What is it with all the discrimination students feel against mature students?

It's awful, people say that there is no discrimination that the traditional students feel towards the non-traditional students, but that is a lie. I am in a class where most all the students are 17-21 age range but not me. People in my class were okay with me, joking around and being around me within the first few months of the course. Whenever I was asked my age I said I was a mature student who missed the oportunity to do a level 3 course in the past, but I look really young for my age so I remember they guessing between them that I was no more than 19, as if knowing the age of everybody was important to them. I said clearly I was a mature student. Then, 6 months later, on my birthday, they asked how old I was again, I thought nothing wrong of saying it, we were all friends, study buddies. After I said it, on the same day they changed their behaviour towards me, and from the next day onwards no one sat next to me anymore, or talk to me, or joke around like in the past. They singling me out. It's been weeks, it feels like I done something awful, but I have done nothing apart from "hurting" their expectations of what my age should be to be in their class studying A levels. When I told them my age I could tell the weirdness on their looks. Going to college now feels awkward, I hate every minute of having to interact with them when we are given tasks to work in groups. The next few months will be difficult. I was already expecting it to be difficult, but only in terms of time management and finance.
We have a whatsap group where we can try to help each other on course related stuff, whenever there is a conversation going on about anything, when I reply, the conversation dies. Whenever someone asks something in the group, people always answer, and now when I ask questions no one answers.
I wish I knew ahead of time that this was the reality of being a mature student, about people's disgust, but I rarely see anyone taking about it online.

It's awful, people say that there is no discrimination that the traditional students feel towards the non-traditional students, but that is a lie. I am in a class where most all the students are 17-21 age range but not me. People in my class were okay with me, joking around and being around me within the first few months of the course. Whenever I was asked my age I said I was a mature student who missed the oportunity to do a level 3 course in the past, but I look really young for my age so I remember they guessing between them that I was no more than 19, as if knowing the age of everybody was important to them. I said clearly I was a mature student. Then, 6 months later, on my birthday, they asked how old I was again, I thought nothing wrong of saying it, we were all friends, study buddies. After I said it, on the same day they changed their behaviour towards me, and from the next day onwards no one sat next to me anymore, or talk to me, or joke around like in the past. They singling me out. It's been weeks, it feels like I done something awful, but I have done nothing apart from "hurting" their expectations of what my age should be to be in their class studying A levels. When I told them my age I could tell the weirdness on their looks. Going to college now feels awkward, I hate every minute of having to interact with them when we are given tasks to work in groups. The next few months will be difficult. I was already expecting it to be difficult, but only in terms of time management and finance.
We have a whatsap group where we can try to help each other on course related stuff, whenever there is a conversation going on about anything, when I reply, the conversation dies. Whenever someone asks something in the group, people always answer, and now when I ask questions no one answers.
I wish I knew ahead of time that this was the reality of being a mature student, about people's disgust, but I rarely see anyone taking about it online.

It's awful, people say that there is no discrimination that the traditional students feel towards the non-traditional students, but that is a lie. I am in a class where most all the students are 17-21 age range but not me. People in my class were okay with me, joking around and being around me within the first few months of the course. Whenever I was asked my age I said I was a mature student who missed the oportunity to do a level 3 course in the past, but I look really young for my age so I remember they guessing between them that I was no more than 19, as if knowing the age of everybody was important to them. I said clearly I was a mature student. Then, 6 months later, on my birthday, they asked how old I was again, I thought nothing wrong of saying it, we were all friends, study buddies. After I said it, on the same day they changed their behaviour towards me, and from the next day onwards no one sat next to me anymore, or talk to me, or joke around like in the past. They singling me out. It's been weeks, it feels like I done something awful, but I have done nothing apart from "hurting" their expectations of what my age should be to be in their class studying A levels. When I told them my age I could tell the weirdness on their looks. Going to college now feels awkward, I hate every minute of having to interact with them when we are given tasks to work in groups. The next few months will be difficult. I was already expecting it to be difficult, but only in terms of time management and finance.
We have a whatsap group where we can try to help each other on course related stuff, whenever there is a conversation going on about anything, when I reply, the conversation dies. Whenever someone asks something in the group, people always answer, and now when I ask questions no one answers.
I wish I knew ahead of time that this was the reality of being a mature student, about people's disgust, but I rarely see anyone taking about it online.

