Doing a masters at 52??

[MagsMagnolia]

I have the opportunity to do a funded masters through work and I don't know if I'll cope with the study anymore! I used to be able to study for hours and really enjoy it. I could take in lots of information and learned and retained it relatively quickly. Always did well, with good results. I've never found study onerous (if it's a subject I enjoy).
Fast forward to now and I'm 52 and menopausal. I struggle to find the right words on a daily basis, call the grown up kids by the dogs name and frequently lose my glasses/keys/purse and anything else that's not attached to me. My concentration span has diminished and I haven't reached 'flow state' in any task for years.
The masters would open up opportunities for me professionally, change my current role in a positive way (I'm feeling disillusioned and quite frankly burnt out), get me off shift work and would mean I could work later into my 60's, quite probably to retirement - in my current role I doubt I'll get past 60 without going part time. But I'm so scared I won't be able to study and learn like I used to.
I'd really appreciate any experiences of studying later in life - the good and the bad!!

Do it!

You're never too old and it's never too late.

Good luck

Do it.

Tired of hearing people using age as a barrier. Just do it.

You're not training to be a gymnast, astronaut or surgeon?

I did an MSc in my late 20s and then I started an MA at 49. Work-related but I paid for myself. Enjoyed it, had a couple of years consolidating my practice then went back and did a more specialist PgDip starting at 54. Decided against doing the dissertation for that course - only need so many Ms after my name - but really enjoyed the rest of it.

Study is undoubtedly harder when you're a bit older. I found i needed to set aside regular time to work whereas my first master's had been a bit more ad hoc, but it is absolutely doable.

And i still leave writing all my assignments until the last possible moment so some things never change 🙃

Gosh, if doing an MSc is the route out of doing night shifts, don't even give it a second thought and sign yourself up.

I can promise you that your memory, concentration, focus, motivaton and mojo will come back once you're off nights. Not as good as when you were younger, but I'm doing an MSc in my 50s and my short-term memory isn't what it was by any means, but I can still understand concepts and so on.

I started my doctorate at 54, go for it!

It wasn't really my age that was worrying me, rather that my memory and ability to retain information seems to have taken a hit over the last decade. But loads of positive advice on here so I'm going to 'do it' 😄

I've just completed my master's and about to start on my PhD and I'm in my 40s, if you don't try then you will never know. Happy to help and support as I am a uni lecturer.

Definitely go for it! Future you will thank you.
I’ve done similar. My top tips are to find out all deadline dates up front and plan backwards from these, Expect everything to take a third longer thanks to meno brain (it probably won’t but just be kind to yourself), do reading before the course starts and make use of audible and YouTube - info might stay in better in you watch/listen to people talking about the topic as well as reading about it, when completing assignments use Word’s ‘read aloud’ feature and listen back to what you’ve written, great way to notice errors, look up podcasts on the topics you’re studying and listen in the car on the way to your lectures. Good luck OP!

A friend has just finished one at 57. She managed perfectly well, but took two years as she was working full-time and wanted a life as well.

I did a two-year postgrad degree at 50, moving overseas to do so, and while the combination was challenging, I think it’s good to push yourself out of your comfort zone when possible.

I agree with the suggestion to get hold of the reading lists and get stuck in over the summer. It will get you off to a really good start. Good luck!

My only disappointment is that because the start of the course was delayed by a year, I'm now too old to get a loan to do a PhD, and can't justify using family money to do that.

@Imadesomething

I don't know if it's still the case, but (at my university at least) it used to be significantly cheaper to register as a part time Ph.D. student rather than full time. It was four or five years, rather than three. Is that something you could consider? In any case, do keep up with your subject, so that if one day it does become possible, you're ready to go. And keep in mind the example of Dr Sir Brian May, who took, I think, 37 years to complete his Ph.D.

Absolutely go for it. 3 years part time with study leave, no more night shifts and more money is a no trainer.

I'm 47. I started my first ever degree in 2020. Graduated with a 1st, am currently doing an MA and on track for a distinction and start a PhD in October. I work very part-time admittedly but we have ponies that take up probably 25 hours a week, plus dc's so pretty busy outside of uni stuff.

I find massive big chunks of time impossible but when I have had them, they aren't always productive for studying. 4 hour blocks are much more efficient so I do that instead, then read in bed at night (literature based course).

Assessments are stressful but I always get through. Absolutely go for it.

