To ask your degree experience as a mature student

[Neron]

Please could I ask your experiences in doing a degree as a mature student? I've been accepted onto the Bachelor of Osteopathy degree, which starts next year.
I'm really excited about it, under no illusions it will be hard, especially as I didn't do well at school and didn't go to college. How did/are you making it work for you?

I was a mature student At 30 the young ones just have fun but were lovely , and as I had 2 young children at the time i studied after 8pm often till the early hours. I admit i was swotty but there was alot at stake as i has put kids in nursery to do the degree. 20 yrs later i earn well and am in a fairy niche profession- go for it and good luck, the time passes quickly x

I did a degree at 18, didnt really enjoy it, found it really tough and found other students very cliquey. Went back to uni to peruse a career as a pharmacist at age 25 qualified when I was 30 and have loved every second up to now. Absolutely loved my pharmacy degree and made some life long friends. There were probably only a handful of other mature students in my year so most of my friends were young but actually they are some of my best friends now! I have definitely gotten better at studying as I got older but I still completely hate exams. My husband left the army age 25, did a science Access course at night school and went to uni to study chiropractics aged 27.He has come out with a brill degree and loves his job. His course in comparison to mine was mostly made up of mature students (approx 2/3 the course) I suspect osteopathy will be very similar as it's not a "mainstream" course. Enjoy it, you'll have a great time! Best thing we ever did was go to uni as mature students!

I am 37 and a current year 2 Social work student. It is literally the best thing I have ever done, the majority of the other students are also over 30.
I find that organiseation is key, plan early and try and be prepared as much as possible.
I do try and make some time just to do nothing but I have 4, 3000 word assignments due after Christmas so this is becoming more difficult at the moment.

Thank you, Windy, Notso and Draculahhh.

I do worry about going, as I said upthread, I didn't do well at all at school. I do feel their is a level of support from my uni that schools don't offer, plus I want to be there and I love working with bodies.
4 years seems so long and daunting

There not their...

I went to uni full time with two children in Primary School. the main thing is to be organised. I always aimed to get assignments finished before the due date in case the children were ill or something happened in the family. You cant expect to necessarily get the sort of grades you got at school (of course you might do better).
I agree with the idea of regarding it as a 9-5 job but I did have to study on Sundays too when assignments were due. The difficult times were when I had to do teaching practice which required a change to a well established routine.
I had no social life at uni at all. Never went to any social events in the evenings and there was absolutely no bullying.

I'm planning a degree for 2022 (need to do an access course next year first), and I'll be almost 52 when I start. It's a purely academic degree, so likely to be majority youngsters, but I'm really excited about it. DC are all older, so no childcare issues, and although I work part-time, it's incredibly flexible, so I should be able to fit everything in. Biggest issue is going to be learning how to concentrate for 50 minutes at a time for lectures!