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?!

There you go, thread moved so it will stay now. Will be very exciting to see all your progress.

I shall be lurking and relying on you all to inspire me to get my application in for next year. I’ve got as far as booking onto open day and knocking up a personal statement which needs work. Would like to find a short course for this year ideally to ease me back into studying .

Sorry, getting confused in the excitement. Not same situation aspipe but same scenario as workingitout, hardly any mature students, although the first thing i did was join facebook and become a member of the mature students association. Hoping to find more once i hopefully start, probably be like finding a needle in a haystack!

What are you hoping to do post?

I enrolled in a Science access course 2 years ago last minute, applied for 2018 entry. Some uni's are good to mature students, others, not so in my experience.

I’m looking at a Masters in Nutrition Pulledmuscle. My background is Psychology and I spent a few years working in research then children and sick parents caught up with me and I just ended up doing things to fit round them.

Frustratingly there are still spaces for this year I think but life not conducive to starting next month annoyingly so I’m going to have to be patient.

Meanwhile I shall live student life through you lot and my DD who is just starting !

Hello! I became a mature student when I started my Nursing degree in March this year. At 48 I am the oldest in the cohort but there are quite a few in their 40’s and late 30’s. I did have a bit of a shock when I realised I’m older than some of my fellow students parents but hey ho!

Postnot I've learnt everything in its time, agreed its frustrating when you see information that suits you but are not able to take it on. I took a year out between completing the Access course and applying for the undergraduate course. I wouldve liked to have started earlier (I'm not getting any younger) but some things had to fall into place before I could embark on this new direction. The decisions haven't been easy!!

Lolimax congratulations for starting! How have you found your course so far? On my Access groups (3 in total) the majority went into nursing or midwifery, its an excellent field to go into, there will never be shortages of nursing staff. Plus you feel like you are contributing something if yourself too, I would love to have had these skills, help out in any emergency but I'm bit sqeamish.
Its a good feeling when you know there are quite a few mature students around.

I've found my people!

I'm going back to university to study a PT MSc next month. I'm 40, so it has been 20 years since I did my first degree.

I'm currently switching between excited and petrified.

Hi all, I am so glad to have found you!

I am starting Uni next month aged 45 after completing an Access course. I am doing a Diagnostic Radiography degree, and am so excited about the learning, as I loved the human biology on the Access.

There were a handful of women my age on that course, but I am so worried I will be far and away the oldest on my degree. The Uni I am going to is known for its high mature student numbers, but I am still really anxious about being older than most of the other students' parents!

I have had mostly positive responses to what I am doing, but have had some negative comments about me having a 'midlife crisis'. My DH has taken a long time to come round to it, and I feel, still doesn't really get why I want to do it.

For me it is that I became a mum very young, and left Uni because of it (completely different area of study though). Whilst I have loved working and bringing DC up (and having another who is now 10), I have never been able to prove myself and achieve anything I see as important to me work wise. I have always just done 'jobs' to fit in with everyone else.

Sorry for long post, but hope some of you can identify with me on this... I have already enrolled, and start a 'summer school' for mature learners for two days in about 3 weeks!!

I got my timetable yesterday and had a little wobble. I haven’t worked full time for ten years, and I sometimes feel old and tired. But I’m hoping being among clever young things and studying a subject I love will see me through.

I’d been a SAHM for 9 years when I started college last year and was terrified of the early starts and no more doing the school run in joggers because I had to go straight to college so had to be properly dressed and ready!

Has anyone joined the FB groups for their subjects and Unis? They are very helpful. Mine has a lot of second year students who have answered a lot of questions that I had about books and the course in general.

You wont believe how pleased I am to find this thread. I'm 35 and starting university in September to do a degree in Education, the aim is to go into teaching.

My DH has been massively supportive while others have basically screwed up their face and asked if this is my mid-life crisis.

My uni is running a workshop just for mature students so we can get to know each other before everyone else starts and gives us the opportunity to meet tutors etc. Which I thought was a lovely idea, I just want to go now and get stuck in!

Just finished my BSc as a mature LP. It was a mixed bag for me. I began full of beans. Had so many changes to the timetable in years 1 and 2 it made childcare almost impossible - causing huge stress and extra costs. Do be prepared for this and have as many people on standby. We had late lectures until 7pm... which was "in the small print" but not always easy to find help with. These regular termly changes were probably the hardest to deal with if I am honest.

Workload in Y2 was pretty mental - we had 6 assignments due in one month (15k words) and 3 exams in the same month. Annoyingly this coincided with a friend going through a divorce and living with me, which was very stressful. Those are the kind of things you don't have to deal with as an 18yo! My advice is to use the late forms when you are struggling. My uni wasn't very clear that your child doesn't really have to be sick, it's just a way of giving you extra time if you are finding it hard to juggle. My weird ethics on being honest buggered up my Y2 results and I felt I had something to prove - don't fall into that trap!

I do feel I learnt a lot at uni and am glad I did it. However my uni wasn't supportive at all of mature students. The union was all about drinking and clubbing (didn't go to any of those) and all of the social activities were on weekends or in the evenings - so no childcare. Wednesday as a day of study wasn't a "thing" and we had lectures so that was not great for getting the social side in.

In all I feel a bit disappointed with my uni experience. I know I could have achieved a better result had circumstances and the uni been organised better, which is why I think so many students now go on about value for money. You do wonder where it all goes! I've lost confidence since being at uni rather than gained it and I'm actually embarrassed at my upper 2:1 - mainly because everyone kept telling me I would definitely get a 1st, but also because I was trying to aim for that dream and failed.

