Mature Students applying for Sept 2017 - come join me for a support thread

[FoofFighter]

I'm in my mid-forties and I've put a late application in for Social Sciences to start in 2017/18.

Track tells me it's all with the Uni and awaiting consideration by 13/7 - Uni emailed me separately to say it'd be by 30/6 :)

Just thought a support thread might be a nice thing as we go through the processes, funding applications etc and hopefully then through our studies?

cheeky bump - I can't be the only one? :)

I have applied in my mid-40s to do a PhD. I never finished the one I started in my early 20s and it's something I want to rectify! Should hear if I get an interview soon 🤞

I am starting my 3rd year (out of 6) in October does that count? I am almost 35 and studying for a degree in history. Almost finished year 2 with an exam next month eeek!

Not exactly what you requested but nevertheless just to motivate you that I am in my mid 40s and last semester of my p/t Masters degree. I am the eldest by miles in my class.Till now it has been a smooth(ish) journey, helpful tutors and good classmates. Couldn't have asked for more.

Thanks for the inspiration!

I've just been doing my funding forms and need to find out all my documents for loan etc and making plans for my first double installment!

Just had an email alert from UCAS, saying status had changed, logged on, got a conditional offer :D am so very pleased! I have to get a minimum of C in my Graded Unit (HNC) but am two thirds of the way through and sitting at A, with the last stage in being marked just now, I think only a complete fail would put me below a C at this stage!

I'm very slightly in shock!

Got an interview 😳

good luck to all! I have secured a unpaid work-experience placement with a consultancy...really happy as I feel I am not getting any interview call because of my lack of practical experience in my current study area.

I'm 43. Starting at Southampton in September to do English, with a view to teaching afterwards.

Just finishing up my Access course. I'm a single parent with three kids and I live two hours from the Uni by public transport.

I must be made but I can't wait.

Congrats on your offer, OP.

I'm 42 and am about to apply for the degree course which will qualify me for the job I have been doing for years! It will open up so many doors for my career.

I'm hoping my work will sponsor me, otherwise I will have to wrestle with student finance applications.

I'm also hoping to be able to sit the exam for the first year and start at year 2 which will be amazing.

I'm very apprehensive as I have not studied for over 20 years and do not handle stress well.

I've just finished but I'm applying for a MA to start in Jan

I'm 29 and am applying to start a part-time MSc in Social Research in September. I already have an MA but I'd like to do a PhD eventually and I need the research training to qualify for PhD funding.

If I end up self-funding money is going to be tight so I'll also be applying to any scholarship or fee waiver thingy I'm eligible for.

Ain't you all lucky & I am happy for u all. Here is my story in Bullet points to make thing easy for all reading. My story & situation is long & complicated.