@HighlandCowbag Hi, hope you don’t mind me jumping in! Please can I ask what you are heading for after the PhD? Are you doing it all just for the satisfaction / joy of it, or do you have a future job in mind that you can move into when you have finished the PhD? I stepped away from work a couple of years ago, and am now considering what to do - study or part-time work. Thanks - and good luck with the Masters :)

My dd is on the last leg of hers. Luckily for her it has been fully funded through work ( some fiscal loophole about apprenticeships which has recently been blocked) and she has been eligible for time off for study, not that she has taken as much as she was entitled to. The hardest thing has been that it is all online, no actually ftf contact between students and students, tutors and students. Students set up their own contact groups for support which helped, but there hasn’t been much chance of meetings as they are scattered around the country.

Not at all.

So the PhD is to keep my options open with regards to being an academic. And because I want to be seen as a 'specialist' in the subject I am studying. It also gives me the time and space to write (its a creative writing PhD, same as the MA) and hopefully be heading towards publication. The scope of the project will definitely allow for some of the PhD to be published commercially.

I don't have an overwhelming urge to be an academic, or a lecturer but lots of writers teach and write, so that's kind of the plan.

Also for the personal achievement. I'm the first person in my family to go to uni, to get a PhD would be bloody amazing.

@HighlandCowbag Thanks - sounds like a really good plan, hope it all goes well for you!

And @MagsMagnolia good luck with your studies too!

I did mine at 48 and landed a new job before it was finished. It was a good move.

Yes! That’s my exact age, and I am in my second year of a master’s and a career change. It’s wonderful! I definitely have days I am tired, but I haven’t once regretted this decision.
we’ll get older, and wish we had done it now … do it!

Just bumping this thread as I'm considering doing a postgraduate certificate to start with, which can be extended to a postgraduate diploma, then theoretically to a masters, though I'd anticipate struggling to write the thesis just due to a lifelong tendency to procrastinate over that kind of extended task - and extending to a masters is a lot of extra money.

I'd be self funding though, similar age, work full time, three teenager kids, and although the subject is directly relevant to my work it wouldn't directly lead to more money...

I want to do it (at least the post-grad certificate) but know people will be perplexed about it if I do.

I did one at 38, definitely didn't have the speed I used to but also had more commitment and less boredom. I am also struggling with the word loss, terrible memory, brain fog at 43, it's scary. I'm considering HRT

I’m doing something similar and had the same fears, however it transpires that the brain really is plastic and not only have I had no issues retaining information but my memory has greatly improved. Go for it.

Personally, unless you really need or want either the full Master's or the skillset from doing the dissertation year, I would just take the subject as far as PgCert or PgDip for the professional development.

Thanks, I think this is probably what I'll do. I do already have a masters degree (in an utterly unconnected subject irrelevant to my current career) so I've already done a research methods taught unit that's probably very similar to the one compulsory for the thesis section to carry this PG diploma through to a full masters. Admittedly my first masters was exactly half my lifetime ago, but I do - or did once - theoretically have the skillset! Paying for the research methods unit would sting a bit but I doubt they'd give credit for study done 25 years ago and allow me to skip that 🫣

I'm interested in the taught content more than in having another masters, but can revisit the idea of continuing if I see advantages to doing so at that point.

I anticipate general bafflement at bothering with even the PGcert to be honest, but I want to do it to keep my brain working. I will be doing it online (I live in a non English speaking country) so will have to see how that goes. I've studied in the local language not that long ago, to qualify for the job I now do, and whilst further study in the local language would have more immediate career rewards it's so much harder for me (I only leart the language as a mature adult so it's never going to be my natural medium) and the idea of studying in English is so incredibly appealing.

Edited to add in a missing word.

Sometimes starting a masters on a P/T self funding basis can turn to your advantage. I had no real idea what my research topic was going to be but I got some work teaching computer skills (late 1980s) at a local FE college as well as tutoring at my uni. I became fascinated by how my students interacted with the computers and the software and how they learned to navigate the interface. This was a time when many adults had never used a computer and well before tablets and smart phones. The data I gathered turned into the research topic of my masters and later my doctorate. I became drawn into the multi disciplinery subject that is human-computer interaction and of how humans deploy their common sense knowedge to solve problems. More recently I returned to academia in an AI based project.

Any updates @MagsMagnolia
Did you enrol & have you started the course? I hope so & I hope you're enjoying the start of the course.

You say that you feel you have lost the ability to study and concentrate after years of being out of education. I had been out of education for more than 20 years when I began my undergraduate degree. What you will find is that after running a home you have developed considerable skills or time management, resilliance and determination.

Im in my early 80s and recently I returned to academic work after 10 years of being self employed. I too "forget" words (or rather have difficulty in recalling them) and find concentration more difficult. Ive had to develop coping mechanisms so I can ignore outside distractions (ear plugs/headphones/music) and making lists of tasks to do.