The cost of missing out on university

Can you imagine the cost of missing out on university ?

Now, I am not talking about a specialist role which needs a degree, but rather (as tends to be common) someone who has no particular direction, but thinks that uni will be a good option for a few years, because all their pals are going there.

The big question here is, are you willing to invest a huge amount of YOUR FUTURE money on the speculation that you may get a better outcome.  Let’s see…

Uni costs, lets say tuition at £9k a year, accommodation at £4k a year, and then of course the social life (obviously I mean books and spending time in the library).  Probably, a total of somewhere between £15-20k a year on average I would guess. Multiply that by 3 years, and let’s say that is around £50k which you are investing on chance.

Meanwhile, the A level leaver is earning perhaps around £15-20k a year in their new job.

On graduation day, you are at least £100k down on the deal.

All may not quite be what it seems however. Let’s not forget the extra 3 years of work which the A level leaver has put in – the salary at the end of their career is the key thing, which may be, lets say £50K. So there goes another £100k. Many top entrepreneurs didn’t go to uni, so just think what some of their earnings are in the last three years! Of course, to be fair and to balance all of this, the graduate may have had accelerated earnings over their career, but there is no guarantee of that.

Of course, this is a high level look at figures, and we could drill down into the smallest of detail, but this is about the concept of delaying starting work. Are you prepared to invest that amount (maybe £200,000) in your future, and if you are, maybe you will take university life a little more seriously than I did (back in the day of grants and the very first student loan of £660).

So if today, you are still feeling down in the dumps, or just trying to make up your mind what to do after A levels, maybe this will help.  Maybe it will give some clarity, and make you feel more at ease as your pals who are now getting excited about Freshers week, may also be walking into a financial picture which might be £200k worse off than you.

Together we can bring some Serenity to your life.