• in 2010 Jan. I applied to study IR&politics and was accepted to start in Jan of 2010 (spring entry) *i was super excited because I had just got out of hospital & survived a life changing accident against all odds. I suffered acquired brain injury & shouldn't be alive- 3 others died but I survived spending several months in coma etc
• I applied for funding online and I was told to send in all my original documents which I did. Funding was approved and I went to the uni for registration only to be told the funding I got was an error that i shouldn't get funding with my immigration status.
• but because I was eager to start studying I registered (& because student finance assured me that the university is talking rubbish when I called them) *my maintainece money was paid and disability support paid for and all the equipment supplied
• then the long battle began when the university started asking me to pay international tuition fee and then SFE said I do not qualify that it was an error.
• I took the matter to court and the court ruled that the university and SFE should treat me as a home student for the entire duration of my study at that particular uni.
• now SFE still turned me down saying I have to meet the home student criteria & that I will have to wait few years to qualify.
• I was fighting in court (high court, court of appeal etc)
• SFE refused to pay the uni my tuition fee & d uni was after me for money that I didn't have and then I was suspended. But I fell pregnant with my son b4 I was suspended so it was a good time anyway & moreover, I was already mentally & physically drained ( still recovering from my accident, stress of court cases, dealing with course work, pregnant) I needed a break.
• I had my son in 2011 & then I applied for funding again in 2012 as the SFE said I would be eligible then few years back. But I was turned down again because they had changed the regulations again that excluded me. I appealed etc and again I was told bearing in mind the new rules, I should qualify in 2016.
• I applied in October 2016 after gaining Admission into another uni and moved house to another town so that I can study & live in the same town (bearing in mind that I now have 2 kids).
• guess what? my application for funding was turned down again because they have changed the rules again. It took SFE 3 months to tell me exactly why they refused my funding by then, I was already personally liable to paying the fee to d uni (the 1st uni I applied to in 2010 are still chasing me for the tuition the SFE refused to pay, SFE are also asking me to pay back the money they said they paid to me in error in 2010 even though I sent in all my original documents and now, the uni I applied to in 2016 is also chasing me for money because SFE said I don't qualify & refused to pay).
• I am 34 with 2 kids & finding it hard to get a job due to my disabilities, no real job experience etc. I thought & I am thinking getting a degree will give a better chance of getting a job, contribute to the society, lead a good life, prove the doctors and consultants wrong ( who said I will never live a normal life in a normal everyday environment but a care home, who said I will never have kids, who said u can't study, who said ok, u want to study but go part time, who said to my family, she will never make it - let us turn the life support off but my family refused), also I have ALWAYS wanted a degree.
• I was & I hope I am still an ambitious person like I was when I was little. I have always wanted a degree, masters & PHD all by the age of 25.
• but I am 34 now & not even a degree but thank God for my life and kids and family who have always supported me in every way (emotionally, financially & physically).
• I am planning to apply to the uni this year and funding this year again (I am Glutton for purnishment - right? I feel like I should just give up but then I can't but that fire in my is not burning like it use to. I am simply deflated maybe a bit because I have some days when I say nothing is going to stop me but other days, I feel worthless). I bet they will change the rules that will exclude me again in September 2017.
• phew, now wonder I suffer from depression & hypertension as a direct result of SFE + all the other medical conditions from the accident which left me with acquired brain injury.

I have to add that I have come to realise that the SFE is highly incompetent I am not saying this because I was turned down. The story of their incompetency is another longer story which I can't be bothered to write now. I am exhausted 😩

Bump bump oops. No comments at all? Sorry my post Was longgg but I have never had the chance to tell anyone before & I just needed to vent my fraustration and struggles with trying to get myself a degree.

That sounds really stressful lollipop :( I hope that you manage to get in and sorted in Sept x

Well I got my graded unit back and it's an A so it's a goer :D I'm just awaiting it being sorted on Track then I can get my childcare funding applied for.

I've just finished my first year on a Textile course at Huddersfield. Had a fabulous year, can't recommend it enough. Off to London tomorrow to see the New Design Show on Thursday.

I'm just about finished my final year, but am starting an MRes in September.

Can I join? I'm starting a Bachelor of Laws degree in Feb 2018. Just waiting on my student finance to be approved. I cannot wait to get my brain working.

Best of luck everyone!

Hi, glad I found this thread as am about to start back at uni after graduating 15 years ago. Seems like all your situations are different but it's good to know I'm not alone. Am constantly asking myself "am I mad doing this?". I'm doing 1yr post grad diploma, roughly £8k minimum, followed by 1 yr Masters for around 10k. It's in a subject I'm hoping will lead to freelance work.

I'm starting in 3 days. Only applied 4 weeks ago. I'm 45. I can't wait

42 and starting 2nd year this week,

Am in my early 30s, off to university to study English on 29th, term begins on 3rd October (so much for freshers' "week" ), 100% shitting it 😂 WTF was I thinking?!

How is everyone getting on so far?

Week two here and loving it! First assignment is due in next Thursday though, and I've already embarrassed myself twice on blackboard discussion asking stupid questions that the info was there clearly

I'm 45, I matriculate tomorrow (MSc Sports & Exercise Psychology) 27 years since the last time I started uni! Terrified and excited in equal measures. Good luck to everyone.

Hello, can I join please?! With a WWYD?

About to embark on an MA after an amount of time countable in decades since first degree, so slightly nervous and need all the help I can get. Had intro today and found out seminars all scheduled on Fridays so I already have a clash with a long weekend away booked months ago! It would mean missing 2 seminars, second in both series. Is that very naughty?
OR I can change the flights to the evening, lose a day's holiday and pay £300 extra. Really really don't know what to do!