St Andrews as a mature student - realistic?

why do you wanna to German bruh what jobs you gonna get?

Very feasible. Pretty much what I did after leaving my previous course (engineering) for mental illness reasons also (albeit somewhat different conditions), and I'm now studying a humanities course at UCL. I didn't bother going back and doing A-levels, I did a CertHE course at another uni in a related subject, although this was mainly possible due to COVID and everything being remote for me. I would have otherwise probably looked into an Access to HE course rather than A-levels (and this is probably a better option than a CertHE as that can complicate the funding situation further potentially).
Universities are happy to receive applications from suitably qualified mature student, no reason not to if you can figure out the funding side of things. You may not have funding for a full, full-time course left, unless you apply for compelling personal reasons (which sounds reasonable in context but you'll probably need documentation from the time as well as now to support that). Bear in mind if you're going to stop working for the course to plan your finances accordingly also. This is I think for most mature students (particularly those in career level roles already) the biggest potential barrier, but it's ultimately a personal choice.

Hey @artful_lounger

Thanks so much for your reply 🤗

Firstly, I'm really pleased things worked out for you. Overcoming ill health of any kind and going back and making a success of it deserves massive congratulations!

How did you find the application process as a mature student, particularly as it relates to 'non-standard' entry qualifications?
Did you contact the university first before you applied?

EDIT: Just given you a follow, hope you don't mind 😊

Thank you, you also!
The application process itself on UCAS was I guess more or less the same as usual (I guess I wasn't applying through a buzzword at school anymore but I had previously applied outside of a school anyway so that wasn't new to me). As I did my CertHE (which was my main "entry" qualification at the time for the purposes of the course I'm on now) part time over two years, one of my lecturers who had taught me for about 3 semesters at that point had kindly agreed to write an academic reference for me (which is not atypical for uni academics albeit they probably usually write them for masters/PhD applicants). I did use the TSR PS review service after writing my PS to get someone to look at it though!
I had reached out to the uni and department well before applying though, to understand if my qualifications would meet the requirements, they were (fortunately) very helpful and accommodating and the departmental admissions tutor had a couple of zoom calls with me about the course and my background and whether I meet the admissions requirements and so on. This was probably atypical and reflected that the department was quite small, and also were used to having a mixture of mature and school leaver students, so they were quite able to do this. Some unis may not be able to facilitate quite that much support but all should at least be able to provide a basic level of information about whether they accept XYZ qualification or not in general (albeit they probably can't say for sure whether you would be competitive or accepted if you applied, until you make an application).
I would recommend reaching out, as worst case scenario you might get a pro-forma response - and even that could be insightful in giving you information about how much experience/engagement they have with mature students. In the best case scenario you might receive a lot of helpful information tailored to mature students. Do make sure you contact the relevant admissions person/team though rather than just randomly contacting lecturers though...!

That's really useful information, thank you.

If I do this, it will be at least 4/5 years in the making, so not something I'm thinking about doing next year.

So were you admitted to UCL on the basis of your CertHE?
I know you said you previously studied engineering and now you're studying a humanities subject, but how much did your previous A-levels contribute to your UCL application success, if you get my drift?

I didn't do A-levels, I did IB, but as I understand my school leaving qualifications weren't really considered. I think there was some discussion early about whether they met minimum academic standards under a contextual offer but as I was on track for (and received) the equivalent of a strong first in my CertHE I believe the admissions decision was primarily made on that basis.
I think in general universities are more interested in the recent academic attainment of mature students than what they got in school many years ago, given that recent attainment is actually indicative of the level they are currently working at.

Ah, I understand.

This has motivated me a lot and I've now applied to get on an Access to HE course (Humanities) at a local college. Thanks for the inspiration 🥰

In reality I do plan to do a couple of A-levels too, in due course (German and English Literature). I previously studied maths and science subjects and so my essay writing is severely lacking - I definitely need to improve on that.