FLICKR: VAN SWEARINGEN

Unlike most of you reading this, my A-Level results were awful. At the age when most freshers are nervously packing and coming to grips with summer reading lists, I was giving up on education. I was working in a nightclub and about to embark upon a five-year journey of menial jobs, travel and an art foundation degree. So it may not come as a surprise when I tell you that beginning study at any university, especially one like Cambridge, is a very different experience for the ‘mature student’ fresher, but perhaps not quite as different as you ‘standard agers’ might think.

Of course, there are similar nerves and worried thoughts about making friends. Thoughts like ‘what if my supervisor despises me’ and, a Cambridge favourite, ‘what if it’s just an administrative error’ plague all of the undergraduates that come here, but for a mature student there are added worries. I was concerned everyone at my mature college would be old and boring, or extremely well-read and reserved. I envisaged the only recreational activities available to me being bridge or bingo. Being on the younger end of my mid-twenties, I still wanted to go out and do crazy fresher things. I wanted the typical fresher experience! All of these worries dissipated when I arrived at my college for the first time and was greeted by the loud and raucous members of the student association.  

I’ve realised that, if anything, mature students have more fun than their younger compatriots. Being older, we are not afraid to look a bit silly, dance a bit less self-consciously, and make better decisions when it comes to peer pressure. I can’t speak for everyone, of course, but some of us can even be found rolling around on the pool table at 2am on a Wednesday. Younger students flock to our bops and June Events for precisely these reasons. As mature students, we’re old enough to actually revel in our immaturity! Dinner conversations will swing wildly from deep philosophical discussions to embarrassing sex stories before the cheese course arrives.

As for out-of-college life, I worried that my ‘mature student’ status would prevent me from connecting with students from other colleges, both academically and socially. I have found just the opposite. In my first year, I was lucky enough to be involved in some wonderful pieces of theatre, go to literary readings, attend formal halls, and experience all of the bizarre and wonderful things one only finds at Cambridge. Some of the best actors, directors, and journalists I know are at my college. Being a mature student doesn’t mean hiding in the corner, at a remove from the rest of the student body. I was pleased, too, to see that, when I reveal my age to people, they don’t look at me with revulsion. In fact, I am often peppered with curious questions and expressions of interest. A friend of mine was once confronted with the exclamation: 'Wow! You remember TV from the nineties?!', but that’s about as bad as it gets. 

Being a mature student has made me see that my pre-Cambridge life was not a waste. I have started to appreciate the years spent learning life lessons and understanding myself more completely. Academically, this enables me to read sensitively and speak with more confidence. I once attended a comedy gig, where the stand-up joked that mature students were something to be avoided. If you have a similar mindset, you should head over to the nearest mature college, sit at the bar, order a drink, and you'll come to realise that we’re actually quite good, really.