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So, whats your reason for going to uni now you're older?

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Reply 20
I am 37, I left school with nothing more than a GCSE in english lit, having bunked off for most of my final year, I then went to college did an admin course and had a baby at 19, from there I worked as an administrator before moving up the ranks to an analyst. In my mid 20s I had my second child and couldnt face the prospect of going back to work full time doing a boring desk job that I hated, I wanted to be there for my kids so I took up a job as a part time healthcare assistant at the local hospital and FINALLY realised what I wanted to do with my life, I love nursing, it just clicked for me! Anyway I had another child and now he is 8 I decided it was time to do my nursing degree. I just finished an access course to health and social social care and have been accepted at UWE providing I get my Maths GCSE which I will find out end of the month. I was really apprehensive about doing the access course but I totally flourished and really enjoyed it, gained distinctions in nearly all of my coursework and I now feel very confident to be able to do this nursing degree.

You are never too old! :-)
Original post by Mrsgiff
I am 37, I left school with nothing more than a GCSE in english lit, having bunked off for most of my final year, I then went to college did an admin course and had a baby at 19, from there I worked as an administrator before moving up the ranks to an analyst. In my mid 20s I had my second child and couldnt face the prospect of going back to work full time doing a boring desk job that I hated, I wanted to be there for my kids so I took up a job as a part time healthcare assistant at the local hospital and FINALLY realised what I wanted to do with my life, I love nursing, it just clicked for me! Anyway I had another child and now he is 8 I decided it was time to do my nursing degree. I just finished an access course to health and social social care and have been accepted at UWE providing I get my Maths GCSE which I will find out end of the month. I was really apprehensive about doing the access course but I totally flourished and really enjoyed it, gained distinctions in nearly all of my coursework and I now feel very confident to be able to do this nursing degree.

You are never too old! :-)


All these stories are so lovely but for some reason hearing parents do well really warms my heart! :smile:
I can't imagine how difficult it is to do all of this as well as bring up children - you are amazing.
Reply 22
Original post by Hamo2509
All these stories are so lovely but for some reason hearing parents do well really warms my heart! :smile:
I can't imagine how difficult it is to do all of this as well as bring up children - you are amazing.


Thank you :-) , it is difficult but what really warms my heart is how proud my kids are of me and that I am giving them a positive role model like my mum did for me (she too did her nursing when I was a child), they think their mum is a genius (which I am not by the way ha ha) bless them!
Original post by Mrsgiff
Thank you :-) , it is difficult but what really warms my heart is how proud my kids are of me and that I am giving them a positive role model like my mum did for me (she too did her nursing when I was a child), they think their mum is a genius (which I am not by the way ha ha) bless them!

That is so adorable! I remember my mum did her Masters when I was a teenager as well as working full time. I can't even imagine how much dedication that takes. I'm in awe of all parents in education to be honest.
Original post by Mrsgiff
I am 37, I left school with nothing more than a GCSE in english lit, having bunked off for most of my final year, I then went to college did an admin course and had a baby at 19, from there I worked as an administrator before moving up the ranks to an analyst. In my mid 20s I had my second child and couldnt face the prospect of going back to work full time doing a boring desk job that I hated, I wanted to be there for my kids so I took up a job as a part time healthcare assistant at the local hospital and FINALLY realised what I wanted to do with my life, I love nursing, it just clicked for me! Anyway I had another child and now he is 8 I decided it was time to do my nursing degree. I just finished an access course to health and social social care and have been accepted at UWE providing I get my Maths GCSE which I will find out end of the month. I was really apprehensive about doing the access course but I totally flourished and really enjoyed it, gained distinctions in nearly all of my coursework and I now feel very confident to be able to do this nursing degree.

You are never too old! :-)


This was a very inspiring and heatwarming story. I wish you the very best success for the future with your nursing career.
Abit late but oh well, wasnt interested at school, left school in 2008 with no gcses. After that i went to a college to study a course i had no interested in, so eventually i started of on a BTEC level 2. I worked by way up to HNC and now im going into the third year of my degree. It was a long road, im 24 now so I definitely think im mature enough to complete the degree rather wasting my time as i would of done if i was younger. Im studying construction management btw.


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Reply 26
I'm 35, i really didn't know what I wanted to do career wise when I left school. Tried a few different college courses and left, then settled down to have children. I always felt academically unfulfilled but lacked confidence and was scared to try again after the few false starts I'd had.
Three years ago I decided to try again and since then have completed an access course with distinction, two OU law degree modules and redone my maths GCSE. I've now got a place at a local university to study criminal justice and so far have loved studying and discovered that despite my initial apprehension that I'm really bloody good at it!
Original post by Gemamasi
I'm 35, i really didn't know what I wanted to do career wise when I left school. Tried a few different college courses and left, then settled down to have children. I always felt academically unfulfilled but lacked confidence and was scared to try again after the few false starts I'd had.
Three years ago I decided to try again and since then have completed an access course with distinction, two OU law degree modules and redone my maths GCSE. I've now got a place at a local university to study criminal justice and so far have loved studying and discovered that despite my initial apprehension that I'm really bloody good at it!


Nice to see some good news on here for a change Gema?!?
I'm actually baffled right now. I just joined the forum and went straight to this thread as I was unable to find a thread for my course and uni specifically. Things have gone from naught to 60 in a day.

