costs me a bit more. The car thing is annoying but I guess I could find a solution to it.

I should add that my intention would be to apply for PhD funding next year. If successful I suppose I would then gauge how much I spent during my masters year, look at the living cost grant and decide whether it was worth supplementing it with my savings to say living in halls.

Hi,

I've been accepted on a Masters course starting in September. I'm 34 now (will be 35 when I start) and have lived in my own house for the last 8 years, so this is going to be a big change for me. I'm almost certainly going to be selling my house as the university is on the other side of the country (and I need the money).

My intention from the start was to move into as good a room as possible on campus, and I have found that my uni has 'studio rooms' that contain a double bed, kitchen facilities and en-suite. However the cost is very high (£170 a week) and that has given me pause for thought. Also I found out yesterday that there is no prospect of me being able to get a permit to park my car whilst i'm there (and I'd really prefer not to sell it). So i've now started to think whether it would make more sense to just rent a small apartment near the campus. At least then I would have more of the mod-cons i've been used to and more space for me to bring stuff from my house.

I'm in two minds though as my intention of going back to uni was to throw myself into my studies and not worry about any of the stuff that has occupied my mind for the last 8 years (bills/house maintenance/every day commutes). Also I was looking forward to just being immersed in 'campus life' - by that i'm mean the non-alcohol/party related stuff - those days are long gone and obviously I'm aware that i'm going to be twice as old as the freshers on campus! But I understand that there will be mature student societies I can join.

I wonder if people have any advice/comments on this?

I've had a slightly different experience:

When I finished my BA at 20 my family were then expecting me to walk straight into a 'decent' job - it would be a bit of an understatement to say that they had unrealistic expectations of my career options. So after about 3 years of doing general admin temping they were very frustrated that I wasn't "using my degree" or on some 'proper' career path. As the years went on my jobs got a bit better (to the extent that I was able to buy a house with a government scheme) but my family still thought that I was wasting my potential. I suppose it didn't help that I never showed any signs of settling down with anyone.

So roll on 14 years and I have now decided to give up my job and house to return to uni to do my Masters. I was expecting my family to be opposed to the idea but they are all extremely supportive, almost relieved even. I think they've realized that after all these years of me trying to make it work that I'm never going to be content or successful in a generic office career. Their expectation have been readjusted and now just want me to do whatever I'm going to be happy with.

Once again, thank you for the replies - especially bewildered.

Yes, my university (I might as well say, York) has recommended the ESRC as the funding avenue. The tone of the email I received from their politics office suggested that applying now was a realistic opportunity, but I suppose they have to deal with a lot of queries and they don't want to put people off. Having read your post it just confirms my own suspicion that my chances of submitting an application now would be negligible given that i've only just started looking into it and my BA result.

Funding the Masters myself wouldn't be an issue, assuming that there was a good chance of getting the PhD funding to carry on.

Thanks

Do you think that the fact that I did reasonably poorly in my final year exams (mid to high 2:2s rather than the mid to high 2:1s I got in the second year) would impact my chances of being offered a place or even funding? I'm honestly not sure what happened with those exams, I probably slacked of a bit in my final year but not massively. I remember that I only finished with 61.7% in the end.

Thanks for the advice so far:

When I contacted my university they said that there was an option to have both the Masters and PHD funded - however the application date for that is the 1 February and I would already need an offer from them before I applied and that could take 6 weeks. Also I need a copy of my academic transcript, which i've ordered but can take up to 15 days. So basically I don't have the time to apply. However there is nothing stopping me from doing the MA (possibly with some university funding included) and then applying for the PHD funding next year.

When I say I don't like the corporate culture I mean I don't like the office politics and meaningless 'double speak' that goes on on a daily basis. I've no issue with a target-driven environment that expects results at an efficient cost, in fact that appeals to me. I worked in the public sector for 4 years and I disliked the lack of professionalism and focus that I experienced.

I really need to look into this more as at the moment i'm not even sure what doing a PHD entails or what career options would be available. But like you said, if it was funded it would at the least be learning new skills and open up more opportunities for little cost. A large part of me wants to do this because I really want to make a fundamental change to how i'm living my life - earning a good salary has it's benefits obviously but it's also leading me down a road of consumerism that I really don't like. When you spending your days on Amazon or weekends in Ikea just decided what else to buy.

Hi,

I'm considering returning to studies and was after some general advice. I'd been pondering this for the last year or so, but after getting some news at work that my position might end soon i'm now looking into it more seriously.

To summarise: I got my 2:1 in Economics and Politics from a decent university back in 2004. At the time I had no idea what I wanted to do but I never really considered staying on beyond the BA . However 12 years on and the best I can say about my career is that 'it pays the bills'.It not just that I don't like my work, I hate the entire corporate culture.

So i've come to the conclusion that I would like to pursue an academic career in a politic. I never lost interest in the subject and I continue to read around it. I contacted my old university who suggested that I should apply for their MA in Social Research and then continue into the PHD. They said that there were good funding opportunities open for this. I've looked at the course and it certainly appeals to me and just the idea of using my brain every day.

I'm trying now to work out all the things involved and whether this is a good idea or not. I have no responsibilities, no relationship or kids. I have a house with plenty of equity that I could use to fund at least the first couple of years if the other funding opportunities fall though. I suppose my main worry is the same as everyone else that considers this - that I will miss the money and comfort that my career gives me and that if I decide that the grass wasn't greener after all that I won't be able to go back to it.

Any help welcome.