Hello/Goodbye/General Chat thread

[JLogan]

Actually I agree with you for a bit. But it has turned around now. Things have got epic once again

That might be true, but I'm not willing to watch through the soap opera just to get to the good parts again. I'd rather just borrow the comics from my friend.

 

[Jordan]

That might be true, but I'm not willing to watch through the soap opera just to get to the good parts again. I'd rather just borrow the comics from my friend.

The TV show don't exactly follow the comics
Actually, the comics don't even have the best character in the series. Daryl Dixon

 

[JLogan]

The TV show don't exactly follow the comics

I know this ... Still rather read the comics than continue to watch the show.

 

[Martee]

Hai everyone.

 

[Sam1]

Hai everyone.

Ahoy there!

 

[Martee]

Ahoy there!

Hows it going there Sam?

 

[Sam1]

Hows it going there Sam?

Good. I purchased 16 children's books from money raised on thebookstore.co.nz. They will go to families who can't afford presents. I got to pick out some of my old favourites which was fun.

Today I completed my student loan application (I hope)- free monies!!!

What about yourself?

 

[Jordan]

Good. I purchased 16 children's books from money raised on thebookstore.co.nz. They will go to families who can't afford presents. I got to pick out some of my old favourites which was fun.

Today I completed my student loan application (I hope)- free monies!!!

What about yourself?

Wow. That is really interesting Sam! You are doing a great job there helping out your local community like that.

 

[Martee]

Good. I purchased 16 children's books from money raised on thebookstore.co.nz. They will go to families who can't afford presents. I got to pick out some of my old favourites which was fun.

Today I completed my student loan application (I hope)- free monies!!!

What about yourself?

Pretty neat mate! I've just secured £1000 to continue my charity project in my college.

I hope you get your free moniez. I've just sent off my Uni application myself, don't need to do finance stuff for a few months yet over here. Just hope I get the offers first!

What you looking to do at Uni? (As I'm guessing thats what the loan is for )

 

[Sam1]

Wow. That is really interesting Sam! You are doing a great job there helping out your local community like that.

Thank you Jordan! I hope to really push the project next year and raise much more.

Pretty neat mate! I've just secured £1000 to continue my charity project in my college.

I hope you get your free moniez. I've just sent off my Uni application myself, don't need to do finance stuff for a few months yet over here. Just hope I get the offers first!

What you looking to do at Uni? (As I'm guessing thats what the loan is for )

Thank you! Did the funding come from your college or another organisation? That's really cool. What are you spending the funds on?

Yep- loan is for Uni. I don't qualify for the real free money which is a government student allowance (because of my parents' income) but this is interest free until I graduate and start working. I am planning on studying for a conjoint degree: BCom (Finance) and BA (Logic and Computation). I'll get to do some computer science papers which is cool...

 

[Martee]

Thank you! Did the funding come from your college or another organisation? That's really cool. What are you spending the funds on?

Yep- loan is for Uni. I don't qualify for the real free money which is a government student allowance (because of my parents' income) but this is interest free until I graduate and start working. I am planning on studying for a conjoint degree: BCom (Finance) and BA (Logic and Computation). I'll get to do some computer science papers which is cool...

The 1K came from the organisation of the challenge that I won last year. It's a 'legacy grant' in order to keep the project going. We already spent our £1,500 charity donation on 5 iPad Minis which I then donated to my colleges charity in order to help the guys with more complex needs get the work done in lessons. It's made a good difference already I think!

I get the interest free until start working as well, yay! Although this free money sounds good ;o I'm eligble for a maintenance grant (Pay for travel costs, etc) but I'll be living at home whilstat Uni (if I get in) so I don't need much. xD

And they sound cool, haha, I'm sure you'll ace 'em! Which my chosen courses included some CS stuff, alas, I've chosen to follow a different route. xD

 

[Sam1]

The 1K came from the organisation of the challenge that I won last year. It's a 'legacy grant' in order to keep the project going. We already spent our £1,500 charity donation on 5 iPad Minis which I then donated to my colleges charity in order to help the guys with more complex needs get the work done in lessons. It's made a good difference already I think!

I get the interest free until start working as well, yay! Although this free money sounds good ;o I'm eligble for a maintenance grant (Pay for travel costs, etc) but I'll be living at home whilstat Uni (if I get in) so I don't need much. xD

And they sound cool, haha, I'm sure you'll ace 'em! Which my chosen courses included some CS stuff, alas, I've chosen to follow a different route. xD

That's awesome. Technology is becoming a very important part of school learning. This year at my school they have BYOD (bring your own devices) for juniors (13/14 year olds). I can remember walking past a classroom and thinking how odd it was to see everyone with their laptops up in Maths.

I suppose accom is expensive in the UK so it makes sense to stay at home. I'm moving to the largest city in NZ - Auckland- if I get accepted (just need a certain grade) and going into a hall of residence.

My main focus is commerce and I want to do something in business/ finance but CS and logic gives me an added extra and other career opportunities + it will be a different challenge.

