u/Real-Cicada-7634

So far, my debt is roughly £30k, from FY and1Y, and due to take out roughly another £35k for 2Y, PY 4Y tuitions and bare essential accommodation (~£65k total). Since I have turned 25, I could claim the full amount of ~£10k-11k on the maintenance loan as I do not have any income, for rough £75k total. I'm not sure if I should do that, however

I do not really know how to model the interest accumulation, but from what I have attempted so far, there's an uncanny valley in between £50k (where I wouldn't pay off the 65k before 40 years) and £90k+ (where I earn enough for the extra payments to not be large enough to worry about) where I am punished heavily by taking the extra amount or would have been able to pay off the lesser amount. It would also mean I am highly sensitive to interest rate changes.

However, the extra £10k could be very handy. It could pay for relocation after graduation, help on the placement year for housing or contribute to a house deposit etc. As I am contemplating moving abroad, so I was thinking that the extra £10k plus my savings and placement earning could give m a good launch pad to do so. It's weighing up if it is likely I will end up in the uncanny valley, and I have no clue.

I have big dreams of high end battery chemistry jobs, but don't we all have those dreams. It's unlikely I would earn too much upon graduation, so I am wondering that even if I got a well paying job later, that the interest accrued from the early years of lower paying jobs would create a runaway situation where I wouldn't have been able to pay even if my debt was originally £65k; I would have turned down £10k of free money, effectively.

I am 24 and looking to make a few friends and I do not know where to start. Hiking interested me, but so many of the groups seem to be middle aged and above; I do not want to feel like an odd one out. There is the 20-30s group on Meetup, but I was hoping there might be other groups as well that you might recommend