"Mature" Mature Students (past, present & future)

Aspiring

I know a mature student, for Uni purposes, is anyone over 21 but what about "Mature" mature students?

I'm 46 and will be going to Uni in September. Now that the offers are coming in I'm starting to think about what life at University will be like for people such as myself - the Mature, mature's

Who did it? Who survived it? Who plans to do it?

How would you evalutate your experiences?

Is there anything you would have done differently (with hindsight)?

How did you fit in with Uni life?

How did you cope with the studies vs your other responsibilities?

Did you feel your age hindered or helped? Or maybe, you never gave it a thought?

Anyone care to share their experiences for likes of us who are headed in that direction?

Thank you.

Voyager2002

Well, I knew someone who did a BA when he was in his eighties, so you are a long way from breaking any records.

A friend of mine did a medical-related BSc in her early forties, although she had earlier done degrees (BA and MA) in English literature. She was fine: she maintained friendly relations with her younger classmates, did not imagine that she knew anything that they did not, did not live with them, and recognised that they had more energy than her and were more interested in night-life and clubbing. She knew that she would not be able to keep up with them in terms of social life, and so remained focussed on her study and her own family life. And she survived and gained a job related to her course very soon after graduating.

Oldernotwiser

I've done two degrees as a mature student and they were totally different experiences. For the first, I was in my early twenties and in the second I was in my mid forties. First time around I just joined in with everything at that level and enjoyed the whole student "thing"; I found that wasn't possible the second time around.

It might have been different if I'd been there for career reasons but I was there purely for personal development and I have to admit I didn't always find it pleasant. People were friendly enough but you could tell that lots of them didn't want to get stuck with someone old enough to be their mother when it came to group work and social activities. I also think that I was unlucky in that I was the only one over mid twenties in any of my classes. I did speak to a couple of people of my age on different courses and they rather felt the same.If we'd been lucky enough to be on the same course it would have been much better.

With hindsight, I think I'd've been better just getting my head down and having fewer expectations of "enjoyment" from the course. I should also have joined the mature students association at my university and found support there, rather than expecting it from fellow course students or staff.

I don't mean to come over as being totally negative and I know that mine was an unusual situation. I'm generally glad I did it and I got quite a bit from it but I don't think that I'd repeat it if I could turn back the clock.

Do pm me if you want to discuss things in more detail as I think that's about all the general comments I can make here.

bestpud

I'm 37 and part way through a BA.

I was originally full time and tbh found it very stressful, but I am a perfectionist anyway and have had personal issues to deal with.

I am now part time and with hindsight, I'd go part time from the start. It wasn't a option when I started as there was no financial support in place.

My uni has a high intake of mature students so I guess that makes a difference, but there are plenty of people my age and above.

Having said that, uni life is geared towards younger students. Also, a lot of mature students don't live close to the campus (and have work or family responsibilities) so it take more effort to arrange get togethers etc.

I do think it depends on the group you have when you start though tbh. My personal tutor always said we were very lucky because there was a group of us mature students who supported each other a lot, personally and academically. Now the others have graduated, I can see what he was saying.

I enjoy the learning side of it but I no longer get much from it socially if I'm honest. I find it harder to make the effort to attend lectures and tbh would rather just get on with it by myself, which is very different to the way I felt when I started.

But, learning wise, part time study is a breeze compared to full time, and it means I can work more hours too.

I have found it helps to treat assignments as a job, almost. Academic work can easily take over your life and I would try and avoid that if possible. You can literally be thinking about an essay every minute of the day and always jotting things down, or whatever. If you start waking regularly in the small hours and writing essays on the back of an enevelope, you know it has taken over!!

I find it helps to have set times and not think about it in between, personally. You do stll think about it, of course, but it is easier to switch off when you treat it as a job with a start and finish time imo.

I hope that answers some of your questions?

Oh, and I was disappointed by the modular system at my uni. It is good in that I can choose different topics of interest, but it is very bitty and there is no clear progression iyswim?

I know someone who went to a different uni (mature student) and was given their timetable (very little choice) and followed a progressive course over the three years. She had to be in four days a week, whereas it is possible to squeeze ours into two days if you are lucky with timings, but, at each stage it was clear what had been covered in the previous stage and what knowledge people had iyswim?

With our modular scheme, there can be students who have no knowledge of the subject (as they have chosen it as an optional module) and the lecturers start each module with this in mind.

It can be frustrating as we have no chance of getting into any depth with a topic in the 14 weeks we have and there is no advance modules for those who wish to know more. I would like to cover less areas but in more depth personally and I thought this was how it would be beforehand. I found my access course frustrating for this reason and hoped it would be different at uni.

I hope that helps; shout if you want to know anything else.

Fire_Fox

I am on my second degree level qualification as a mature student, the first was in my mid twenties as a 'married' and my second now as a 36 year old 'living in sin'.

The thing I find most frustrating is the 'work experience'/ 'personal development' element. For example, in my first year we were assigned individual oral presentations to state where we were in each key skills. Six years after my first degree level qualification (distinctions in all core skills, student of the year) and with several years illness in lieu of employment, I had none of the prescribed 'proof' to submit. My tutor actually advised me to say I was at level 1 (sub GCSE) for each key skill and work up .... :eek:

WillowCat

I'll be 42 by September and will be starting a science degree. I've not been to uni before (left school 15/16). I'm probably more worried about fitting in than in being able to cope with the work.

I've wanted to do this for years, but there never seemed to be a good time to jump off of the work/mortgage etc treadmill. Now I'm finally doing it I'll be wanting to do the whole student thing (probably minus the alcohol though!) but the reality is I've no idea what it will be like.

