[*~dee~*]

Just posting in here to get more traffic.

I am a single mum, just dropped from full time to part time work. I will not struggle on this wage, as my mum has kindly agreed to have me live with her to help her out and also allow me to drop down work to spend more time with my 3yo DD. I am a great budgeter, and have accounts for everything, and everything is accounted for, right down to clothes for us and xmas etc. I have worked out I will still be able to add about $10k to my savings this year.

I was considering doing Uni to become a midwife. It's something I've always wanted to do and as I'll be 33 this year I'm seriously considering it. I have been in admin since leaving school.

So my questions are to anyone that can answer:

How much really would I be up for in out of pocket fees/books etc per year (after HECS help)?
Is full time uni do-able when I work 5 days a fortnight?
Would I receive more of a top up from C'link as I would probably have to use daycare an extra day?
Has anybody been mature age and got a placement without having year 12 points? I am quite bright, but did not get an OP score at the time.
Any tips about any of the above will be appreciated. The whole admission process is a bit overwhelming.

Thanks in advance,
Dee

[Phascogale]

How much really would I be up for in out of pocket fees/books etc per year (after HECS help)?
As little or as much as you want. If you have HECS/HELP then the fees for the course will cost you nothing till you have to start paying it back.

With uni books you should be able to buy some of the second hand or you can usually borrow them from the library. You need to wait till uni starts to find out which you actually need to buy as sometimes you can get away with not buying books.

Is full time uni do-able when I work 5 days a fortnight? Yes and no. It depends on your work. If you work 9-5 Mon-Fri (or days within this) then it will probably be hard for the first year unless you do some subjects online. Easier if you do work in the evening or weekends (or really early mornings). It gets easier if you are part time uni. But for every contact hour you will need several hours of home study.

Where the hard part comes in is when you have to do clinicals. These are usually full time (or some uni's have placement 2 days a week for all of semester) so you'll need to be able to take time off work from your paying job to do this. There's not a lot of flexibility to when you do your placements as placements can be hard to source. These can also gets expensive ie driving time, cost of fuel, accomodation if they are a really long way from hom (could be a rural placement), cost of extra child care etc.

Would I receive more of a top up from C'link as I would probably have to use daycare an extra day? If your income from your paying job comes down you will receive more CCR.

Has anybody been mature age and got a placement without having year 12 points? I am quite bright, but did not get an OP score at the time. You need to speak to the uni about this. If there is no prior degree or year 12 score then the easiest way to get in may be to do a single unit enrolment of one of the subjects in the course (they often like anatomy and physiology and it also means you get to concentrate on this subject) and the transfer into the course based on that. But it's a full free paying unit usually.

Another thing to bear in mind is your ability to get a job at the end of your degree. With midwifery you are very limited in where you an work (nursing has more options). There are lots of girls in the last 2 years that have graduated (often with excellent marks and glowing clinical reports) that were unable to secure grad years. Some had to move rurally or interstate to find work. And you need experience before you are considered for other jobs.

So would you be better doing the double degree in nursing and midwifery?