Older College Students and Success

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’m going back to uni this fall to finish my bachelor’s. And I’m 31, 32 when the semester starts.

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned, but which I think is also important is that we older students can see the utility of what we’re taking. (Except math, which has no utility. ;)) We KNOW we’ll be using this in the real world, because we’ve BEEN using it. An 18-year-old who has never had to take responsibility for his finances doesn’t understand why economics is important, for example. To him, it’s just so much theory and widgets. To us, we know that we need it because we’ve had to manage money, and we’ve got (or hope to get) 401(k)s and houses. I dunno 'bout any of you, but I want to know how the dollar got into my pocket, and how I can acquire more. :wink:

Seriously, though. Good luck, and e-mail if you like.

Robin

22

Wow. I had no idea there were so many of us.

Me: 18: flunked out of college (first year). Absolutely hated class, professors, homework, everything (except the partying).

18-26: travel, smoke, work when I had to, travel, and smoke some more.

26: meet Mrs. Gaffer and realize that she doesn’t want to introduce me to her parents because all I do is smoke, play video games, and collect unemployment.

26 + 1 day: signed up for three night classes at community college.

Now: I have a M.A., a super cool job, a great wife, and two cool kids. It was hard but definitely worth it. I worked full-time throughout my undergrad and got so much more out of my education. As a number of other posters have mentioned, classes were so much more enjoyable because your maturity allows you to focus on the content rather than complaining constantly about the fact that you “can’t believ I have to take this class.” My moment of clarity - I walk into class and the Prof. doesn’t show up. Most of the other students are totally happy and leave. I, on the other hand, am upset and feel cheated out of a class that I paid for.

Good luck. When you start the end seems so far away but it is so much closer than you can realize.

23

This definitely puts things into prespective for me- I went straight into college from High school but its been up and down. I feel like its taking me FOREVER to graduate (recently had the realization it will take me 1 1/2 years from now to graduate, making it a total of 5 1/2 years to walk away with an AA in General Education and a BA in English) This semester I feel I started on the wrong foot and will have to repeat some classes.

For every bit of progress I make, I backpedal a bit. It seems each semester I’m either repeating a class I failed previously, or currently failing a class. :frowning:

24

The “Loyal Opposition” checks in:

Why are you going back to school and what do you hope to accomplish with your degree?

How many courses can you reasonably expect to take per term and will you be able to complete your degree within the university established time limits?

How much will this education cost as measured in dollars?

What else could you be doing with the time devoted to the pursuit of a BS?

Will you necessarily be any better off financially X years from now with your degree?

What stresses and pressures will this pursuit place on yourself and your family?

I do not suggest that adults returning to college is necessarily a poor choice or dispute that many non-traditional college students do very well in their courses and many do eventually graduate, but what you have to ask yourself before you commit to such a course of action is what is the true total cost involved, what are the most likely benefits and what is the likelihood you will complete the degree.

You can always start with just one class at a time to see how it goes and then increase the load if it’s going well.

25

I went for my RN training in my late 30s after 12 years of failed marriage and great motivation: I didn’t want to sell bras all my life and live paycheck to paycheck.
Advice: if reading Good Night Moon to your kids for the zillionth time means a B- instead of an A, snuggle those bunnies! You’ve got little to prove by being competative, just pass your classes. Avoid study groups but embrace tutors—groups are social and not as supportive as you’d think. Priorities are different for group members and tutors are motivated by recommendations, so they have an interest in your doing well.

26

To answer Lorenzo:

Why are you going back to school and what do you hope to accomplish with your degree?
I’m going back to school because I’m fed up trying to earn a living (and, dare I say, respect) with my crappy A.S. degree. I hope to find a job in research, or failing that, conservation, forestry, and fisheries are pretty interesting.

How many courses can you reasonably expect to take per term and will you be able to complete your degree within the university established time limits?
Hopefully four classes per semester. Finish in 5-6 Semesters.

How much will this education cost as measured in dollars?
Approzimately $2000 per semester, tuition and books.

What else could you be doing with the time devoted to the pursuit of a BS?
Any number of things. I could continue plodding away at my crappy job and hope for something to happen. Or I could somehow wind up with a better job. But, to be honest, I’d feel a lot better about myself if I undertook some sort of intellectual pursuit.

Will you necessarily be any better off financially X years from now with your degree?
Unless the job market takes a terrible turn (and medical jobs are pretty easy to come by for biology people), I can’t imagine this actually hurting my outlook.

What stresses and pressures will this pursuit place on yourself and your family?
We’ll see what happens. :slight_smile:

Hopefully, that’s satisfactory. I know you’re questions were mainly rhetorical, but there’s no harm in putting it in black and white.

Novus

27

I have so many of the same concerns. This is my situation. Reevaluating nursing school now, as a close search at the local university reveals I may be just 36-39 credits short of a B.S. in Environmental Studies.

