Primrose Kitten

If you have a child or children when you apply to university, you are going to raise some extra challenges. But along with these extra challenges, there is a massive level of extra support and you have your awesome parenting skills to go with it.

Whether you are 18 applying to university with a young child or whether you're a mature student applying with a few children who are in school, you have some fantastic parenting skills that are going to see you a long way to succeeding at university. Trust me, I know that being a parent is hard, but without even realizing it, you have done some fantastic amazing things.

Because you are a parent, you are better at time management, you are better at prioritizing tasks, you are better at multitasking, and you are better at seeing through tasks to completion. This is all because a small person's life depends upon you doing these things, and these are skills that you've acquired just during your day to day life, but each of these is going to do you really well and help you succeed at university. You may decide that you want to move into halls and there are halls on university campuses with any university accommodation that are set up geared towards families. There are also going to be nursery places and childcare facilities on campuses and within university locations. Now there are limits to the number of places that are available, so don't apply to a university and assume that you're going to get given suitable accommodation so you may have to decide when you apply to a university that's a little bit closer to your support network so that you can stay within that system. Every single university knows that people who have children are going to be applying, so you are not going to be the only person in this situation, very quickly you're going to find others in the same situation as you. There are going to be support networks, clubs and societies set up, and they're going to be geared towards helping you. No university is not going to offer you a place just because you are a parent, they recognize the extra skills that comes with this and they recognize that they are set up to support you, especially in a way because you are a parent. They want the best students that they can possibly get, irrespective of your personal circumstances. When you are applying for the living cost part of your student loan because you have a child you're automatically considered to be an independent student, which means your parents' income is not going to be taken into account, by the level of loan that you are given, which means you are going to get higher level of loan than potentially some of your peers. The government's childcare grant will pay up to 85% of your childcare cost, and this is paid in a lump sum at the same time as your student loan. You can also get the parents' living allowance which is paid as a lump sum for you, which you don't have to pay this back, and if you're a lone parent or both parents are students, then you can qualify.

For some extra benefits such as income support, housing benefit, and chat counts with tax benefits. Lots of universities also provide additional support for all student parents. If you’re a parent, if you have young children, if you have a few young children and you're considering applying to university, then it is an absolutely fantastic step. By doing this you are going to be improving  your future job prospects, you will be setting a great example for your children and hopefully making sure your children's outcome in life is improved.