I am currently in my final year at uni and managed to get into the FPP at 22. I do agree that the average age was older at the final Waterside day compared to the two at CTC.
Although perhaps I didn't have the life experiences of some of the older candidates, I worked extremely hard in preparing for every single assessment stage and made sure my passion and motivation came through more than anything. Thankfully the hours slaving away at verbal and numerical reasoning tests paid off!