At the last minute I applied for a part time Graduate Certificate in Statistics at Birkbeck, passed the entrance exam which included A-level calculus etc and have received an offer today!

What have I done? 20 hours a week on top of a 40 hour week!

Any advice from people who have done the same?

Did OU with less hours than that and was hard enough. How much support are you getting from work in terms of being able to take time off and what study have you done in the past? Could be a fairly harsh adjustment.

No advice but the last time I was back in my old Uni (Napier in Edinburgh) I was amazed at how all of the facilities had changed.

The canteen was carpeted, had a Starbucks and the students were lounging in comfy seats with their frapachino whatsit coffees while tapping away on their laptops.

Far cry from my day with tepid tea and coffee out a vending machine and nobody had heard of the internet.

Enjoy. I’d love to do what you are doing. My wife has taken on a 6 year PHD on top of her full time job and while it is hard work, she is loving it.

Do it, do it, do it.

Awesome.

Clearly talented.

Make the most of the opportunity 👍

Make the most of the opportunity

Yup. My post may have come across a bit negative. So long as you can give the time it should be good. Especially if it has a fair amount of campus time. Know several older students who really enjoyed themselves. Hard few years but worth it.

Dissonance, I have a BmedSci already. Work are ok with me taking it, but aren’t particularly enthusiastic, in fact they panicked and thought I was going to quit. However, I can do my job with my eyes closed so can bang out my work and sneak off on time or early most days.

I started getting a foreboding feeling as though I was pissing my life away, not sleeping at night etc, so I guess this will keep me distracted.

I started at Portsmouth last week at the ripe old age of 34…. MSc in Engineering Geology.  So far so good and not the oldest on the course!  The resources available nowadays are amazing!

I’m a 33 year old apprentice!

I get paid to go to uni one day a week and get the rest through work pretty much.

Where was this concept last time i was failing hard at uni!

Yeah I’m doing this because I fancy undertaking an MSc as well wildhunter…. Data Science at UCL…..or something along those lines.

I was a lazy bastard in my early 20s,  I really quite to make up for it.

I did it at 40.  Part distance learning and part time.  I was also self funding so went to the uni with the toughest reputation – in for a penny in for a pound.  one of the hardest things I have ever done ( alongside solo stathpuffer!)

Be organised.  Be very organised that is was what got me thru.  go to lecture, take notes, go back home, transcribe notes onto computer, read back the next day  Essays given out – start doing it the day you get the assignment – don’t wait until its panic stations.  Make your plan, let it cogitate for a day or two, write a draft,cogitate a day or two.  Write the good copy up a week before the deadline.  Reread it a couple of days later.  Pick the hardest modules / most interesting ones not the easiest ones.  You need to be absorbed in it not just going thru the motions.

When its hard going remind yourself of why you are doing it

Mind you I am suprised you need to do this – I thought you knew every thing abou teverything from your postings on here 😉  ( I know – pot kettle black)

. However, I can do my job with my eyes closed so can bang out my work and sneak off on time or early most days.

Fom having to do 10-15 hours a week in addition to work the main liability was having a work deadline coincide with a uni deadline. Which is where tjagain advice kicks in off planning it in advance so it doesnt interfere. Make sure you get in “finish at x time. then y for study and z for a bike ride to relax” and so on.

I am tempted by an MSc but working in IT I find I use up any available study time just looking at normal developments in the sector. The more opportunity for direct interaction the better. Something the OU wasnt always great at (although considering I did computing subjects that may be partially down to those attracted to it).

So long as you are willling to decide to turn free time into study time it should be worth it. I know it helped me professionally after somehow slipping into programming.  Combining the learning on the job and academic training was I think the best approach.

If you are close to the campus also look at what general uni facilities you can {mis}use.

Started an hons degree in mech engineering on Wednesday, at 43. I’ve never we been very academic, hated school, but it’s something I want to do, which is a big difference from school or doing HNC as an apprentice!.

Best of luck.

Started a PhD at 30, did higher English last year and applying for teacher training for entry 2019 when I will be 44. Only issue I’ll have is finding peace and quiet to study.

