Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
By that I mean:
- dealing with transfer credit (programmes seem highly structured & progessive; a good thing, generally, but it's unclear how someone with previous studies might fit into the scheme of doing a general first year & applying to a programme in 2nd).
- course availability and enrolment - most courses seem to be offered during the day & require (as seen in another post) attendance on multiple days; no online offerings - is that right?
It also seems that at least some courses require extra-curricular involvement on campus (e.g., participating in or supporting research). Which, again, is great, and a sign of real investment in students, but possibly difficult for working students with other commitments.
- academic support & other accommodations for working stiffs (e.g., electronic submission of coursework vs hard copy required at 8 am)
- demographics & culture: is there a fair number of older people (30+), or more like maybe 1-2 (or none) in any given class?
Appreciate thoughts from older students as well as traditional ones. Thanks!
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I'm not a mature student but my brother is. Hopefully I can help out here!
Transfer credits: I don't know the specifics but you can definitely get some credit for courses you've taken at other schools. It all depends on the department and other college/university though. It's a course-by-course thing, so each will get looked at individually.
Course availability: you're right, there aren't any online courses at Mac. You can take online courses at Athabasca and get the credits transferred to Mac, but those courses tend to be very expensive ($1000+ for one course)
I don't know of many courses that require extra curricular effort. Some projects can involve field research, but that's usually only if there's one big assignment per term, so you don't have to worry too much about that.
Some classes require you to be there 3 days a week, some only require you do be there 1 day a week (tutorials/labs). It depends on the prof and the set up of the course. Some profs put full lecture notes or podcasts online, and it really cuts down on your classtime. There's really no way to know this until you're IN the class though.
There are evening classes. Like jhan said, you could take all evening classes, but you would have to be part time. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that ALL mature students are part time for their first year. So it's definitely possible to take all evening classes. It just depends how the schedule works out.
Academic support: Most profs and TAs are understanding if you're a mature student and have other responsibilities, if you talk to them early enough. If you talk to them the day before a paper is due, they won't be very accommodating.
Demographics: As expected, most students are 18-22 years old, but I've found that there is always at least one mature student in every class. Most students are actually pretty relaxed about this, so don't worry. Just because you're, say, 30 years old and in a first year class, that doesn't mean anything. For all they know, you could be a PhD student filling your schedule with electives. So don't worry about it. Being a mature student also means you might be able to have a closer relationship with your profs and TAs, since you have more in common.