 

[Martee]

That's awesome. Technology is becoming a very important part of school learning. This year at my school they have BYOD (bring your own devices) for juniors (13/14 year olds). I can remember walking past a classroom and thinking how odd it was to see everyone with their laptops up in Maths.

I suppose accom is expensive in the UK so it makes sense to stay at home. I'm moving to the largest city in NZ - Auckland- if I get accepted (just need a certain grade) and going into a hall of residence.

My main focus is commerce and I want to do something in business/ finance but CS and logic gives me an added extra and other career opportunities + it will be a different challenge.

That sounds like quite a cool scheme to be honest, doubt my college would do it though. They'd just complain about insurance and stuff should students break/lose them even if they are not liable :L Way too conscious of safety/law >_<

Suppose it would be, haha. We're entitled to up to £5K (Dependent upon parents income) and £7K if you're living in London during study. However, I've heard that the 7K allowance doesn't really last when it comes to renting a place! Plus then it gets added back on to the repayments. My repayment would be £27K after graduation or 50K if I take out the maintenance loan, so no thanks on that one!

Now I seriously want to to swap my options for CS haha. Suppose I'll see if I can find a computer club or something to satisfy my needs, haha. You'll have to share how awesome it is though

 

[Sam1]

That sounds like quite a cool scheme to be honest, doubt my college would do it though. They'd just complain about insurance and stuff should students break/lose them even if they are not liable :L Way too conscious of safety/law >_<

Suppose it would be, haha. We're entitled to up to £5K (Dependent upon parents income) and £7K if you're living in London during study. However, I've heard that the 7K allowance doesn't really last when it comes to renting a place! Plus then it gets added back on to the repayments. My repayment would be £27K after graduation or 50K if I take out the maintenance loan, so no thanks on that one!

Now I seriously want to to swap my options for CS haha. Suppose I'll see if I can find a computer club or something to satisfy my needs, haha. You'll have to share how awesome it is though

I think my school paid someone whose iphone was either stolen or lost... Then we had a bording house kid who stole my friends laptop and another. My friend had a 3000 word Chem internal that he needed to hand in on it and was going to have to redo the entire thing. Luckily this kid had gotten greedy and stolen two laptops. The other was a Mac and they were able to track it using the inbuilt function to this guys room in the bording house. He was expelled.

In NZ we get:

Student Loan (Interest Free until you leave):
$174 per week for accom. (covers half my halls fees)
$ALL course costs (about $5000- 6000 a year). So our government funds 2/3 of the cost of Uni but the other 1/3 is funded by us. However you can just put it on your loan.
$1000 toward other course related costs like text books.

Overall I end up borrowing $13,000 a year and have to find roughly $12,000 (which my parents will have to pay unless I get a job or something).

Student Allowance- non repayable (full if your parents earn under $54,000 and partial if your parents earn up to $90,000):
Maximum $171 a week + $40 accommodation benefit.

You really want to limit the amount you have to repay otherwise you'll spend years working off your debt. Over 4 years of study, I will have a student debt of around $52,000.

I'll probably be the worst in the class at computer science- from what I've heard a lot of maths geniuses do it. It should still be a lot of fun and very useful. I'm sure there are other programming classes- like night classes- which you could do.

 

[Martee]

Well, this is what I'm eligible for (according to a fancy calculator)

and this is what I'm looking at paying back (I'll only take £500 from the Maintenance loan if anything, the grant I wont have to pay )

The repay comes out £75K if I were to take out the 2.7k maintenance loan so I was like noooooo.

The degree I'm looking at doing says once graduated we generally have the highest starting graduate salary so that made me happy. Haha. We're screwed finacially for the next 20 year either way, haha. The cost of academia!

And I wouldn't care about being rubbish at CS @Sam . You like it, you want to learn it and that's all that matters!

 

[Sam1]

Well, this is what I'm eligible for (according to a fancy calculator)

and this is what I'm looking at paying back (I'll only take £500 from the Maintenance loan if anything, the grant I wont have to pay )

The repay comes out £75K if I were to take out the 2.7k maintenance loan so I was like noooooo.

The degree I'm looking at doing says once graduated we generally have the highest starting graduate salary so that made me happy. Haha. We're screwed finacially for the next 20 year either way, haha. The cost of academia!

And I wouldn't care about being rubbish at CS @Sam . You like it, you want to learn it and that's all that matters!

So does your tuition loan cover your Uni fees?

And what exactly is the degree you want to do next year?

16 years 5 months- urgh! You'll be like mid- late 30s before you pay it off. We don't have that fancy calculator, we only have one which works out your living costs and how you can fund it. Maybe the government want us to be indebted to them :shady:. Basically though you have to get a degree, unless you become an entrepreneur, otherwise you won't get the jobs.

In NZ, the highest grad pay would be a junior doctor (I think they earn around $150,000- $190,000). If you mean after a bachelors then probably engineering. Commerce is done by a bunch of people and some will end up earning loads and others not as much.

 

[Martee]

So does your tuition loan cover your Uni fees?

And what exactly is the degree you want to do next year?

