RCA Photography - Mature Student

I'm starting Photography MA with the RCA this September as a mature student (late forties). Curious to know if there's anyone else out there in a similar position to me? While I'm cool feeling a little over-ripe for student life, given the fact that I'm making this post, I suppose I'm a little anxious, too. I'm sure I'll just sink into the whole study thing easily enough but it would be good to hear about other people's experiences.

Thanks!

Andy

I'm starting Photography MA with the RCA this September as a mature student (late forties). Curious to know if there's anyone else out there in a similar position to me? While I'm cool feeling a little over-ripe for student life, given the fact that I'm making this post, I suppose I'm a little anxious, too. I'm sure I'll just sink into the whole study thing easily enough but it would be good to hear about other people's experiences.

Thanks!

Andy

Late 40s too ... starting this Sept at UCL ... starting with a one year Masters to be followed by three years PhD. Babbies on here if you ask me, writing this or that and saying they're 20 something and are "mature students" ha!

Thanks, Chris. Your post inspired me to look at some age-related statistics for MA study. Plus, everything I’ve read about the RCA makes me think I’ll have no issues whatsoever. Much more comfortable about everything now.

I'm starting Photography MA with the RCA this September as a mature student (late forties). Curious to know if there's anyone else out there in a similar position to me? While I'm cool feeling a little over-ripe for student life, given the fact that I'm making this post, I suppose I'm a little anxious, too. I'm sure I'll just sink into the whole study thing easily enough but it would be good to hear about other people's experiences.

Thanks!

Andy

Hello Andy,

I can certainly relate to an extent of what you're feeling. I started my MA in Photography in my mid twenties and still felt that the 'student' lifestyle was behind me (not that I was a typical student anyhow). The thing I remembered was that doing an MA is something mature in of itself, purely because one has already completed an undergraduate degree in the past in order to achieve the status of being an MA student. It is a step above the echelon of the BA, into another world of deeper contextuality of art, philosophy and photography. An MA is also what you make it, as it is purely down to you with what it is you want to do. You aren't interpreting a brief and making work from it, as you're creating a proposal and undertaking it.

There is nothing to worry about. It is only natural to feel anxious when arriving at the sunlit uplands ahead (not that I am telling you to suck eggs). But rest assured, once you start your MA, talk to other potential classmates and involve yourself around the university, you will begin to feel at peace and the wave of normality runs over you. There will also be plenty of people around your age, and older! I am most certainly at the lower end of the age spectrum for masters degrees, but I am aware of other students well into their 60's and beyond. We are all doing the MA for a reason, and that is to be masters of our subject. In the end, it all works out and it all becomes natural.

All the best,

Ray Goodwin
MA Photography
Student Ambassador

I'm starting Photography MA with the RCA this September as a mature student (late forties). Curious to know if there's anyone else out there in a similar position to me? While I'm cool feeling a little over-ripe for student life, given the fact that I'm making this post, I suppose I'm a little anxious, too. I'm sure I'll just sink into the whole study thing easily enough but it would be good to hear about other people's experiences.

Thanks!

Andy