Uni as a mature (40) student. What to expect?

[RoryGillmoresEvilTwin]

I'm starting uni next month as a 40 year old LP and I'm nervous!
I've had the UCAS 'congratulations!' Email for a while but as of today I've started getting emails from the uni and it's now feeling a lot more real!
Stupid things are preoccupying my thoughts such as what should I wear 😂 and what if I don't make any friends because I'm so old 😭.

I'm doing Environmental science and I can't wait but I'm now equally scared and excited.

Are there any mature students out there that can give me some perspective and/or stories of oldies done good?!

I would love to go to uni but there aren’t many part time courses. I was thinking about open university. Tbh I was looking for a thread. Any experiences with it?

Another "oldie" starting uni here. Am 41 and starting a degree in September. Am very excited but also nervous of how I'll be treated as a mature student. I have had a giggle at all the uni/cohort/course facebook groups I've been added to, with lots of chatter about halls accommodation and what shenanigans everyone's planning for freshers week 😆

I'm the oldest by far on my Masters degree - I'm the same age as most of their parents. We talk about all sorts of things and age doesn't make much difference really.

The Open University is brilliant for part time study. I am now doing my Masters Degree with them after completing my BA with them. My eldest dad did her Psychology degree distance learning with University it Derby which can be done full or part time. Other universities also offer distance learning for some of their degrees so worth having a look around for the subject area of your choice.

I know it doesn't apply to all younger people by any means but on my MA at 40 I was astonished how rude and disrespectful a chunk of the youngsters were. Rolling their eyes in lectures even talking to each other during lectures, giggling and whispering comments and generally acting like bratty 14 year olds. This was an MA, not cheap and presumably they'd just got through a degree so had an idea of what university was like.

I did however have the very best time . Good luck OP x

Thank you badgerhead

I’m starting Uni this Sept at the grand old age of 48.
Funding issues mean I’m starting in the 2nd year so they’ll all know each other already, friendships will have been formed and then I’ll rock up, this strange old person, not knowing a soul.
I’m shitting myself!!
But I also can’t wait to start.

Uni as a mature student has been really good with some exceptions.

I have found that some of the youngsters have been extraordinarily disrespectful toward each other and toward lecturers. I was added to a facebook chat and was utterly dismayed at how rude they were about some of the lecturers.

The youngsters are also completely silent in seminars. When I spoke to them about why, it seems they don't want to be wrong about things. I'm old enough now that I've been wrong a million times and wll be again, so probably came off as a bit of a know it all, but it's my degree so I'm not that bothered.

Plenty of people started in the second year, or were over for an exchange for the second year so you won't be billy no mates, if you can throw yourself into a couple of societies, even the mature students one, then you will soon make some friends.

I'm starting in September at 40 and I'm bricking it. Have an undergraduate offer but also had an interview for a master's which I'm still waiting to hear from (for speech and language therapy) so it's not totally certain where I'm going yet!

Hi all, I posted on here under a different username when I started uni last September. I sat my last first year exam last week, so thought I'd pop back and see how you are all doing.

I am 45 doing an AHP course so amongst the oldest (but not quite the oldest!) on my course. I have a lovely group of friends whilst at uni and spend half of my course on placement in hospitals.

I have loved uni from the start, really enjoy learning, and have done well in the academic stuff so far....

Hospital placement is in blocks of 4 or 5 weeks at a time, and I felt really thrown in at the deep end, and very uncomfortable and unhappy during the first block. I was looking at giving up at Christmas time. But.... I stuck it out, have blended well into the different teams I work with, and being mature does seem to help in the world of 'real work'. My placement cohort are all very young and live on campus and find their attitude to work irritating, but not unexpected. I do get on with all of them though, and chat with everyone comfortably. I just think some of them can't believe someone as old, or older, than their mums is doing this.

I am very glad I took the plunge at my age, it still terrifies me at times, and I wonder what on earth I am doing but I can't imagine doing anything else now.

Just got to wait for my semester 2 results to ensure I go through to the second year, so fingers crossed.

How is everyone else getting on, a year in?