Is 24 too old to start a masters?

[kiwikow]

Our DD dropped down a year during secondary school because we moved countries. She then took a gap year. She then also did a year abroad, so she’s now finishing up her finals and is 3 years older than most of her coursemates.

I appreciate three years doesn’t seem much but she says she feels old / people comment that she’s 24 and they’re 20/21.

She’s thinking of doing a masters at Cambridge. Then what she doesn’t know. Maybe a law conversion and solicitor exams/training. This would bring her out at 29/30 before she would qualify.

Is this an issue or should she look at work now rather than deferral?

Well, I did my MEd when i was 45, so I'd say no! You'll find at postgraduate level lots of people of different ages who have come into it for a different reasons. She won't be the oldest by a long way.

I started mine at 41. Your daughter will be fine.

I have 2 masters, I was 30 for the first, 40 on the second.
If I'm honest I felt like the students who went straight on to them from degrees didnt take it as seriously as I did.

I would have thought it quite young. She'll be fine.

what? 24 is a baby!

No. It us quite normal for masters students to be older. But 24 isn't too old for a first degree, either.

84 isn't too old. My BIL was in his 60s when he got his PhD.

No not too old at all. Masters students are much wider ranging in age than UGs.

But….why is she planning on one if she doesn’t know what to do? It sounds like she’s delaying making a decision about her career to me. If she wants to do law wouldn’t a combined law masters/conversion be a better route? She’ll only get one lot of loan funding.

Yeh it's fine. My DD finished uni at 21 and has worked for a while, then last summer decided she wanted to start a PT masters over two years – she was then 24. So she will be 26 when she finishes next summer. All good. Most of her cohort last year did it in one year and some of them were 21/22 but not all. Plenty were older than she is.

My DD started her BA at 24 is now doing her masters, after working from the age of 18. I got my BA when I was 45 working full time.
My DD is certainly more focused at this age and takes it very seriously.

Not at all!
24 is completely fine - not even a mature student 😊

Obviously not old. But potentially misguided without a plan, could be a waste of time and money, I personally wouldn’t have done my masters without a specific plan. I do a lot of recruitment, I’d much rather see experience than irrelevant degrees.

Not too old but why is she doing it? If there is no onwards plan that requires it it seems an expensive way to spend your time.

I’m 46 and in the second year of my masters. I’m not the oldest in my class either!

Far too old, she doesn't have that long til retirement now. Not worth it.

Though is she just using it as an (expensive) time filler so she doesn't have to get a job?

There are lots of older students at the uni I work at

Are you joking?

Eh? No of course not. If anything she’ll be young.

Surely you’re joking, 1st masters at 45 second at 58.
Education is lifelong.

Of course 24 isn’t too old for a master’s. It’s barely too old for soft play.

I did a Masters at 30. Most of my friends that have done them did do in their 30s or 40s.

To be fair, a significant number of postgraduates hold down a job and their course at the same time these days, not least because even those lucky enough to secure funding find it doesn’t make ends meet. The days when you could pursue postgraduate (or even undergraduate) study in order to put off work or doss about are gone, except if you’re from wealth. I’m sure you mean putting off a graduate-level job, but I do think it’s worth being clear that study OR work hasn’t been the reality for most students for quite some time.

Christ alive I was 26 when I started my bachelors degree and 50 something when I started my masters!

Never too old...I was 55!0

She's young for doing a Masters