I'm 27, currently unemployed, living in an Edinburgh council flat, hating life with Job Center Plus, with health issues affecting my availabillity for work, and living desperatly. Ucas was nothing but rejections for months with an unimpressive result from an Acess to HE Social Sciences course I done in 2014, with no chance of resitting, and I dropped out of the HNC Social Sciences i was lucky to be doing at the final hurdle when my step dad died suddenly and I was made homeless by the housing association during the final exam period. I wasn't even offered another chance. And I had zero family support as they where too aggrieved to worry about me passing exams.

Out of nowhere, yesterday, I was given an unconditional offer to do BA Scottish Cultural Studies and Scottish History at the University of the Highlands and Islands in Inverness, so now I'm trying to secure accomodation and ...calm doon. Completly relocating for 4 years, my first time starting at Uni, doing BA. Sure, I made the application but my expectations where so low, I had almost given up hope this year, so all this has come as a massive shock.

I've only got 3 - 4 weeks to secure accomodation in Inverness, give up my council home, get mentally prepared for whats comming and say bye to my beloved rescue kitty I got 2 years ago for emotional support (lol). What even is life?

My life is about to change in a big way, and I'm intimmidated. Will I be accepted socially at my age? will I cope mentally? Am I up to the challange? My self esteeem has been at rock bottom, Job Center is good at that, yet I've never felt more positive or pumped for what's comming.

Incidentally my dream career is to go to Japan for english teaching and cultural exchange, so getting into a cultural studies and history course about my own country is probably second best result to doing Japanese studies, which only Edinburgh Uni teaches in the whole of scotland. I can't even count my blessings right now.

Freaking out.
Reply 29
My first go around at uni was in 1997 and I had a few disadvantages to overcome. In the end I got a pass (below a third) and as a result found myself unable to get any graduate job. I ended up doing almost anything to get by. However one thing I really enjoyed and have a passion for is tutoring maths so I became good at that. Looking back, I was a bit generous with my fees, and it didn't pay well enough. So I always had to have an extra job. I reapplied for uni in 2010 as my local university began an engineering course - and the local firm gave a scholarship. I won the scholarship! But a year later I was bullied by one of the lecturers and it reduced my self-esteem to such a low that I left the course.

A few years after I finally was able to join the RAF and they contribute a little to a degree course (OU) so I'm starting again in October. My first year's hard work got me 120 credits though so at least I'm starting with something and only have 4 years to go. Perhaps then I'll go for promotion within the RAF and see where that goes. In any case it'll be a great and academically challenging thing to do as well as tie up that loose end. A big motivator for me was that I was told that I 'was not cut out for engineering' by the head of school. Hopefully I can prove otherwise.
You all deserve to do well and you will.X
I'm disappointed that so far no one has put "to get drunk all the time and have sex with a lot of people half my age". What's up with you mature students?
Sex- what's that? Oh, yeh, I remember now.
Apparently there will be "consent" classes at my new university. I might just give them a miss!


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I dont need consent to drink! :wink:
Original post by Trinculo
I'm disappointed that so far no one has put "to get drunk all the time and have sex with a lot of people half my age". What's up with you mature students?
Banging people younger than me is now a goal of mine. I luckily became single 3 months ago so I've been let off the leash. I was just going to be boring and continue living with my now exgf, but now I get to have some fun while I'm there. I've even applied for student housing thats how dedicated I am.
Reply 36
Original post by ALittleLost25
Just curious as to what everyone's situation is right now, and why uni as a mature student is the right thing to do.
For me, though I haven't fully decided to go yet. But the career I can most see myself doing requires a degree, otherwise I probably wouldn't bother.


In a nutshell - career progression and the unfinished business of acquiring my degree the first time round (due to financial situation).
Original post by pointblank91
Banging people younger than me is now a goal of mine. I luckily became single 3 months ago so I've been let off the leash. I was just going to be boring and continue living with my now exgf, but now I get to have some fun while I'm there. I've even applied for student housing thats how dedicated I am.


If you make it your goal you will remain FA.
Girls will sense it. Just go with the flow if you pull you pull.

It is a good byproduct of being older but the goal is the degree not to spend 3 years of your life avoiding work and racking up debt only to come out with a poverty 2.2 or third lol
Original post by ALittleLost25
If you make it your goal you will remain FA.
Girls will sense it. Just go with the flow if you pull you pull.

It is a good byproduct of being older but the goal is the degree not to spend 3 years of your life avoiding work and racking up debt only to come out with a poverty 2.2 or third lol
I agree, I am there to get an education and thats the main goal. It can't hurt to have to some fun with lady friends on the side though. Like you say if it happens it happens, I'm not gonna be putting loads of effort into it unless theres someone very special.
Reply 39
I'm 34 - my health led to me dropping out of a-levels when I was 17, cue years of illness and treatments before taking up an admin job. 9 years progressing minimally in the admin setting, I'm bored and know I'm capable of more. The final nudge I needed was infertility, a few years mourning the child we would never had made me want to aid the lives of other children out there - so a BA Hons in education studies with the hopes of educational psychology in the future awaits me now. I am so excited, scared and giddy, I feel like I'm in charge of my life again!

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