College/University 2014 thread

[Deleted member 66701]

So, who's going to college/uni this September? Where are you going? What are you going to study? What's your motivation?

I'll start

In July 2013 I applied for, and got, voluntary redundancy from Hewlett Packard after working there for 15 years since the age of 20. I've essentially retired - with the payout I got I don't need to work again as I now have no mortgage, no debt and the investments I made are generating a comfortable income. For the last year I've also looked after the kids (ages 7, 6 and 3), done all the school runs and looked after the house. It's also let my wife concentrate on her career which has paid dividends as she was promoted to year 1+2 lead in January and last month applied for and was successful in getting Assistant Deputy Head which she starts in September.

So, while I've enjoyed the last year immensely, I've started to get a bit restless - not bored - no time for that! So, I went to Lancaster Unis open day a few weeks back to see what courses they had available for adult learners. I've always been interested in web development - one of my roles at HP was web development but the work dried up and I got shunted to live support which wasn't my cup of tea - I've also sold a few web sites commercially, so I wanted to see what courses were on those lines.

To cut a long story short one of the course tutors made me an unconditional off (in respect of my IT experience and current portfolio of websites) to study a full time degree - Interactive Media Design BSc (Hons) - so I signed up there and then! When I told the wife she said she knew I'd do something like that - she's been great and very supportive. I've always kind of regretted not going to uni/getting a degree but when I was younger I had no idea what I wanted to do and to be honest I've never felt like it's held me back in my career so far. Finally got all the paper work in order for Student Finance and I get a childcare grant and parental learning grant top up as well

One thing I was worried about was writing assignments etc as I've been away from education for so long, so the tutor also signed me up to a module to help me with the skills needed for that aspect.

My intention after completing the degree is to set up freelance, doing maybe 10-15 hrs a week work to top up my income but still having responsibility for the kids/housework and being able to enjoy the school holidays with the family. I've sworn I'll never work for a big multinational again, but I'm not averse to working for a small start up - as long as they are local or I can work remotely.

So, wish me luck for September, 3 years of hard study pending - never thought I'd be going to uni at 36 years of age!

 

[bakes0310]

Not to tell you what to do for your own thread, but can it also be the college 2014 thread aswell please
Im going back to college in September, well hopefully I just have to wait for enrolment day in august.
Im 28 with no qualifications really, my best GCSE was in English (D) and I walked away from college with a couple nvq level 2 qualifications in IT.
So I will be starting from the bottom of the education pile. I want to take GCSE English, maths and Biology. I need to get a C grade in all three, which im kinda worried about.

 

[Deleted member 66701]

Sure, why not - good luck with your course(s)

 

[Judgeneo]

Best of luck to the both of you!

Keep us updated

 

[bakes0310]

Sure, why not - good luck with your course(s)

You too, sounds very scary the word degree. But if everything goes to plan ill be doing one in 2017.

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Kudos to you but I don't think I could go back to Uni again. Being 18 yourself and an utter idiot is one thing but being older, wiser, financially stable and just far more grounded whilst having to deal with 18 year old idiots is a completely different kettle of nonsense.

Some of them will have been born in 1997.

 

[pitchfork]

Debating doing a part time engineering degree next year, I'm sick of offices.

Gonna sit there being old surrounded by 18 year old kids with ideals, oh the fun I'm going to have destroying their spirits...

I hated university first time round, I reckon now that I've grown older and more sarcastic it'll be a hoot.

 

[agent48]

Can never have enough qualifications

 

[craptakular]

I'm sure you guys will do well. I am doing a 5 day course at Cranfield uni in November so technically I will be back to uni for a third time.

I graduated in 2004 and attempted PGCE in 2009 it was pure hell lol.

 

[Rich1988]

Im going to Uni for the first time this September! Studying Biological Sciences, slightly concerned about how annoying im going to find the 18 yr olds as I am staying in halls first year but not too worried!

 

[Nitefly]

Im going to Uni for the first time this September! Studying Biological Sciences, slightly concerned about how annoying im going to find the 18 yr olds as I am staying in halls first year but not too worried!

