I’m thinking of going back to college for a degree. I have done a lot of research in my primary field of interest (henna history and traditions) and I’d like to apply for a grant to research and publish a better book than the one I have previously written. To do this, I need to have university connections. Also, I don’t make a lot of money right now, so it would be a good time for financial aid. I had done a year of college right out of high school, and I so was not ready. I didn’t flunk out, but I missed a lot of class and got fairly bad grades.
Am I a transfer student? My last college class was some 22 years ago.
Am I required to list previous college experience if I don’t want any credits transferred, and just start fresh? I am so not that unmotivated child anymore.
Is it better to get a year or two of community college in before I attempt to apply to where I really want to go? I’d rather just jump right in with where I want to be, as the local CC doesn’t seem to offer anything directly relevant to my goals. It’s not just the degree- I want to use my classes to teach me stuff I’ll need to know for the book. Books. There’s so much I want to do with this now!
I am confident that if I can get an interview, I can show how excited I am by this, how motivated to learn and go on to do things that the university will be proud of. What other things can I do to make me look as attractive a student as possible? I’m a woman, mom, created and own my own business, artist, older, with a history book and three art books under my belt, albeit self-published. I WANT this.
Since the OP is looking for advice, this is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
What college and what major would be any help to you in writing a history of henna? Incidentally, here’s the Wikipedia entry on henna. It includes a section on the history of it:
Perhaps you should look for a place that has a program in creative nonfiction. You need to improve your writing style. That’s as close as I can come up with for any place to study what you want:
Unfortunately, such places tend to offer M.F.A.'s, which means that you would already need to have a B.A. Maybe you should just get a B.A. in something relevant. Perhaps a history, journalism, or an English degree would be appropriate. The Wikipedia entry on henna mentions that there was some work in art history on the fad for red hair for woman among the Pre-Raphaelites, so maybe art history would be relevant too.
You are a re-entry student. Universities LOVE re-entry students, as they tend to be very focused and mature. Any university is going to have an office specifically for re-entry students, and your best bet is to contact that office directly to talk about financial aid, credit transfers, etc. They exist solely to support students exactly like you, and will be thrilled to talk to you.
Your focus is going to be tough. Undergraduate programs are purposefully broad. While you may be able to work your interest in to some classwork, that will be the exception rather than the rule. You are going to have to do a whole lot of stuff that is entirely unrelated. Your best bet would be to develop a relationship with a professor who is willing to support your independent research, and really I would work on that before starting a program. What you are trying to do is graduate school level work, so you’ll want to find a school that can treat you a bit like a grad student while you do undergrad coursework. That happens, but it’s all going to depend on relationships.
You definitely must list all previous colleges attended. It’s considered academic fraud to not list them which is a serious matter. You will almost certainly need to have those schools send copies of your transcripts to the colleges you are applying to. However, very old credits are unlikely to be transferable. It is typical to place “time out” limits on old classes. You might just get general credit hour credits, however. So if you took Western Civ 101 22 years ago, you might need to take it again if it’s required.
Community college is a great way to test the waters. Cheaper, usually easier to get night/weekend classes, etc. They are also less picky about your prior academic record. Minimal proof of HS diploma, etc., can usually suffice. Good grades in a few courses go a very long way to gaining acceptance to a regular college. And if you take “standard” classes (English Comp, Math, Science, etc.) those will be transferable.
Note that if you want a degree, you will be taking a variety of classes. You might not think they are relevant, but very smart people with a lot of experience know otherwise. This is why courses outside your major are required. Students make very poor judges of what they think is relevant.
Anthropology. Folklore. History. Sociology. Women’s Studies. Any number of social sciences.
Further, a university education in ANY field will develop skills that would be useful in writing ANY non-fiction book.
I’m shocked that you belittled this person’s project by saying there’s already a history section on Wikipedia.
What? Why would you think that I intended to belittle her project by citing the entry in Wikipedia which happened to mention briefly what had been done so far on the history of henna? I’ve had some people misunderstand my posts before, but this takes the cake. I did a search to find out if anybody at all had ever thought about this topic before. I mentioned what I found because even if (as is quite possible) HennaDancer knows far more about the subject than anyone else, it’s always useful to take a look at what other people have thought about the subject of your research. It would make me more than happy if she eventually writes a great book on this topic.
I’m glad to know I misunderstood. I read the overall tone of the post as quite dismissive, which is why I was puzzled. Thank you for clarifying.
The Wikipedia article history section is about henna for hair, and I’m interested in its use as body art. In the 20 years I’ve been using and researching it, I’ve seen traditions change as cultures come into contact with each other more, and in some cases they die out. I want the grant to go to the places where henna is done traditionally and talk to the oldest women and men I can find and get them to teach me the stuff they remember from their grandparents. There’s a book called Africa Adorned that every public and university library I’ve been to has, which is photographs of jewelry and stories of when and why that piece is worn. I want that for henna.
I know I’ll have to take irrelevant classes, but there are so very many that would be useful! I’d major in anthropology, to study other people’s research methods. I’ll need Arabic, Farsi, and Hindi if I don’t want to be at the mercy of translators. Classes about the history of henna-using areas and sociology for their current cultures would be useful. Journalism, to help with interviewing, and getting facts down in an engaging manner. There’s a breadth of stuff I could use to learn specifically for this, and then shove in all the rest as needed.
I’ll see if I can talk to someone at the colleges. Thanks!