Mature Student to the power of 10...

GotToChange

I am about to embark on a huge challenge - or make a huge mistake...

Details:
One year (35 weeks) Residential Access Course (current students from the same course/college have been offered places at Cambridge so the course/student/college are doing something right).
I am a VERY mature student - who has never had the chance to "complete" her education, who loves to study and acquire knowledge but cannot focus when trying to study part-time/at home.
Living in the accommodation is giving me the heebie-jeebies (even though a lovely Grade I Listed Building) and I cannot get my head around no en-suite facilities (towels, corridors, queues etc etc?)

Leaving behind - a rented property (a friend is moving in, with whom I couldn't share a house) that won't be available during Christmas & Easter vacations. It MAY be possibleto stay at the College, although a charge is made.
Also leaving - my lovely old horse - who I see and care for every single day. Add in the fact that - due to loss of the farm - we are moving three horses to new yard this week; I feel that I am abandoning him and "putting on" the friend who will look after him (same friend who is moving into the house; this is a bit quid pro quo as his father is the one selling his & the horse's - home, so otherwise, he would have to go through all the fuss of finding a rental himself).
I will also be leaving the (part-time) job with an Architect for whom I have been working (unhappily - I posted about it a little while ago) in a temp position for now 15 weeks, although the job was only meant to be for 6-8 weeks. This job would end (without ceremony, I have seen how he treats his actual Secretary) in about three weeks time. He will not be pleased.
Financially, this course actually pays (so unusually) a bursary which covers the tuition and accommodation and leaves some also to "live on" (most meals are also included). Were I to not take up this option, I would end up unemployed again (and on JSA) by the end of October - and this job - due to my being choosy, I suppose - took some finding (I live in an unemployment black-spot).

I suppose my question is - am I crazy to do the course? Or crazy not to?

*tearing hair out*

Ambersuccubus

Crazy not to, by the sound of it. You'll get used to institutional living very soon, and the fact that if you are frugal it will actually pay...well, I'd be biting someone's hand off for that offer. Seriously, if you've nothing tieing you down, it sounds like a fabulous opportunity to really immerse yourself in somthing, which is rare these days...

GotToChange

This is what is so attractive - the chance to immerse myself; to -just for a while - stop being a wage-slave, to live in an environment where learning is valued for its' own sake. And to actually set off on a path that may actually lead somewhere - and at the same time, be able to enjoy "the journey"........

It feels rather selfish and self-indulgent though.

mary671

Sounds like a wonderful experience to me! Go for it :T

slopemaster

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity.
I also am a "very" mature student; I never did a degree when I was young but am now doing my PhD.
Like you I always loved to study, but life led me in other directions.
It is FANTASTIC to be able to just sit in a room with a load of books. I get a bursary too, more than I would get on minimum wage, so I feel very lucky.

You will be fine.
I spent my first year in student Halls, sharing with other 'mature' students who were mostly 25 years younger than me.
It was fine, mostly. OK it took a bit of getting used to, but you are obviuosly prepared to be flexible or you would not even be considering it. Just get some ear plugs!

So, yes, you'd be crazy NOT to.
Please stop tearing out your blonde locks

GotToChange

I think I am a bit scared and it is overshadowing any excitement that I feel at being given this chance.

I walked around with the prospectus/application form in my Filofax for quite literally one whole year (I applied too late last year); I sat and wrote the Personal Statement on the day I received my GCSE Biology result (and then allowed my "Father" to derail me and pour cold water on even that tiny achievement) so waited a while longer. I was invited to a late applicant admission day where we were told that there were more applicants than places, sat a written test, endured a panel interview, have now been offered one of the sought after places -
and I still have doubts?

I suppose I must be a little crazy.....

I am interested to hear the details of your journey and also how "very mature" you might be?

slopemaster

GotToChange wrote: »

I think I am a bit scared and it is overshadowing any excitement that I feel at being given this chance.
.....have now been offered one of the sought after places -
and I still have doubts?
I suppose I must be a little crazy.....
I am interested to hear the details of your journey and also how "very mature" you might be?

Born 1957 so fairly mature.
In 2004 I had a bad falling out with my employer - which ended up turning out (after a LOT of stress and heartache) to be the best thing to happen to me, as it gave me the push to do something new.
I was then able to embark on a part-time MSc (in spite of not having a degree, on the strength of my professional experience).
I was only doing this as a way of getting better qualified so that i could get another job. But once I started, I loved learning for its own sake, loved, as you say, an atmosphere where learning is actually valued. I especially loved doing the dissertation.
So I thought, well I will have to go back to work, but I will do a PhD when I retire.
I didn't know it was possible to get a bursary.
When I found out by accident, I could hardly believe it.
I applied like a shot, and here I am.

Don't let your father derail you.
My mum always calls me 'a perpetual student'.
But, for her generation, education was only for the young - and only really for the middle classes, too.

You are obviously good, or they wouldnt have offered you one of the sought after places. Well done for getting this far. Who knows where you could end up, but it will be interesting I'm sure.

Is it in a particular subject or is it more general? - I'm not sure how access courses work?
Grade 1 listed building sounds amazing.
You might have to get some kind of - ahem - chamber pot - for in the night. I did, anyway.

Best of luck.

mummytofour

I am 32 and in my final yr of a Social Work degree. I failed everything at school but always had a feeling I could do better. I was formally dx as Dyslexic 3 years ago I am more than sure my dyslexia contributed to my failed education.

I under took key skills in English and Maths in 2006/2007 after an 8 yr burning ambition to do S/W.
This was followed by a one yr access course in social science which I looovvvedddd!
Good luck and enjoy!