I have been attending college part time for five years ( :eek: ). Currently, I am thinking about leaving my full-time job as a lab manager and going to school full-time to finish my bachelor’s degree in biology.
Has anyone ever done this? If so, how was the return to work?
Thinking about being a 30 year old “co-ed” is scary enough. 
Thank you very much!
I did it when I was 24 or 25. I was working for IBM, and decided to go back to school part time, while working at IBM part time. After about a year, I left the workforce completely so that I could finish my degree quickly. It was the right move at the time.
My only advice is to finish up quickly. I have friends who were in school off and on until they graduated (undergrad) at 28 or 29 with almost no work experience. That’s a tough one to explain. It doesn’t sound like that will be a problem for you.
A friend of mine who has teen-aged sons decided to go to college full time. She’d been in the workforce previously–she is still attending college full time.
The first year was the hardest–not so much academically, but because there was such an age gap between her and the rest of the students. The age gap didn’t shrink the second year, but knowing some of her classmates, and seeing how her life skills made her have a better aproach to her classes made things improve later on. She’s still in school, so I can’t tell you how things worked out for her.
I’m doing it now at the age of 35; I’m in nursing school with one year to go. Financially, everything came together just perfectly, so I’m very lucky to be able to do it without working.
Started college at age 18. Piddled around with it for a few years; Tried part-time work + part-time school. Didn’t work out.
Left college (got kicked out, actually), and worked until I was 24 (truck driver, offshore oil worker, etc.). After building up enough savings, I went back to school full-time. Finished up my BS in 2 years, then re-joined the workforce.
Fast forward 25 years… I went back to school again (don’t ask me why) and tried part-time school, full-time work. Worked out OK this time; I’m just a few months from my MS degree.
Started college at age 18. Piddled around with it for a few years; Tried part-time work + part-time school. Didn’t work out.
Left college (got kicked out, actually), and worked until I was 24 (truck driver, offshore oil worker, etc.). After building up enough savings, I went back to school full-time. Finished up my BS in 2 years, then re-joined the workforce.
Fast forward 25 years… I went back to school again (don’t ask me why) and tried part-time school, full-time work. Worked out OK this time; I’m just a few months from my MS degree.
To answer your questions: The return to work was no big deal, but I had to get used to working indoors and office politics. As far as being an older student, I was 25 in classes full of 20-yr-olds. It wasn’t a big deal (Being married, I lived off-campus so I didn’t socialize much with them). It’s a little weirder now because I’m almost 50 in a class of 25-27 yr-olds. I just try to sit in back and keep quiet, since there’s such a huge age difference. (I’m not sure they want to hear the “voice of experience”)
Sorry about the double post. I thought my first one was hamster food, so I added a little and tried again. My bad.
I worked for 20 years (I had tried college right out of high school and didn’t have the motivation, so I dropped out) and went back to college in Jan/ 2004 at the age of 38. Don’t worry, you won’t be the oldest one there. Even I (now 41) am not the oldest student in some of my classes. College is great! I’m not back in the workforce yet, but that’s the plan.
I graduated at 21, then worked several jobs. Went back to school part-time and worked part time at 25, finished up and got a career by 28. It worked out for me because my bachelor’s degree was in a field I no longer wanted to pursue, so I got my Masters and became a teacher.
I was offered a job right out of high school (before I graduated, technically), so instead of going to college to study audio-visual production, I got paid to do it for seven years. I could have continued in the field (at the time, experience was more important than credentials), but I decided I wanted an “intellectual basis for the rest of my life,” so I applied to St. John’s College in Annapolis and was accepted.
Fortunately, I had no debts or obligations to prevent me from going, and a generous financial aid package plus some help from the family made it possible to go for four years without racking up a mountain of debt.
I was 25 when I started, and I wasn’t even the oldest freshman in my class, but it’s not unusual for older students to go to SJC. It was the right move for me: I was much better prepared to benefit from the St. John’s experience at 25 than I would have been right out of high school.
After graduating in the class of 1984, I lucked into a job at the National Air and Space Museum, beginning my career in the world of IMAX theaters and films. It’s all gone pretty well, and as an added benefit, anyone who finds out I graduated from college in 1984 is likely to assume than I’m seven years younger than I really am.
So go for it!
I dropped out after my second year (lack of motivation) and did a series of sales customer service jobs before going back part time at three years later part time, while working nights - this was a bad move (never got any sleep - failed half my courses).
Went back full time the following year to complete my degree.
Fell in with another couple of “mature” students. Attiutude to study was WAAAAAY better, ahieved my best results in my final year, even though my workload was considered very heavy (took 42 points when full time would have been considered 30)
Got a job before graduation, have never looked back - six years later my income has gone up 250% - fully attributal to the legitimacy that a degree gave me…
wow…and I still suck at spelling and proof reading…
Yep.
I did just this at age 30. With a wife and one child.
We both rolled the dice, understanding that if I didn’t get the degree, or fail to find work after the degree, we were basically done for.
Talk about motivation; I did it. It took lots and lots of sacrifice for all of us, but it made a heckuva difference thereafter.
I do believe fortune does favor those who are willing to “Put it to the touch, to win or lose it all.”
Best wishes to you!!