My brother threw away my future
Bit of background first:
I'm from a fairly affluent, middle-class familly. My grandparents had a butler. I went to public school. I know what a pastry fork is.

I have a brother who is four years older than me.

Due to our upbringing, both me and my brother did well at school. My brother also did okay in his A-levels and got place to read law at Southampton. And off he went. Due to fees and grants being means-tested, my parents had to support him in his studies so paid his fees, rent and a generous allowance each month.

Unfortunately, this was the first taste of freedom for my brother so all he did was drank Guiness, smoked weed and avoided lectures. He spectacularly failed first year but swore he would do better if he were allowed to resit the year, so my folks bankrolled him for another 12 months. He failed again. Next year, he would definitely pass, my parents' blue-eyed wonder boy spake once more and once more my parents funded his next twelve months.

This time, my brother used the money to fund a real ale stall for outdoor events. In Holland. Picking up a conviction for trying to import weed into the UK along the way.

My parents derailed the gravy train and home he came, to find a job.

A year after he came back, I passed my college course (my parents weren't too happy about me leaving public school and studyng with the poor, but it did me some good) and I got offered a place at Stafford Uni to study Software Engineering. Again, means testing meant that I would get somewhere between fuck and all from the government to fund my further education, but that was fine - my parents would pay.

Except they wouldn't. They said that they had wasted too much money on my brother and they wouldn't throw more away on me. So the only option was to stay in Liverpool to study. Checked Liverpool uni and the poly's - the Uni did the course I wanted but I didn't have the gardes to get in (since I did a BTEC, not A-levels) and the poly's didn't offer anything like what I wanted.

So I got a job and have worked ever since.

To be honest, it's taken some time for my lack of a degree to hold me back, but it's just starting to now.

Oh, and being the brother of a convicted drug trafficker stopped me from persuing my second chosen career of being a copper.

My wife won't let my brother in our house.
(ScousersPet, Wed 20 Aug 2008, 15:47, 10 replies)

That is pretty harsh :/
I had similar issues when I went to uni, except I pretty much moved out when I was 16 so didn't really see why my parent's (fairly substantial) income had anything to do with what help I was offered, I was entirely self-reliant and being means tested meant I would actually be put at such a disadvantage I couldn't have afforded to go.
( Jessie © needs pirate name suggestions, Wed 20 Aug 2008, 15:59, closed)

I can't say
that I blame her.

I had the opposite - big bro did so well at Univesity I had to do some fast talking to get out of going.

Just wasn't for me (at the time) but sometimes wish I had ....
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Wed 20 Aug 2008, 15:59, closed)

That's shit.
If one of my kids did that, they would have been cut off after the first year, and it would not affect the others.

I don't blame your wife at all. He sounds like a complete waste of skin.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Wed 20 Aug 2008, 16:06, closed)

^ what the loon said O_o
here, have this click:

*clicks*
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Wed 20 Aug 2008, 16:56, closed)

Yeah it is shit
But you could always go to uni as a mature student :) expensive but if you feel it is holding you back why not?
(DryGoldfish, Wed 20 Aug 2008, 22:13, closed)

What's a pastry fork?
(would sort of like to know, in a lazy way)
( Sea Tramp the thinking woman's 8 Ace, Thu 21 Aug 2008, 0:48, closed)

Mind you...
He's done you a favour with the copper thing.

Just watch those 'Cops chase kid in care' to see how arrogant they have all become.

...or stand outside our local at midnight on a Saturday.
(dchurch bah, Thu 21 Aug 2008, 7:55, closed)

...
@DryGoldfish:
Ironically / annoyingly enough, last year my brother restarted the degree he first made an attempt at a few decades back. He passed first year this time.

@ Sea Tramp:
It's a three-pronged fork where one of the prongs is a blade. It's used for eating cakes, pies etc. as you use the blade prong to slice your pastry product then pick the piece up with the rest of the fork. My in-laws find it hugely amusing that I know of any cutlery other than "knife, fork, big spoon, little spoon" and that I own egg spoons.
(ScousersPet, Thu 21 Aug 2008, 9:27, closed)

Part time studying
Study part time at night, that's what I had to do plus Unis nowadays are more likely to get you through your degree course.

I thought I would never get a degree but last year at the grand old age of 34 I got my BSc(Hons) in Computing.....my salary has sinve gone up by a third and my prospects are great!

Do it!!!!!!!!!
(Lip Up Fatty Fatty Reggae still loves BBQ food on, Thu 21 Aug 2008, 11:15, closed)

Meh
In the last couple of months, I've completed a Prince2 course, got my CIPD Certificate In Training Practice and finshed a Key Skills For Managers course. I shouldn't really need a degree...
(ScousersPet, Thu 21 Aug 2008, 14:18, closed)