The choice of heroes, warriors and wizards \o/

Oh to go back to university with the life skills and knowledge I have now!

 

[Rich1988]

Oh to go back to university with the life skills and knowledge I have now!

This is kind of what I am hoping will be the case for me, I know going as 18 year old me would have been stupid, having worked solidly for the 7 years since I left in 2007 I am a very different person now, a lot more common sense and able to make better choices than I used to!

 

[Deleted member 66701]

This is kind of what I am hoping will be the case for me, I know going as 18 year old me would have been stupid, having worked solidly for the 7 years since I left in 2007 I am a very different person now, a lot more common sense and able to make better choices than I used to!

Ditto.

Attainment/pass rates are a magnitude higher among older students compared "normal" age students.

 

[Semple]

I think you'll be surprised of the age ranges. I'm sure there will be plenty of soon to be "mature students" like yourself who are in the same position of wishing to pursue a degree.

From what I vaguely remember with mine, i'd say 10-15% were 30+, 20-25% from 21-29, and the rest being 18/19.

A lot of the 18/19 year old's will drop in the first year anyway, after they either can't handle the small workload, fail at exams/assignments, or just lose interest in the subject they've chosen.

 

[danza]

My employer is sponsoring me to top up my HND to degree level via distance learning. I tried several unis within a reasonable distance, and ended up going with Portsmouth. I'll be entering the final year, doing 2 year part-time study. Course is Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering BEng. The OU don't ascribe the same credit value to a HND as other universities, so I discounted them fairly early on.

All other universities were either uninterested or didn't offer a course structure that worked around my job. It used to be that you could easily get on an MSc with a HND (up until fairly recently), which is what I tried to do, but these days universities aren't interested and demand an undergrad degree before they'll even consider you (undergrad degrees generally seem to net them more money).

All I need to do now is finish my application...

 

[Agent_Smith357]

I've just completed a year long access course and should be studying for an meng in electrical and electronic engineering in september if the results turn out okay

I'm very glad I didn't do the whole uni thing at 18 as I would never have completed it or chosen a subject I'm interested in. By leaving it longer I've had plenty of time to work crap jobs and figure out what I really want to be doing.

There was a wide range of ages on the access course but we all had in common the desire to improve our lives

 

[KaHn]

Starting an distant learning MSc in Advanced offshore structural engineering as I was a bit bored and want to do my PhD at some point.

KaHn

 

[pitchfork]

This is kind of what I am hoping will be the case for me, I know going as 18 year old me would have been stupid, having worked solidly for the 7 years since I left in 2007 I am a very different person now, a lot more common sense and able to make better choices than I used to!

I'm the other way around, the household I grew up in combined with working since 16 (and 3 paper rounds since) 11 meant I had a lot more common sense and I was much more sensible and able to do things - cooking, cleaning, fixing/ maintenance, knuckling down and working hard etc.

Plus I'd been able to go out drinking since 16 so all of that had gotten kind of old by then, I was basically just into pubs and relaxing which most people there weren't. Probably why I thought university was dull, couldn't be arsed with studenty things.

Several years on I've sort of gone the other way and turned back into a kid again, if I was 10-15 years older I reckon you could call it a midlife crisis. Either way I want to go back and just be the ******** I wasn't when I was 18...

 

[ryryryan]

I remember in my Accountancy module in uni there was a bloke there that had to be early sixties minimum! So you'll be a young'un

 

[DAnDan]

I think you'll be surprised of the age ranges. I'm sure there will be plenty of soon to be "mature students" like yourself who are in the same position of wishing to pursue a degree.

From what I vaguely remember with mine, i'd say 10-15% were 30+, 20-25% from 21-29, and the rest being 18/19.

A lot of the 18/19 year old's will drop in the first year anyway, after they either can't handle the small workload, fail at exams/assignments, or just lose interest in the subject they've chosen.

I don't know if it was just my course (chemistry) being a bit odd, but we didn't have any mature students in our year, although the years just below us have had one or two in each year. That's out of a class of 60.

For us everyone was of the typical age, there were a few people who were a couple of years older having taken gap years or the like, but no genuine mature students!

Oh, and I'd have loved to have had a "small workload"!