The local college where I live now segregates students i've been told.

18 and below are not able to be in a class with people 19+

meaning that if you are 19 and want to resit anything you might actually be f****d because they might not even be running mature classes for what you want to resist.

tbh i'm not really surprised about what happened to you as age discrimination is pretty rife even on TSR
Watch when someone younger gets into an argument with someone older on here [above 25] you will often see them resort to lame insults about their age.

They segregate/decline students based on age, a legally protected characteristic? I doubt it. I've been at maybe 5 colleges and never seen or heard of such a policy.

I don't really accept the discrimination on here either. I don't think i've ever been mocked for my age and I tell daft teens to shut up constantly, people here/anywhere come out with all sorts of petty crap and it's just water of a ducks back. if anything I would say TSR's users issues with gender & race are far more pronounced (That's why my uni don't work with them anyway)

Yes they do...

and yes on TSR it is quite ageist at times? I've seen it happen many of times where one of the younger users is insulting one of the older about their age during a disagreement.
I once even got accused of joining TSR to prey on young girls. The guy soon changed his tune though after I pointed out my join date.

How old are you?
You are just doing A levels and are you in the first or second year of them?


Whilst I can see their behaviour sounds a bit rubbish, you need to ignore and focus on your studies. You will never see them again and your best way is to get good grades.

You sounds a bit overconcerned about their behaviour, when really they dont matter. Doing your A levels matters. Focus on your studies and ignore them.

If I was in that position I would just not interact with them, but I wouldnt put up with nonsense either. I also wouldnt be unduly worried. Its only going to be 2 years or in your case it sounds like a few months.

@Blue_Cow Its late and i cant see that I can provide a decent answer because the OP is a bit sketchy its hard to see whats going on and they seem upset/ bullied/ very affected by these other people.

This sounds more like a group of general idiots rather than a widespead mature student issue IMO

I love being a mature student, i'm happy to chat to the teenyboppers occasionally but don't much care about them or their teenage dramas. I'm there to study and potentially network, not make friends or have my first 'away from home' exp

Lets put it that way: I am not old enough to be their parent, I am not 16+ older than they are. Not that this is relevant anyway.
I am on my first year of an a level, and last, because I cannot bare anymore to go to a place where people make me feel like I shouldn't be, like I am a creepy person. This week so far is being too much, they act like I have some disease that they will catch if they are near me.
Today we had a different classroom for an hour, the class was open when I got there minutes earlier, so I got in and left my jumper on one if the seats before deciding to get a drink, at that time I was the only one there. I came back a bit later and most students were already there, two of them were seating next to my seat on either side. Then they saw that the jumper was mine and that was my seat when I got there, and they changed seats within minutes of each other. We don't even say hi to each other anymore like we used to, but I say hi anyway. At some point during the lesson when the teacher was talking near the board and I was looking in that direction, one of the girls kept looking at me for like a minute, but not in a way where I could look at her straight in the eye to make her stop, she was looking in a way like she was thinking something about me. It felt like she was doing ut on purpose to make me feel as weird as her look towards me, and I would have asked if she was okay while making eye contact if the teacher wasn't talking.
Then later on, in another class with only a board and a computers connected to it, where sometimes the teacher log on and trust people use for a bit to go on youtube and find the right video explaining about something to do with the stuff we are studying, the teacher is called outside the class to quick talk to someone and disapears for like 5 minutes. That same girl who was staring at me decided to use, she said to look for some questionnaire she saw earlier, but ended up in some random teacher stuff, people told her to stop because the teacher was nearby and that the questionnaire wasn't there, but clicked on random stuff and went through some pages that showed the name, the student number and the age of each student from other classes, then she got to the page of that of our class and left it there, full screened the page and kept staring at it, at the big board, people were asking her what she was doing and that the teacher was coming back, then she closed the tabs and went on youtube.