I just finished a full time MSc in Brewing and Distilling at 36, while working 1.5 days a week and doing AirBnB in my spare room

Was far more engaged with it than when I went to uni at 17. The amount of work I had to do was incredible – hardly cycled or saw my pals, stopped playing in a band. Just staying on top of housework was hard enough. However, I got a Distinction (about top 5% in the class) which ties in with all the work I did. I could have landed a pass with a lot less. I also had no background in science at all, which would have been rather handy. This meant a lot of extra work just picking up the basics.

I went back at 28, did a masters. Eye candy in the library was a bonus!

Do a time management course beforehand, and enjoy!

I’ve just given up a 12yr career and started an accelerated 4 year Medicine degree aged 38.

it seemed like a good idea at the time….

no advice to offer apart from you only live once etc, better to try than to regret later etc

I did an MSc at Imperial College when I was 29. Key is treat it like a job, in every day at 8am and out at 5/6pm. You will feel immensley proud at the end, it is yours for life then. Enjoy and good studying.

I tried go back and do a Masters last year at the age of 37.  It was a **** disaster.  I’m not sure if it was the fact that I finished my bachelors in 2002 so I was out of the way of studying but I fell behind quickly and then I just fell further behind.  It’s also possible I’m just not smart enough, I suppose.

Working hard wasn’t the problem. As mentioned above, I treated it like a job.  Get in at 8, leave at 4, and then do work after the kids were in bed in the evening.  Also, it was in a subject I’ve been working in for 10 years so it was doubly embarrassing.

Definitely one of the more miserable experiences in my life.

Just started a part time degree at the OU – Combined STEM but switching to Data Science once its released next year, its the same modules baring 2 which have been reworked and renamed.  Should take 6 years…this will be my 2nd degree and just turned 32.

Should be able to fit it in around work and family time.  Looking at the first two modules its all revision at this point and common knowledge to someone who enjoys computers and analysis work.  Would love to do an MSc afterwards, the Data Science MSc @ Glasgow and Liverpool looked very good and exactly what i wanted to do, alas no funding and upwards of £17k 🙁

Cheers for the replies, especially TJ. I know we’ve had our differences but that was a very thoughtful response, it’s appreciated!

Jolmes, I was thinking of undertaking a Bioinformatic MSc, I just thought going down a similar route to you was a more rigorous and well rounded alternative, I have the biology side – I don’t need more modules in bioscience. My plan is to get a good mark on this course, then as soon as I am finished in June – enrol on the part time Data Science course run by General Assembly in London and then in September 2020 enrol on either the MSc in Computational Statistics and Machine Learning or Data Science and Machine Learning at UCL.

My wife works in finance, in comparison pharma just seems like a dead end job these days and pay is little different in and around London to elsewhere in the country. So I figure when in London – go big or go home, I can’t move because of the wifes job. So I’ll go and become a quant or work for Babylon Health – I want to earn “**** you” money if I have to live in London or the home counties for the rest of my life. I’d also like a houseboat without a mortgage as well, basically, I want to be in a position where I’m beholden to no one by the time I am 45.

I have a rough smattering of a plan for once, I think.

The route I’m taking is heavily math/statistics based.  Thought that If i get a good grounding on that the programming side should come naturally as i’ll understand the core principles behind the equations and algorithms i’d be using and more theory based.

just had fun learning binary and converting to decimal and vice versa, writing a python code to do it for me was much more beneficial and effective and combined the too, maths and programming.

Looking at those workshops at the LGA the part time course looks like a decent kick start into it all.  Curious to why they use python 2.7 though as most people have switched to 3 now.  Ah well, whatever works for them 🙂

Both those courses look equal, just the wording of the modules probably and your outcome.  Think I would struggle to get it down to a few modules from that list though! Would need some decision trees on that…

Until I got married and had kids, going back to Uni as an adult was the most amazing experience I’d ever had. However, I went back full time and moved back in with my parents (which was actually a wonderful thing in itself as I got to know them all over again and as it turns out those two years were the last that my father was his real self before his dementia set in).

For me the most amazing part of the experience was the sense of exploration and openness to new ideas. Every day was a learning day and it was like opening a previously opaque window and seeing the Highlads or the Grand Canyon as your view of the world outside. It was truly empowering. Hopefully doing it part time will feel equally as such.

Have fun.