I thought I should post as it is perhaps another side which I would rather have been aware of before I began. Debt does make mature students worry more about whether it is worth all of the ups and downs.
Good luck!

Sorry - I didn't mean to post a downer. I'm still pretty depressed about it to be honest. I don't want to go to graduation and have hidden the certificate. People keep asking what I will do next and I don't feel very able to be honest!

Ignore me and carry on - it is exciting!

Oh @JeffreyNeedsAHobby, thank you for putting your side of things. I’m sorry you feel a bit flat just now. You have done brilliantly to get a 2.1! As a mature student we not only hold ourselves to a higher standard, but we have so much mental and actual life baggage to deal with along the way.

Please don’t make a hasty decision about going to graduation, it only happens once and you really do have an achievement celebrate. But it’s not important in the scheme of things and time is a great bringer of perspective.

Also, I hope you will post feedback about your experiences somewhere both the university and other potential mature students will see it. I am guessing you went to a red brick uni? I think the ex-polys May be a bit more set up for the reality of modern life.

@Jeffrey It was actually really nice to see things from another perspective and without trying to sound patronising a 2.1 is an incredible achievement. To get a grade that high in the face of everything else is a definite reason to celebrate.

Jeffrey, thank you, it is really important for us mature students to see all perspectives, and I am sorry you aren't more proud of your achievement. You have done amazingly well, and I do hope you go to your graduation, despite a lack of support from your Uni, you gained a really good degree, all yours, to help improve your life and future.

I now have my timetables, and it may echo some of what Jeffrey said, we were advised ours is a full on course, so in every day, all day until 5pm. It appears that is what it may be, but each week seems to vary finishing times on certain days, so not helping with childcare. I have put maximum childcare provision in, but am worried about my commute home. I live rurally and it is an hour drive on a really good run, so finishing at 5pm is going to extend that vastly, and cuts off any childcare that only runs until 6pm in my area (which is pretty much all of it!). I am lucky that I am relying other options, but it does seem like a juggle before I have even started. I just can't wait any longer to do this, or I will be too old!

I had an offer from a red brick Uni, they were really keen to get more mature students etc etc.... but the reality of the way their course was structured pretty much alienated anyone with children. It was a shame as it was a v good Uni, but I have gone for the lower ranking more practical one.

Hi everyone.

I'm also 40 and starting uni in September. My degree is in Childhood Studies.
I'm excited and terrified in equal measures!

Now in my third year, started at 41 being the oldest on the course. Was very nervous, but found other students great and supportive. Loved every minute of it, only regret was not having started earlier. I always assumed that I wouldn't be able to cope, with study a child care but completing the access course gave me the study bug

Thanks guys - I realise it sounds a bit OTT but it really feels like i've messed up a very expensive chance to feel I put off uni for a reason (if that makes sense). I was always told I was lazy at school and wasn't encouraged - became the black sheep of the family. I guess I'm just reconciling the fact I am actually not that good at academia which is fine. I'm a decent parent and have close friends, I have a house and have a lot to be grateful for. I am hugely dreading graduation though!

The uni wasn't red brick and was local to where I live, which I had thought would make it easier. Sadly they had no childcare at all and a rather inflexible approach to being late (doors locked etc). I've just heard from my friend they invited all of the mum's from my year back to do a "promotional video" aimed at recruiting parents!!! That's why i've come back to post again - do really look at what past students say the uni actually offers in this regard, don't just hear a soundbite and imagine that there is support. I can attest to the fact all of these parents struggled massively with childcare and none of them wanted to do this video. I am not surprised at all that they didn't ask me, as I am certainly too vocal on this particular matter and well they know it!

What do you mean by no childcare? As in none on site or they wouldn’t fund any?

My (RG) Uni has 3 Nurseries on site, but I won’t be using them as I don’t want to commute on buses with a toddler in rush hour. Student Finance are paying 85% and my Uni are paying the other 15% for me. Maybe I’m just lucky that my local Uni loves mature students/single parents?

I did a degree at 23 and thought I'd be the oldest, or by a long chalk! There were 10 if us on our specialist science course and 4 were mature students ! I'm 46 now so it was half my life ago

Did a PhD afterwards and there were less mature students then more mid 20's ... though I still work in a university and you get all shapes and sizes! Main thing is to remember you'll do better I guarantee it!

Enjoy and good luck!

No nurseries or any form of childcare on site. The other (which is a red brick) uni in town does. We had over half of our students commuting in by train from London, appx half of whom were mature and with children, only to find they were locked out of a 4 hour lecture and only allowed in at the half time break! A very expensive waste of childcare! Definately not something I ever thought to ask about before I began uni!

These people were also hit hardest by the last minute cancellations of lectures (sometimes we didn't even get a cancellation just no one showed up) and the frequent timetable changes (these were ongoing over a month into Y1 and up to 3 weeks into Y2). Exam dates were also never given very far in advance meaning school holidays were a minefield - do you book them into a very expensive club for a week knowing it 'might' be exam week or leave it to chance and see if they still have a space once the date is confirmed? We also all had an email last year "reminding" us that no one is allowed to speak negatively of the uni on social media...so it is hard to give much information or really advise people

Ah, Jeffrey, that sounds tough. I am so “mature” that I don’t have child care to worry about, but I will be royally and vocally pissed off if they muck around with our timetable like that.

I’m sure when they introduced fees it was on the promise that we’d get a more professional service. Sounds like they aren’t delivering much of a service at all.