{"id":16536,"date":"2021-03-09T13:45:04","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T12:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/?p=16536"},"modified":"2021-03-11T16:45:30","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T15:45:30","slug":"my-journey-from-full-time-mum-to-full-time-employee-to-full-time-bu-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2021\/03\/09\/my-journey-from-full-time-mum-to-full-time-employee-to-full-time-bu-student\/","title":{"rendered":"My journey from full-time Mum to full-time employee to full-time BU student"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m currently in my second year at Bournemouth University, studying BSc (Hons) Computing, but it\u2019s taken me a long time to get here!\u00a0 I\u2019m 47, married and divorced twice, a Mum of two grown-up daughters and previously in full-time employment for a very long time. I\u2019ve always loved technology, and it\u2019s taken me this long to do something about it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve helped out on a few Virtual Open Days, and I get a lot of questions about what it\u2019s like to go to uni as a mature student.<\/p>\n

Honestly, my answer is always pretty much the same \u2013 it\u2019s nothing like I imagined at all!<\/p>\n

Before I started, I worried. A lot. I worried about being accepted into uni with my ancient qualifications. I worried about not fitting in and being twice the age of most of the other students. I worried about being out-of-date (it\u2019s a long time since I went to school!). I worried about applying for Finance.\u00a0 I worried I wouldn\u2019t be able to keep up and that I would struggle to understand.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t need to worry.<\/p>\n

\"When<\/a>

When I say mature \u2026. I don\u2019t mean sensible. My latest build!<\/p><\/div>\n

The BU Admissions Team were great at helping me through sourcing all the certificates I needed to prove my previous education. I lost all of my exam certificates in a house move over 20 years ago. Some of the exam boards didn\u2019t even exist anymore. I managed to get all bar one prior to enrolment, but the Admissions Team spoke to the Programme Leader and it was agreed that they would still accept me without it \u2013 ironically, the final certificate turned up the day after I enrolled!<\/p>\n

I made friends, straight away on day one. I fitted right in like I\u2019d always been there. No one treated me differently \u2013 I was one of the group. I have met some amazing people of all ages on my course and the fact that I remember when computers were shiny and new was actually a great conversation starter!<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t have any trouble because I hadn\u2019t done the same stuff at school as the other students. The course has a common first year for all courses and no previous formal computing education is required.<\/p>\n

I thought that it would be more difficult to apply for Student Finance because I was older. It wasn\u2019t \u2013 and Student Finance were really helpful when I contacted them with questions. BU was great at pointing me in the right direction.<\/p>\n

I kept up just fine and I didn\u2019t struggle (too much!). When I did struggle, there was support from other students and the teaching staff to help me. It worked. In fact, I got a distinction in my first year!<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re thinking of becoming a mature student \u2013 go for it! You don\u2019t need to worry. You can do it. And BU will help you to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m currently in my second year at Bournemouth University, studying BSc (Hons) Computing, but it\u2019s taken me a long time to get here!\u00a0 I\u2019m 47, married and divorced twice, a Mum of two grown-up daughters and previously in full-time employment for a very long time. I\u2019ve always loved technology, and it\u2019s taken me this long… Read more » about My journey from full-time Mum to full-time employee to full-time BU student<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3047,"featured_media":16541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,500,496,1645,12,1638],"tags":[2546,1096,146,2547,2225,1507,239],"class_list":["post-16536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-applying","category-computing-informatics","category-ug-courses","category-fees-funding","category-student-blogs","category-undergraduate","tag-back-to-education","tag-making-friends","tag-mature-student","tag-post-employment","tag-returning-to-study","tag-settling-in","tag-student-support"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16536","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=16536"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16543,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16536\/revisions\/16543"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}