Admission requirements for mature students

[Cyc]

In your experience, what are the admission requirements for mature students pursuing undergraduate programs at University. When I say mature, I mean 25+.

Do they look at high school marks? Work experience? Community College grades? Do you write an essay? References? A combination of these?

I'm just wondering how your University does it. My experience is somewhat unique. They looked at my College marks, ignored my high school completely (thankfully). I also had to write an essay about why I wanted to pursue further education. After that, I got approved for part-time only. After a year of part-time and decent grades, I got bumped up to full-time.

 

[ebola?]

What about adjusting the admission requirements for immature students?
...
Sorry not to have provided anything useful...I did undergrad immaturely...

 

[Infinite Jest]

IIRC, in New Zealand they'll let anyone in once they turn 25. Guess they figure that life experience plus motivation is good enough even if you don't have the school grades. (Some courses like law and medicine have limited entrance, of course).

 

[QuestionEverything]

IME they looked at and I submitted all of the above (references, transcripts, high school GPA, essay, etc.). In addition, I had to take the ACT (I hadn't done it out of high school). I did extremely well though, I found myself wondering how well I would have done if I had done it right out of high school. They did tell me that none of the numbers of any of the information they required really mattered much for non-traditional students, just that they were still required.

I didn't have to start part time or anything. My experience might be somewhat unique also though. I don't attend a traditional university or college; I'm pursuing a BFA.

 

[caff]

IIRC, in New Zealand they'll let anyone in once they turn 25. Guess they figure that life experience plus motivation is good enough even if you don't have the school grades. (Some courses like law and medicine have limited entrance, of course).

Actually, anyone in NZ can go to uni once they turn 20.

 

[Cyc]

Good to know about NZ.

Anywhere else in the world work differently? I'm actually interested in how the US works as well.

 

[AmorRoark]

I live in Kansas, USA.

The undergrad program where I go to law school has two paths for older students (I think they call as do many other schools 'non-traditional' students).

One if where you simply take their basic skills test for placement into appropriate math/science/English classes. And that's basically it. You're not enrolled in a particular program, just the classes, technically but they can easily transfer once you do get into the program.

The requirements to get into the regular program include submitting all your academic graduation transcripts (high school & any post-high school classes) & your SAT scores (if you took it within the last 10 years). I think that's it. If you go into the university byway the first method & do fairly well, I think it's easier to get officially into a program regardless of some mishaps on our transcripts.

My boyfriend is doing the non-official then matriculation into a program method which seems to be working well so far.

I hope that helps.

 

[Cyc]

It does, thank you.

My school is similar in the sense that you get into a faculty, and sort of float there until you complete enough requisite courses to declare.

I find the system somewhat strange considering how competitive University is for kids out of high school. It seems funny that you can simply wait a few years 'til you get your head on straight, jump through a few hoops and shoot ahead of the other, more traditional hopefuls.