Vlog: Mature student fears
HANNAH: Hi, my name is Hannah and this is my friend Louis….
LOUIS: Hello!
HANNAH: Today, we’re going to talk to you about returning to university as ‘mature students’ and
how it’s going ….
Question number one: Why have you returned to university?
HANNAH: Why? Louis, why???.... did you decide to come back to university as a mature student?
LOUIS: I had a job. I was working in ‘Sports Nutrition’, but
I felt that it wasn’t my passion.
I wanted a job where I could combine my academic interests with my day-to-day activities.
HANNAH: So, why am I returning?
LOUIS: Yeah, why are you retuning?!
HANNAH: I’m returning to try and pursue a passion that I’ve had from a young age
that I wrote off pretty much at every level of my academic life, but since I graduated
it’s something that I couldn’t get out of my head and
there was no way I could avoid not coming back to university, because I want to be a physicist.
Next question: What were your biggest fears?
LOUIS: Next question; what were your fears of quitting your job and
removing yourself from income and starting a new degree?
HANNAH: Myriad! I honestly don’t know where to begin… financial – huge burden.
I mean the biggest obstacle, never mind the biggest fear was how the hell do you pay for a second degree
being older than everybody else and having experienced it before, would I be able to fit in?
and maybe even relationships with lecturers
how would they treat you and how would you be able to speak to them?
What about you fitting in, because you work in an office that’s mostly PhD students?
LOUIS: Because I’m doing a masters by research
it’s slightly different to a taught masters which is more of a ……..
Yes, that’s the washing machine cycle ending
…beep, beep, beep!
Louis goes to switch it off!
LOUIS: Because I’m a research masters which is slightly different to a taught masters
my work environment is very much like that of an office.
HANNAH: We’ve both left careers …what risk did that carry?
LOUIS: First of all, my boss was very supportive.
He completely understood that I wanted to follow my passion of
‘sociolinguistics online’ ….it just rolls off the tongue so easily!!
My family were all very supportive, especially when they found out I can qualify for a grant and then
they’re like ‘OK, well then, you’re not going to be bank rolled by ‘the Bank of Mum and Dad’…
HANNAH: Did you feel like you were taking a step back or a step sideways or a step forward or nothing?....
LOUIS: Sideways…a sideways step, but for long-term gain, I think….
HANNAH: Yeah, yeah, I feel similarly
LOUIS: Definitely..
HANNAH: As I say, mine is probably one step back and two steps forward kind of thing.
Not only did I finish a degree, but I’m starting from year zero instead of in year one
although there will be four years where I might not have much money at all,
if I then went into graduate employment I’d probably be earning much more than
I ever would in the previous career I had; so I think the risks are worth it.
How have you adapted to uni life?
HANNAH: How did you find adapting to university life…..again?
LOUIS: Well, erm, it’s quite easy to adapt yourself to lying in every morning ….no, no, no!..erm…
I find that starting a postgraduate degree after having worked for three years
you’ve trained yourself to put in the effort and the difference is that
you’re doing something that you really, really, really want to do, so …
HANNAH: You want to be there..
LOUIS: Exactly, and I don’t begrudge keeping office hours.
HANNAH: That was a preconception (and perhaps a misconception), that this time around
I’d be able to fit my undergraduate degree into a nice ‘9 to 5’ slot, including
doing all of my revision and writing up notes and doing questions and then I would ..
it would be in a nice little ‘9 to 5’ box ….but university life socially
I feel like I’ve gone from… I’ve got a nice set of friends,
I’ve gone from a job where I had friends who were colleagues who are still friends,
and I’ve moved into a weird job where I have new colleagues and
I socialise with them occasionally.
LOUIS: Yes, I suppose that is a big difference, because we’ve both got our..
HANNAH: Lives here
LOUIS: We have lives here..yes, you more so than me.
I find socially, I have my own group of friends that are not necessarily from University
although of course, we know each other through university the first time round.
What’s different this time around?
LOUIS: I think the biggest difference is that
you can no longer bond over childhood TV…I think that’s kind of…
HANNAH: Ahh!
LOUIS: I think that’s the main difference returning back; the people in your peer group…
you’ll have different experiences, you know…
they’re first Pokemon game is different to your first Pokemon game you know, so…
HANNAH: I think I mentioned Timmy Mallett to someone the other day…
LOUIS: What 18 year old has heard of Timmy Mallett ?
HANNAH: (Laughter)
How has studying affected your future plans?
LOUIS: My final question; now that you’ve started your new degree
afresh, how has it now affected your short-term plans and then
how those short-term plans have been affecting your long-term plans for the future?
HANNAH: Well, I think probably the first short-term plan or result of, six months in, is that
I can do this; that fear has dissipated now. I can keep going forward, because
there was such a big gap from GCSE to this point and I’ve climbed that so far.
I’m in love with ‘it’ more than I was the idea of ‘it’, so that’s nice..
LOUIS: That is …; that’s the biggest benefit right there
HANNAH: Definitely, because I’m a mature student, or because I’ve got the experience
I have, and because I feel like I’ve delayed my start somewhat
I’m trying my hardest to get as much experience as possible
so that if I decide to leave after undergrad or progress to PhD
that I can kind of hit the ground running with good, relevant experience
such as, I have an internship in April for four weeks with one of the professors at the university
that I’ve been vlogging about. The future looks bright. I could eventually go to Sweden or the Netherlands
we’ll see what happens with that.
Long-term, it could go many ways, but I’m trying to keep my options open.
I could go – I’d like to go into science communication
I’d like to go into research which would probably mean a PhD
or I’m not writing off working in industry.
How about you?
LOUIS: As with you, I have enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would be enjoying it.
I love getting stuck into my academic work and mainly because everyone’s like
“what actually are you doing. Do you just spend all your time looking at Facebook in German?”
….which is true, yes I do ! With a Masters it means I can get a job in Germany at a high enough level
but also, I’ve applied for a PhD here at The University of Nottingham…
HANNAH: Woo-hoo! Well, thank-you Louis for taking your time out from your very busy day…
LOUIS: Thank-you for having me
HANNAH:…to be here, even though you live in this house! If you’ve got any questions
that you’d like to ask me or Louis, then comment below.
If you liked the video then give it a thumbs up and that’s all
so we’re going to go now…I’m going to go and eat pizza and drink cocktails ‘cos it’s my birthday…
LOUIS: whoop whoop!
HANNAH: Ok, bye !
LOUIS: Bye!