It scares me too Novus, I just finally realized that life doesn’t come with a do-over at the end.

Answering Lorenzo;

Bottom line? Pride. My primary purpose though is to open doors.

I think 12cr/term is pushing the limit but possible. There’s a lot more “want to” this time around."

$950/term That’s with the fifty percent discount on tuition as a spouse of a University employee

Practicing for the Olympics, curing cancer, lots of things I’m sure. A quick audit of my leisure time shows large amounts are filled with mundane pointless things. :slight_smile:

I expect so.

It will be a good opportunity to teach time management first hand. My sons are at an age now where this might not be as difficult as it would have been even two years ago. My wife understand all too well, as she is the process of completing her BSN. There will be some overlap while we are both in school, and I will probably attend 1/2 or 3/4 time.

I was “advised” today. I got the feeling they’re not used to dealing with somebody who knows what they want and is not afraid to ask for it. Tomorrow I’m off to see what the “U” can do for me.

28

To any of you who are pondering going back to school, one answer: Go for it. Unless your doing so would mean your children starve or are not safely and lovingly cared for, go for it. If you don’t, the rest of your life you will always have this nagging feeling that you could have done <whatever it is> but didn’t. Unless it hurts someone else, you are much less likely to regret that you do something than that you didn’t. Worst case, you learn something about yourself, it broadens your experience of the world. It will certainly NOT make you LESS employable, or less interesting, or less fulfilled a person.

Sometimes people say “Oh, but it will take me ten years to do it, and by then I’ll be 40.” So? How old will you be in ten years if you don’t try it?

29

Another non-traditional student checking in. I am 37 and hoping to get into Veterinary school. I went to college as a teenager, aimlessly wondering what to do with my life and I sure as heck didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as I do now. I am also home schooling my kids and working my own school schedule around theirs. I am getting A’s if you don’t count the B in trigonometry. :wink:

My professors love me. I am amazed at the imaturity of my fellow college students. I can see how having an interested, focused student would be a joy to a professor.

My advice is two-fold. First, study for and take as many CLEP exams as you can. You will earn credits for courses you likely do not need to take now that you have had some life experience. You can basically test out of quite a few general education courses at a price of only $50 per test–much cheaper than paying for the units for a class that will bore you to tears.

Second, keep in mind that whether or not you do this, the time will pass. You will either arrive at the end of 4 years with a degree or you won’t, but the time will still pass. So it’s never too late to go back to school.

30

Good questions deserve answers…

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I am going back to school because I would like to improve my job outlook and enter a new career field.

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I can take around five courses a semester, for around 15 units. Since I’m a transfer student, I can finish well within the time limit.

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As measured in dollars, between tuition, fees, books, etc., it’ll cost me between $7500 to $10,000 per year. This factors summer school in, since I want to finish my degree as quickly as possible.

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I could be working at yet another job beneath my intelligence and skills.

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Most likely, yes. It can’t hurt, at any rate.

**

Aside from the obvious time constraints, I don’t really see this as affecting much.
While the financial burdens are not insignificant, it’s unfair to tag a college education as merely a dollars-and-cents proposition. Yes, we lose my income (or at least part of it) while I’m in school. When I graduate, however, I will most likely be doubling my current income. Additionally, I will have not only the piece of paper, but I will have an education and experiences I can take to the workforce after graduation, and that right there means a lot.

Robin

31

Huh! You are all babies! :slight_smile:

I graduated with a Bachelor of Psychology degree last year at age 50. Including advanced statistics. Its amazing what you can do if you put your mind to it, I didn’t even do maths in the last year of high school, a lifetime ago.

This year I am back doing a post grad course, but part time, I will finish next year. I am also a single parent of 3 grown up kids and a 10yr old with a disability. My advice is - if it is what you want to do, go for it and enjoy.

(I admit to being in Australia where the social support system is such that these things are still just possible)

32

My boyfriend dropped out of college at 22 having no clue what he wanted to do, and not making goo grades… after a few years, he decided (at age 28) that his passion was cooking. He enrolled in Culinary School and is over half-way done now, and at the top of his class. Sometimes it takes a little growing up and soul searching to find what you really want to do. I think it’s wonderful that people go back to school later in life.

Now, if I could just figure out what the hell I want to do…

33

Hello-

After an A.A.S. in aviation that I never used, I went back to a liberal arts college at 23. Loved it. Took classes I wanted, taught myself how to learn, not what to learn, and really developed as a human during that time. I graduated 3 years later at 26 and am now 33 in June and my whole life has benefitted from that choice.

The one main benefit I noticed of being older was that I didn’t procrastinate things when I went back. I had a project due the following Monday and I would start it that day! I was always done with things ahead of time and having a blast on the weekends.