It's a big step in the dark. I'm selling my house, quitting my (extremely well paid) job and doubt in this climate I'd ever be able to turn back if it goes pear shaped.

Seabean

Hi

Do it, do it, do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went back to college in 1998 when I was 30 and did an Access course. At the time I was married with 2 young children (ages 6 and 9). It was hard work getting back into writing essays (I could almost feel the rust coming off the cogs in my brain as they started turning again) but the camaraderie in the classes was fantastic. I remember clearly sitting reading A Midsummer Nights Dream out loud in class one day thinking how surreal it was and how I should have been at home watching Richard and Judy!

From college I applied to University to do a History degree. I chose History because it was a subject I'd always loved at school and, as I had no particular career in mind which required a specific degree e.g architecture, biology or accountancy, I decided to do something I would enjoy.

As I couldn't travel far I only applied to my 2 local Universities - one a traditional red brick uni and the other the much newer. I was accepted straight away at one but had to send essays to red brick and then go for an interview (pm me if you want to know more about this) before they offered me a place.
I chose to accept the place at red brick as it is a better University for my particular course and I knew that if I didn't like it I could probably transfer to the other anyway (where 2 friends from my Access course were going and had a much higher intake of mature students).

When I first started at uni I distinctly remember sitting next to a group of girls during induction week who, when they found out I was a mature student with kids, literally turned round in their seats and stopped talking to me. I must quickly stress though that I found they were the exception and that I was accepted by the people on my course and made lots of friends. I found that once the course got going properly we all had something in common - essay deadlines and exams! As a mature student who had lived in the city all my life I got asked for advice about boyfriends, the city, pubs, shopping etc. it wasn't all one way though as fellow students would come and babysit for me.

For me the best way to cope with the work was to take it essay by essay, seminar by seminar and exam by exam. I didn't think of the 3 years ahead of me as I found that too daunting. I did tend to take the work more seriously than a lot of the younger students as I was enjoying learning and wanted to get the most out of the opportunity but I was also amazed at how clever the other students were and how much they knew. Exams were always a problem for me as I found that no matter how much I revised I couldn't remember as much as I would have liked. I also found that I couldn't physically write a lot as my hand would start hurting (all the coursework had to be written on a comp and printed out so I didn't really get chance to build up stamina for handwriting). In order to compensate for this I tried to choose modules that were at least 25% coursework as I could spend much longer on essays and hopefully go into the exams having already got some marks in the bag.

Just before my second year started, in true Educating Rita style, my husband left me for another woman. This obviously made things very difficult as the children took it very badly and needed a lot of help and support from me. I in turn got a lot of help and support from the University especially my personal tutor who I can thank for making me persevere and not give up. Many a night I didn't even manage to turn my computer on to start work until 11/12 o'clock at night and often worked until 2am. To be honest the university work gave me something other than the children and the divorce to focus on and took my mind off things. It was tough but university work kept me sane during that time.

My third year was the best ever. I had my dissertation to do which was great. The children settled down and went to stay with their dad 2 nights a week which meant I was free 2 nights a week. I went out regularly with friends from my course and even went to the graduation ball. It was one of the proudest days of my life when I graduated. I have since gone on to do my MA part-time while working part-time and and now working in a job I love that I wouldn't have been qualified for had I not gone back to Uni.

Hope this is a help to you and feel free to pm me if you want any more info.

Good luck x

mummytofour

Im 31 and started uni in Sep. I am still not sure where my place is IYKWIM. I have kinda decided just to get on with the course and see what happens but it nothing like the fun I had imagined. I loved college where I had spend the last 2 yrs but uni is not the same. I also travel about 35 miles to uni where as most ppl live close to the uni. On the other hand I am there to get a degree so should just get on with it.

Good luck OP

Oldernotwiser

WillowCat wrote: »

Now I'm finally doing it I'll be wanting to do the whole student thing (probably minus the alcohol though!) but the reality is I've no idea what it will be like.

.

Unfortunately nowadays the "whole student thing" often IS the alcohol.

I'd look from satisfaction from the study rather than the rest of it. This isn't meant to put you off at all, far from it, but to encourage you to be realistic.

HM-Yorks

I loved it - and didn't have any real "fitting in" problems (35-38 when doing my degree)

It's also IMO worth joining societies that interest you as it gives you a wider range of contacts and also provides some "cover" for the "how will you work with people younger than yourself" type questions at future job interviews. It's also a good opportunity to take up new interests.

It's fairly easy to avoid the excessive alcohol culture - though a bit of that came up on climbing trips - socieities tend to focus on activities rather than just drinking.

I was a bit lucky in that the Uni I was at had a lot of mature students (over 50% actually) as it had a big nursing department so I wasn't alone in being in my 30s in any of the societies I was a member of.

Academic-wise I found it easiest to treat it as a job and be in college 4-5 days a week. I did most of my work on campus - I think that approach would work particularly well if you have family/children responsibilities as it seperates study from those responsibilities. The big shock was just how underprepared/disorganised/plain thick some people on the course were - but that can work to your advantage as the tutors are much more appreciative of people who are genuinely engaged in the course.

The other thing is there will usually be some academic support staff - I found them very useful in honing my academic skills such as academic essay writing and revision techniques - so well worth looking out for them.

Aspiring

Thank you for all your inspiring, and encouraging, comments. I really appreciate the time it took to type out those replies and sharing your personal experiences has given me an insight into the positives and the potential negatives I could expect.

University was never even an option for when I left school, so I'm both excited and, naturally, a bit daunted now that it's becoming a reality. My personal expectations are not centred on the social aspects but focused on my academic aspirations. The social side would be a bonus though