16 years 5 months- urgh! You'll be like mid- late 30s before you pay it off. We don't have that fancy calculator, we only have one which works out your living costs and how you can fund it. Maybe the government want us to be indebted to them :shady:. Basically though you have to get a degree, unless you become an entrepreneur, otherwise you won't get the jobs.

In NZ, the highest grad pay would be a junior doctor (I think they earn around $150,000- $190,000). If you mean after a bachelors then probably engineering. Commerce is done by a bunch of people and some will end up earning loads and others not as much.

The tuition fee is the Uni fees as far as I know. The maintenance is to pay for books and crap like that. That's how It was explained to me anyway.

My choices are (too lazy to type, insert picture )

Certainly not getting a doctors pay though, sheesh. The course description says "Economics graduates are on average, one of the highest earners. A new economics graduate can expect to earn £25,637 a year, £4,673 more than the average graduate and £9,388 more than a non-graduate*." so I'm just going by that, haha.

I think me being a doctor would be a terrible idea...although that sounds insane. I might have to come live in NZ and take the jobs.

 

[Sam1]

You and the rest of the UK. New Zealand is a favourite for UK emigrants it seems. I have 12 Facebook friends born in the Uk.

Yeah - there is a lot of anger over doctors pay but for high end professional jobs you have to pay the rate other countries are prepared to pay. Otherwise they get educated in NZ and then leave (and the government has spent money educating them for no benefit). What really pissed me off was a doctor living in Australia earning huge sums of money who hadn't paid off her large student loan. She thought she was entitled to keep the money and not pay it back. They had to take her to court.

I see - I did watch one person apply for UK unis (for economics too)- you get one site to submit applications through. We're stuck in the early 2000s with a non-integrated system. That's why I only applied for 1 Uni because the score I have to get to be admitted is the same for the other one I would have gone for.

I'm passionate about science but being a doctor has never really appealed to me. Too many rules, a poor environment and long working hours. Your only compensation is the pay and prestige. One thing that substantiated my belief that being a doctor would be crap was seeing a senior medical person on TV basically saying they'd done nothing but watch a man die from a super bug. They'd contained him sure but from my biology knowledge, even I know of one thing they could have tried. Bloody rules.

 

[Martee]

You and the rest of the UK. New Zealand is a favourite for UK emigrants it seems. I have 12 Facebook friends born in the Uk.

Yeah - there is a lot of anger over doctors pay but for high end professional jobs you have to pay the rate other countries are prepared to pay. Otherwise they get educated in NZ and then leave (and the government has spent money educating them for no benefit). What really pissed me off was a doctor living in Australia earning huge sums of money who hadn't paid off her large student loan. She thought she was entitled to keep the money and not pay it back. They had to take her to court.

I see - I did watch one person apply for UK unis (for economics too)- you get one site to submit applications through. We're stuck in the early 2000s with a non-integrated system. That's why I only applied for 1 Uni because the score I have to get to be admitted is the same for the other one I would have gone for.

I'm passionate about science but being a doctor has never really appealed to me. Too many rules, a poor environment and long working hours. Your only compensation is the pay and prestige. One thing that substantiated my belief that being a doctor would be crap was seeing a senior medical person on TV basically saying they'd done nothing but watch a man die from a super bug. They'd contained him sure but from my biology knowledge, even I know of one thing they could have tried. Bloody rules.

I think the whole Australia/NZ area is a big hit over here. From what I've read (which admittedly isn't much) you have a fairly booming economy with lots of jobs so I know a lot of Irish people have emigrated as Ireland is worse off than where I am. I'd move over but I'm already set on where I want to live my life, ha-ha.


Doctors get paid a large amount over here as well, ha-ha. I read something that said GPs (General Practioners) get a starting salary of 54K (double average living salary here I think) but in reality most get 80-90K to work a 9-5 job with weekends off. People are so mad at that, ha-ha. But like you said, you need to pay to keep the talent. I'm proud of our NHS

Just not the way it blows cash...I don't want to move to America's Insurance system add


Well, this is the site if you want a look - http://www.ucas.com/ - the UI/UX leaves much to be desired but it simple and all integrated. All I have to is fill in my qualifications, choices, details and so on and pay the £23 to submit. Still stressful but much less stressful than it would be without it lol.


I think we're sort of the same over here in that respect. Too many rules and regulations governing all the stuff that we should be doing. For example, I can't get medicine that I've had for 6-7 years without seeing a counsellor/Mental health doctor. Keep in mind this is only a sleeping tablet to increase my relaxation hormone levels so I can sleep at night. They act like I'm depressed: L


Can sort of understand why they have it, but to just let people go into the abyss without trying something is beyond my comprehension. Surely as a doctor your job is to try your best to save lives, not just sit there and do nothing. ;/

 

[Jordan]

Holy crap, Paying back more than doubled of what you got :O Interest is high in the uk or something?

The degree I'm looking at doing says once graduated we generally have the highest starting graduate salary so that made me happy. Haha. We're screwed finacially for the next 20 year either way, haha. The cost of academia!

Don't forget that's as of this moment Times changes, and jobs changes on a daily basis. By the time you finish schooling that paycheck might be cut in half