Are you going to university and why?
And if you are are you staying in dorms or at your house?

we had a talk today about all the problems and the benefits and at the moment the problems completely outweigh the benefits, its mental. Especially for England where costs have gone from like 3k to 9k, what are your views and opinions on universities and are you as depressed as I am about it all or considering quitting school before uni.

I don't think University (or College) is for everyone.

I think a lot of people are better off going to a technical/trade school rather than trying out Uni or college. The jobs quite often pay better and the amount of time you spend in school is lower.

Just depends on what you want.

Awesome-Kid : sorry to sound nosy but how much is your funding and where are you from, iask the last one because funding differs in different cointries, thanks just trying to get an idea of what people think about college/uni and a price range of everything really

University is kinda upper in the college chain...not for me in the future, just a regular college.

Awesome-Kid : oh yeah i should of just looked at your post status thing on the left silly me :p good luck getting the money and doing the course

Nope I am in community college, tuition and books cost like 2000 dollars or less with financial aid, but once I go to graduate college to get degree it will be 4-7k for everything.

I am going to University to get a bachelor's degree in commercial design, and college for web development. Five years of school, but it's focused on something I totally love doing and want to make a career of (that I'm sure of)... Plus most of it is paid for by my RESP. I'm excited and happy to be able to get that kind of education.

The cost in total is $40,000, but I am totally able to make $10,000 (the portion not covered) in five years. That's only $2,000 a year.

It really depends on what you are planning to do with your life and whether you want to continue learning. I go to a Private Christian Liberal Arts College and I'm studying Physics with a minor in Mathematics. I want to go to grad school (if my grades hold) and study to be a professor and teach college in Physics. Our college requires first and second year students to stay in a dorm, then they can do whatever after that.

What Liberal Art Colleges tend to do is that they require you to take intro classes in many different fields that you do not necessarily need in your major AND the classes for your particular major. This is to expand the student's mind in being able to understand at least the basic components of different fields to be a more whole person in terms of your understanding of the world. For example, as a physics major, the study of music is somewhat irrelevant to my field, but we are required to take both "Intro to Music" and "Art Survey." I personally love this setup, because I expand on different things other than Physics, and it is something that I can sometimes relate to my friends even though I am not in the same major as them. If I have space on my schedule, I would want to sign up for a class for fun.

As for money is concerned, private schools tend to be expensive but most of them give more grants than scholarships. My tuition is about $35,000 but because of financial aid and grants, I need to pay a fraction of that amount. Public State schools are cheaper when in state (depending on which school) and they may give more scholarships than grants.

To me, universities and college are places for people who want to learn.

play4fun : teach college in physics ;p but yeah i getcha, i think uni's and colleghes all over the world do that other intro scheme i know alot of the uni's i want to go to do that, also i hear that taking part in activities in a uni is not only dirt cheap but will look good on your cv and so on liek taking part in a rowing club or w/e else, good luck in becoming a proffesor im sure you'll make it I want to be a lawyer so my parents are VERY keen on the fact of me going to uni as am i really but the question of money isnt can i afford it because my parents cant im getting it all on a loan and a grant but the grants given are sooo small now we had this financial day at school and we calaculated that if i indeed want to go to the university i wanted to i'd be in over  £20k debt, the other unis are mostly around this number anyway too :/

I'm on state funded study, I don't even know how much I should pay when otherwise.
Well, if I should pay, I probably wouldn't be in uni, because
currently I am not working and my parents support me.
Would be nothing without them...
I live in an apartment, monthly it costs150 euros.
We get money from the state based on our results, 40% of the best get 54 euros each month,
I'm lucky to be one of those.
And 28 euros for travel expenses (for those who originally live in another city).

Everything depends on choices, lifestyle ones.
I can live in a crappy apartment and have privacy, dorms don't have that.

edit: ah plus we don't have to buy books, we can just take them from the library.

I'm currently attending the University of Florida to get my dual degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Our state gets the Bright Futures Scholarship, but that only covers tuition costs. Even with the top award, I find my funding will be decreasing this year. As others have said, it's not for everyone, but it's like an investment: have to put money in so you may get good education/training to make money later. We're not required to stay on campus, though. The dorms can be more expensive anyway.

I'm also from England and I graduated from university last year. I would say definitely stay in dorms if you go to uni. You get far more of the uni experience (which I think is just as important as in self development as getting a qualification for the future). With the rise in tuition fees I'm not sure I'd do to university now if I was in your situation.

I'd say its definitely worth going to uni for the social experience, all the parties, moving away from home (you need to actually move into dorms and throw yourself in with 2 feet to get this fully) but from a qualification point of view I would say that depends on what you want to do. I studied History and the degree hasn't helped me since graduating, because its too general and having a degree isn't necessarily enough anymore to stand out for a job. If you have a specific career in mind where a specific degree in required (eg become a doctor) then go to uni, otherwise it might not be beneficial.

I don't like the idea of 4 to 8 extra years of self-imposed highly advanced learning, but at the same time, unless you have super connections, if you want to succeed in life, then you need to go to college. I will probably enjoy living in the dorms, but I won't like the massive amounts of work and the uncaring professors that merely lecture in front of the class without seeing if you have learned anything. Taking notes will be difficult and studying will be difficult, and so will homework, but I don't wanna work at McDonald's for rest of my life. But it will be interesting to enjoy life on my own for the first time in my life without my parents in the picture. But that can also be a negative, because I will have to learn to hold myself accountable and discipline myself in order to succeed. I'm a senior in high school and I have very mixed feelings about attending college. Both excitement and fear colliding.

  I've always kind of been on the ball about going to University.  I mean, I realize that in the economy that we I'm growing up in that it would be hard to "happily" make my way through life, but at the same time, I don't want to spend a quarter of my life in school.  If I did go to University, I would just go somewhere close to home like the UofC (university of Calgary) because I don't have any interest in living in a dorm and would rather live in an apartment or small living house with my girlfriend or roommates.

  I know for a lot of people, the cost of post secondary education going up is a big wall on the path to education; this is also a big concern of mine because I am not in the most "financially stable" living arrangements at the moment, and paying student loans for the next 20 years isn't so exciting in my mind either.

  to tell you the honest truth, posting this has put me off of going to university even further...  Just confusing myself even more...

I'm currently enrolled in the dual program at my community college (high school/college, where you take some classes at each) and will be full time there next year, but after a couple years there I do plan to transfer to the University of Maryland. I plan on studying mechanical engineering there, and I'm not worried about cost; we're already looking into a co-op program with a local navy base that would pay for all my classes provided I work there.
As for housing, that's still uncertain. The university is about an hour and a half drive from my house with good traffic, but I may be able to take most of my classes at a closer location through the co-op, so if I do I'll probably stay at home; unless of course my girlfriend's plan works out, in which case we'll be married and have an apartment or town house together by then (she sure is a planner XD).