I know I should focus on myself and not on theur behaviour, but they constantly remind me in other little ways that I don't belong there. I know it's not up to others to decide where I belong, it's up to me, but their small and many actions break me little by little. I am getting myself little by little to care less about what they think of me, I dare sometimes to go on that girl's table and ask her for information on this and that, she starts answering me in an annoyed way with a tone of voice that is a bit agressive. Doing that makes me somehow care less and be more confident in that class. But then on whatsap, when I ask what class it is - because it changes on Thursdays - I get no response, everbody left me on "read" today, so I had to arrive early, go all the way to the teachers' room and ask them. I know I shouldn't but I let these little things to ruin my day, I lose motivation, I sleep for longer instead of doing the work I should be doing, so I get behind work, I will miss the lessons tomorrow because my presentation isn't ready. I muted our whatsap group so I don't do the silly thing of replying to people, or asking things about the course, because I know I will be ignored and then feel hurt about it, and get behind work again.

After this year is finished I will be moving to another college or I will start a long distance course where I turn up to college only for exams or other necessary things. I hope university isn't going to be like this.

The local college where I live now segregates students i've been told.

18 and below are not able to be in a class with people 19+

meaning that if you are 19 and want to resit anything you might actually be f****d because they might not even be running mature classes for what you want to resist.

tbh i'm not really surprised about what happened to you as age discrimination is pretty rife even on TSR
Watch when someone younger gets into an argument with someone older on here [above 25] you will often see them resort to lame insults about their age.

Age doesn't matter its just a number. The people in your class are just narrow-minded and shallow. You might be feeling hurt right now but in the future, you will not regret your decision.

They segregate/decline students based on age, a legally protected characteristic? I doubt it. I've been at maybe 5 colleges and never seen or heard of such a policy.

I don't really accept the discrimination on here either. I don't think i've ever been mocked for my age and I tell daft teens to shut up constantly, people here/anywhere come out with all sorts of petty crap and it's just water of a ducks back. if anything I would say TSR's users issues with gender & race are far more pronounced (That's why my uni don't work with them anyway)

Havent got the patience to play guessing games. It was relevant because I was trying to understand the age gap which was unclear.

Talk to the head of college and see if they have any adult classes.

Children are cruel and immature sometimes, just sounds like petty bullying. If you arent going to report then ignore. If toy are doing A levels then you are on a countdown to sitting exams anyway.

School is free until 19 and thereafter courses cost thousands so imo best to take advantage of free education whilst its here. It does sound as though its affecting you every day, so you need to speak to someone.

GP, college counsellor, head etc. They just sound petty and theyve got to you so it increases your anxiety.

Its much less likely university will be like that, but there are still students without social skills that can become isolated. I would make sue you have some outside interests and hobbies as well so you can get to know new people and they will give you some perspective.

0. Childline 0800 1111
1. Samaritans 116 123
2. https://kooth.com/ Online counselling
3.The Mix. 0808 808 4994. Sunday to Friday from 2pm to 11pm. webchat Sunday to Friday from 2pm to 11pm, and Saturday from 8pm to 11pm.

The age gap is less than 16 years, so not old enough to be their parent.
I agree that children can be cruel and immature, but not adults, and in the UK children are not put in the same class as adults. But young adults are.
For now I don't have the courage to complain about this issue to the staff, I don't know why. It feels as if I'm in the wrong, as if things should be that way because of the age difference.

Before college, I had already primed myself that I was likely going to be the oldest student on the course. I never tried or pretended to fit in with my peers. My expectation was that I was going to be flying solo; same with uni, and that was ok with me. Over time, there was a group rapport, but there was no discrimination at all.

You are at college to get your pre-reqs for uni - that should be your priority. The only people that you should really take in to consideration other than yourself are the staff that grade your work.

College relationships are fleeting. I met some great people during college and now we seldom speak. Just like when you finish school, people move on fast.

When you arrive at uni, you will have many opportunities to forge friendships with other people and hopefully they will be organic rather than under the weight of feeling social pressure.

and yes on TSR it is quite ageist at times? I've seen it happen many of times where one of the younger users is insulting one of the older about their age during a disagreement.
I once even got accused of joining TSR to prey on young girls. The guy soon changed his tune though after I pointed out my join date.

The age gap is less than 16 years, so not old enough to be their parent.
I agree that children can be cruel and immature because at the end of the day they are children. but in the UK children are not put in the same class as adults. People in my class are all adults, there are around three 17 year olds, but the rest goes up to the age of 21.
For now I don't have the courage to complain about this issue to the staff, I don't know why. It feels as if I'm in the wrong, as if things should be that way because of the age difference.

Are you doing university?