Also, it was nice to experience the college sex thing again…somehow the 19 to 21 year old co-eds thought an older guy was a good choice to bed. Yippee! One problem was that while they were looking for the one-night flings, I was old enough to want something more concrete…took me awhile to find. But I did through an exchange program and am now married to her!

Enjoy it as well as learn from it. The liberal arts schools will benefit you career-wise. Slow to start, but you’ll advance faster.

-Tcat

34

And yet another voice chiming in for going to college later in life.

I didn’t start college until I was 29 and then dropped out the fall of my senior year because my older son was diagnosed with diabetes and my marriage blew up. Something had to go and for me it was school.

I started back in August of 1998, taking one class at a time. By then I was a single mother and had to work full time.

Last Sunday I graduated from the University of Kansas with a BA in English – I graduated with honors etc etc etc.

So yes, you most definitely can do it. You can do it working full time with children too. It will not be the easiest thing you’ve ever done but IMO it’s well worth it.

35

I can not even express how much this thread has cheered me up.

I flunked out of college in my third semester. I was partying and working too much, and couldn’t balance things out. Anyway, that was in 1998. I’m about to start back for my first semester this summer!!

June 2nd I take on Art Appreciation and Sociology 101.

I’m totally excited, but also a little nervous. This time I know a little more about student loans, and I don’t want to over-do it!!

Anyway, it was great to hear all the encouraging words.

:slight_smile:

36

I went to college for 2 terms when I was 20 and ended up dropping out in the second term. I just wasn’t motivated enough. Finally decided at 25 to go back, busted my ass for 3 years (school and work full time in addition to the wife and kids) and ended up graduating with a B.S. (3.79 GPA) in Computer Science at the age of 28. Crazy me… I’m considering graduate school now! Originally thought of doing law school but I’m really not sure if I want to go in that direction as of yet.

For those of you wondering whether it’s too late to go back to school or make a fresh start. Trust me. It’s never too late.

37

My wife was an older student (28), who left college the first time when her mom died. She graduated in Math. Ed. with some absurdly high grade average. I have also taught physics classes in schools catering to older students, and in schools catering to the “typical” students.

Most of the positives listed for older students are absolutely correct. If maturity didn’t have its benefits, we wouldn’t mature. However, youth also has its advantages, and I disagree with what some of the others have said here. Maybe most young students take physics only because they have to, but they were all serious about it. Younger students can almost always drop everything for an important assignment or test, whereas if your boss says you’re working late, you’re working late. Be sure your profs know your situation.

The biggest problem I have seen with older students is stamina. Not the stamina to stay up all night, if need be. But either the stamina to be a full time student and work full time, or to be a part time student working full time who takes forever to graduate. Decide which kind of stamina you have. Are you the type who can put in 100 hours a week (job + commutes + school) for a few years, or the kind that can put in 65 for six?

E.g., you have kids. Kids not only demand time, but you want to spend time with them. Don’t take so many classes or spend so many years in school that you are a stranger to them when they hit high school. They won’t miss the extra money when they’re four, they’ll miss you. Look into on line coursework that can transfer.

My final piece of advice, applicable to all students, is to pay some attention, but not much, to the job market. Do what you love. One advantage of being an older student is knowing what that is. I know engineers and accountants supposedly get jobs more easily, and liberal arts types supposedly get promoted faster, yada yada. (Physics, by the way, is a liberal art and not a subfield of engineering. We can calculate like engineers, but intrinsically are closer to artists, which drives my engineer brother up the wall. Best or worst of both worlds???) You can’t predict the future. You don’t even know that you will end up doing. But you can know that you enjoy your current coursework, and that you have no chance of doing what you love, if you don’t have the education for it.

Your specific degree won’t matter that much to some employers. Competency in at least one field, the paperwork to prove you have good work habits, and fitting in are what most are looking for. (Not that philosophers get hired to program computers. Very often. But, then, if debating theology is your passion, programming probably would bore you into an early grave.)

38

Hey, Novus, I went to UNCA! In my experience, the professors were very willing to accomodate working students. Several flat-out told me that they put themselves through college, so they understood about family crises, unexpected double-shifts, etc. It’s one of the advantages of going to a public university, IMO.

And, yeah, the Humanities requirements can be a real drag. Grin and bear it, baby!

39

Hey, burundi, nice to see a local. :slight_smile: Hopefully, said professors will be that accomodating for me. After reading all these responses, I’m really starting to get excited about it all. Maybe we should form the Doper Adult Student Club. :wink:

Novus

40

YES! I put off going to the University until today and now I regret even the week or so delay in finding out that I will need only nine classes, 27 credits to graduate with a BS. I had originally planned on a two and a half year course of study to get another associates degree at the local community college before going on to finish my Bachelors. Can I say ‘my’ Bachelors now? Sounds damn good to me!