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Mature Students


skalistair

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I've finally had enough of the dead end job that i'm in and have decided i'd like to give uni a chance. Anybody else got experiences of coming into uni as a mature student? Any advice or information would be nice.

I'm looking to do one of the computing courses at RGU, possibly graphics and animation or the internet and multimedia one. Anybody on them courses? Any good?

Any information would be pretty cool.

cheers.

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I've finally had enough of the dead end job that i'm in and have decided i'd like to give uni a chance. Anybody else got experiences of coming into uni as a mature student? Any advice or information would be nice.

I'm looking to do one of the computing courses at RGU, possibly graphics and animation or the internet and multimedia one. Anybody on them courses? Any good?

Any information would be pretty cool.

cheers.

I've been thinking about this too - so any info would be great.

Although Im thinking on a course like Mechancial Engineering or something.

Cheers.

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Guest onlynik

I went back to college as a mature student a few years ago. Its easier to get in if you have some relative expirence, but there should be any problems, they may make you go through an access course.

You should contact the uni directly and ask about a mature entry, htey'll tell you who to contact and what you'll need to do I think you still have to apply UCAS ( or what ever it is now)

What might piss you off is the age and maturity of the students (well it did for me) but if you are dedicated and turn up for lectures and tutorials, there is no reason you can't do it.

You should be able to recieve a larger laon, being a mature student, and if you have a mortgage etc, again the student laons people should be able to help you.

Hope you decide to do it and do well, all the best in you pursuit.

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I left the 9-5 world a few years ago and went to RGU as a mature student, I just contacted the Uni direct and got in through clearing, no problems also had no problem getting my fees paid for. Sadly I dropped out after first year though, I had no savings when I started, I pissed away all my student loan, and I had to take out a full-time job to pay for things like rent and bills, and fell so far behind I had to quit. My advice would be to have a lot of cash behind you if you do it, because it's not like going to Uni at 17 when you have your folks supporting you financially and no cars / mortgage / bank loans / credit cards to pay off.

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I went back to college as a mature student a few years ago. Its easier to get in if you have some relative expirence, but there should be any problems, they may make you go through an access course.

You should contact the uni directly and ask about a mature entry, htey'll tell you who to contact and what you'll need to do I think you still have to apply UCAS ( or what ever it is now)

What might piss you off is the age and maturity of the students (well it did for me) but if you are dedicated and turn up for lectures and tutorials, there is no reason you can't do it.

You should be able to recieve a larger laon, being a mature student, and if you have a mortgage etc, again the student laons people should be able to help you.

Hope you decide to do it and do well, all the best in you pursuit.

Like onlynik, I quit the motor trade (coachbuilder/panel beater/welder) some years ago and studied Computer Science and it has proved a good move for me long term

It was kinda weird as there were kids 10 years younger than me and some folks 10 years older and just me in the middle! Howevre, it all seemed to work out!

My advice would be to get a clear idea in your head what you want to do with your career then contact the Uni (or college) and see what's on offer. There should be a student adviser there to help you.

If you're thinking about Mechanical Engineering, now's a good time as there is a critical shortage of ME's right now.

Computing can be a hit or a miss as everyone starts out wanting to do either Laser Surgery and Missile Guidance systems or develop Neural Networks or funcy games software.

The reality is that unless you're a genius (or just plain jammy like me), they're will be a fairly slow learning curve in your first job.

Set your goals and expectations - there's nothing you can't do if you put the effort in. I LOVED my time at Uni and would recommend it to anyone. Just make sure you pick the right subject for you.

All the best - who knows? your CV might drop onto my desk someday :up:

Go for it:up:

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my mum went back to uni and did a degree in travel and tourism, just in time for the foot and mouth epidemic and september the 11th to flatten tourism in scotland :D nevertheless, she was the oldest person in all of her classes (i think she was 47 at the time) and she got on fine. the big difference was that dad was able to finance her through it, which made things much easier. despite that, she was still running a household in an -old-skool-mum stylee, staying up till about 2 to do her uni work and then being in at 9, 35 miles away the next morning!

so best of luck to you. i'm sure you'll find it as rewarding as she did.

/x

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I'm looking to do one of the computing courses at RGU, possibly graphics and animation or the internet and multimedia one. Anybody on them courses? Any good?

Having done the Internet and Multimedia course and then been in the workplace for a few years I think that it's a decent enough grounding into the kind of coding you'll run into in a lot of IT jobs these days. Like most degree courses it's very much development orientated and doesn't cover much, if any of the support side of web technology despite that being a large part of many roles.

When I did the course (2000-2003) it had just changed from the old Computing degree, was still a bit too close to the Business Computing course and was very much for Internet and Multimedia in name only (bar a couple of token modules). I believe they've improved a lot on this and it's now a lot more distinct from the Business course but it also still looks a little light on the Internet and Multimedia parts until the latter stages.

However as I said before it should give you a decent enough grounding in the concepts and techniques you're likely to encounter as a developer in an industrial setting. I've no idea what the graphics and animation course is like though.

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However, the down side is that every man and their dog will want you to fix their knackered DVD players, playstations etc.

when people hear that i studied computing, they all want their printers fixed! the difference between what you do in any given course and what people in the general public think you do can be quite frightening!

/x

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when people hear that i studied computing, they all want their printers fixed! the difference between what you do in any given course and what people in the general public think you do can be quite frightening!

/x

I feel your pain!

Every time someone I know has the slightest problem with their computer it's me that gets the phonecall.

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when people hear that i studied computing, they all want their printers fixed! the difference between what you do in any given course and what people in the general public think you do can be quite frightening!

/x

I hear that!

I get it all the time.

"What is it you do?",

"IT Consultant"

"Oooohhhh, maybe can help me with...."

You can make it work for you though...

When I was at Uni, I used to work in a computer games shop and I'd get all sorts of stupid questions, like the woman who came into the shops in a panic carrying a box of disks with a pair of rubber gloves on..."Ma sons goat wahn ay thae computer virus things and the silly wee basturt pit the disk back on the boax and noo thur aw infected". Fucks Sake.

Eventually I stopped trying...

This one guy, who had been bugging me daily for months, was stuck on a particular part of a platform game and needed to go upwards to get to the new level. I told him to adjust the vertical hold on his telly and catch it just as the new level appeared. Needless to say the moronic sack of shite spent hours on it.

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I hear that!

I get it all the time.

"What is it you do?",

"IT Consultant"

"Oooohhhh, maybe can help me with...."

You can make it work for you though...

When I was at Uni, I used to work in a computer games shop and I'd get all sorts of stupid questions, like the woman who came into the shops in a panic carrying a box of disks with a pair of rubber gloves on..."Ma sons goat wahn ay thae computer virus things and the silly wee basturt pit the disk back on the boax and noo thur aw infected". Fucks Sake.

Eventually I stopped trying...

This one guy, who had been bugging me daily for months, was stuck on a particular part of a platform game and needed to go upwards to get to the new level. I told him to adjust the vertical hold on his telly and catch it just as the new level appeared. Needless to say the moronic sack of shite spent hours on it.

Priceless:laughing:

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  • 2 weeks later...
I feel your pain!

Every time someone I know has the slightest problem with their computer it's me that gets the phonecall.

Snap. I got so sick of dealing with Windows virii and malware for family members that I either installed linux on their PC or strong-armed them into getting a Mac. Thankfully my helpdesk calls have dropped somewhat since...

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