Mature student - where to start?

misspumpqueen

Hi,

I don't know if this has been posted before, or if it's in the right place, but i'm just looking for some advice. I'm 24, I finished a degree in 2011 in film technology and am currently in the middle of an online course for human anatomy. As the latter may suggest, I'm interested in science and I would love to go back to college and study something medicine related. I will never get the money to go study medicine full time as it's over fifteen grand a year. I would love to go and study nursing or radiography. I'm just about to have a baby and go on maternity leave. I will in no way have the money to pay for a course for four years, childcare, rent etc so i was thinking about going for a loan. The only thing is so far from what i've researched, you have to start repaying your loan straight away?

The courses i want to do require me to go back full time. I guess i just want to know what steps i might take in making this a reality. I live at home, and will probably continue to do so for another while, so that takes rent out of the question (but will be paying house money to my parents). Is it possible to get a loan that you don't have to pay back straight away? If i didn't get a job straight after college, would i still have to start paying it back? What do i do first - apply for college, or apply for loan? Who do I go to about it? It kind of seems a far away dream at the minute (esp with a baby on the way) but i would love to know even how to get started so i can start planning/saving for the next year or two!

Any info given would be greatly appreciated

Thanks!

PingO_O

Just to let you know I'm pretty sure med fees for ucd are about the 9k mark per year for ucd and trinity(undergraduate),rcsi is a different story, thought you might like to know in case you were going to rule out medicine entirely.

misspumpqueen

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me. Is that 9k for mature students too?

Maldesu

You can take a look at UCD's fees here.

PingO_O

misspumpqueen wrote: »

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me. Is that 9k for mature students too?

Yeh, those are the full fees for an eu student so if you already have a degree like me and go back as a mature student they're the fees you've to pay.

WildRosie

PingO_O wrote: »

Just to let you know I'm pretty sure med fees for ucd are about the 9k mark per year for ucd and trinity(undergraduate),rcsi is a different story, thought you might like to know in case you were going to rule out medicine entirely.

The €9k fees are for the six year undergraduate programme though. The €15k fees are for the four year graduate entry medicine. So at the end of the course the 6 yr would be just (in the grand scheme of things) €6k cheaper but two years longer. There's also a lot more graduate places than mature so it's just something to bear in mind.

OP have you mentioned it to you own bank to see if they would be able to assist? I think some of the banks do loans for GEM that don't have to be paid back till after graduation but not 100% sure.