![\"\"](\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/files\/2019\/12\/me-and-Lauren.jpg\")
<\/a>Mum and daughter – you’d never guess eh?<\/p><\/div>\n
Fast forward more than 20 years, and here I am, at Bournemouth University studying Computing.\u00a0 With a lot of encouragement from my youngest daughter, I applied via Clearing, got accepted, quit my job of more than 10 years and, a few short weeks later, I\u2019m getting used to my entirely different life.<\/p>\n
I chose Computing because there\u2019s no requirement to have any indepth knowledge of the subject before you start \u2013 the course starts right from the beginning.\u00a0 Although I\u2019ve been messing about with computers for a long time and learnt to do things just for fun, I didn\u2019t have any formal training (computing wasn\u2019t really a thing when I was at school), so this is perfect for me.\u00a0 The first year of all the computer courses are common, so if you want to swap to something more specialised at the end of the first year, you can.<\/p>\n
<\/a>A wheelie bin is an essential tool for programming a motorcycle ECU.<\/p><\/div>\n
As a middle-aged mum, I was worried that I wouldn\u2019t fit in, but I didn\u2019t need to worry at all.\u00a0 I\u2019m amazed at how easy it has been to settle in to life as a student.\u00a0 I have already made friends and I don\u2019t feel like the \u201codd one out\u201d at all.<\/p>\n
Given the subject, I imagined that I\u2019d need a powerful computer to do work at home.\u00a0 As it is, a basic mid-range Windows laptop is more than enough to run the software we use.\u00a0 All the software (so far) has been free.\u00a0\u00a0 Alternatively, there are plenty of computers on campus that can be used at any time, which have all the software available.<\/p>\n
In the first semester, we are covering Computer Fundamentals, Data and Databases, and Principles of Programming.\u00a0 We are learning to program in Java and HTML, learning SQL and how to build relational databases, about computer security and the nuts and bolts of how computers work.\u00a0 The placement year has been talked about already and it sounds exciting.\u00a0 We had a presentation with students who are on their final year and their placements sounded fantastic with big companies like IBM being in the mix.<\/p>\n
Each of the three subjects has at least one lecture each week, along with a lab session.\u00a0 Lectures and labs are usually two hours long.\u00a0 There is a computer room which is available for students to use at any time.\u00a0 During the day, there will be someone there who will be able to give you help if you\u2019re stuck on something. \u00a0There are other students who have had previous experience who have been really helpful too.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a reasonably steep learning curve if you haven\u2019t done it before, but it\u2019s absolutely do-able with a bit of hard work and taking the support that\u2019s available. \u00a0You can\u2019t just turn up and expect to learn everything in the lectures \u2013 you need to go away and build on everything you\u2019ve been taught.<\/p>\n
Overall, I am really enjoying University life and fully embracing my inner nerd!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Computing is something I have been interested in since my early 20s.\u00a0 At the time, being married with a couple of small kids, it wasn\u2019t something I ever thought I would be able to do. Fast forward more than 20 years, and here I am, at Bournemouth University studying Computing.\u00a0 With a lot of encouragement… Read more » about Starting out on a Computing degree at BU … at 46!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3047,"featured_media":11614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[500,19,283,12,1638],"tags":[130,1195,415,586,592],"class_list":["post-11611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computing-informatics","category-featured","category-news-2","category-student-blogs","category-undergraduate","tag-bournemouth-university","tag-bsc-hons-computing","tag-bu-clearing","tag-bu-students","tag-student-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3047"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11611"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11634,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11611\/revisions\/11634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}