What can I expect as a 21 year old starting 1st year?

I am currently 19, turning 20, and am about to enrol onto a foundation programme after a gap year as I have poor a level grades. Will I be much older than everyone else? Will I be looked down on and treated differently in the foundation year? Will I be stuck with loads of 18 year olds by the time I start 1st year?

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

So, 21 is not "much older" - while you're classed as a mature student, pretty much any undergraduate student between 18 and 24 or so is indistinguishable. You need to also remember in the real world, things aren't segregated by age. So you'll have people in your course who did a gap year, two gap years, and you'll also have those who are older having worked for a number of years. You'll also have some school leavers and some of these may even be older or younger than average for various reasons too.

Note that unlike school at uni you are also not defined by a particular classroom group of people. You will soon see that from 1st year onwards you're not even defined by a year cohort in your degree, as invariably many modules you take will have a mix of students from different degrees in different years of their degrees taking them as options or retaking or similar. Depending on the area you nay also have masters or PhD students taking them.

So in any given academic environment you'll have a bey heterogeneous population of students. You will have more in common with the school leavers and most other students as you have effectively similar life experiences and are at a similar stage of your life.

Regarding the foundation year, these often serve also as a widening participation entry point for a variety of students who are often older than average anyway. So I suspect even in this you'll have a bit more variety. That said sometimes unis run their foundation years at local 6th form colleges - this can feel a little awkward but usually the foundation year develops a stronger cohort feel due to being a somewhat unique and unconnected course to the rest of the people using the premises, at least in my experience.

I wouldn't worry about it.

Reply 2

Schnauzerquester

You will blend in I can assure you. I started Uni when I was 19, didn't make any difference and I knew people who were 21, 24, 27, 28 on my course and none treated them any differently at all, well the only difference would be I think people looked up to them for guidance and advice, but otherwise you didn't think about it.

The main reason for this is because once you are out of a school environment you soon realise that age isn't such a huge limiting factor, in regards to your social group, as it once was. In the adult world, you will be working for the rest of your life with people of various ages. You being a mere few years older than your peers will make no difference, especially as there will be no discernable differences.

This all comes from someone returning to University after 6 years, I'm 28 and starting a Master's in September. I'll admit to being somewhat nervous about fitting in but I remember those older than I was in my Undergrad and how it didn't make them left out at all.

Best of luck with your degree!

Reply 3

Tommcc1288

I first went to uni at 23, and now returning for another degree at 36 (I'm not used to seeing that yet...). Didn't notice any difference at all the first time round and that was despite going direct into 2nd year. Everyone's there to ultimately learn and get their degree, and that doesn't matter if you're 18, 21, 23 or 36! In fact, for being older, I find it an advantage as I'm a lot more focused and have different priorities to make sure I absolutely make the most of it. Not that I didn't before, just there were different priorities vying for the time spent.