Anyone go back to school later in life?

[cowboyfan1969]

Went back at 35 to take Electrical. Myself and another guy roughly the same age had the best marks and work ethic. Kids don't know what it's like for a living so they do the bare minimum to pass. A month or two into school, found out we were gonna have a child, so I really buckled down so I wouldn't be stressed at the end.

 

[schmee]

I went at 29 yo. I even felt out of place then. But I was working part time+ and schooling. So a bit busy to worry about fitting in. It amazes me how young they look for college though.
Then at 40 y o I went back for a one year additional certificate. Man, the College I went too looked to be all Asians!

 

[O- Fender]

I did. I was 44. Total career change. Another in my class was 40. One was 38. Everyone else in the class was 30 or under, out of a total of 30 people.
The disadvantages, I was expected to be a leader in any group, sometimes expected to be a Jr teacher in knowledge of everything.

Advantages? I had fun as well as learned a lot. Kinda wish I could do it again.

 

[regularslinky]

I started college at 24 (when the rock star thing didn't pan out), got a BS at 30 and a JD at 39--working throughout, mostly full-time, while studying, mostly full-time. The downside is that college is not nearly as much fun when you're older and more serious. The upside is that you're older and more serious.

Now I have an 18 year old starting college in the Fall, and that is mind boggling!

 

[Coloradotwanger]

Yes,i am currently in in school right now at a Community College.I am 51 years old.Trying to finish an Electrical Associates.I don't feel out of place in the building where my classes are.It is where all the electrical,HVAC,woodworking,EMT,Fire,and Police classes are held at.My classes have had all ages in them.From high school students too people older than me.
I do however feel out of place when i walk in the rest of the campus.I rarely do that unless i am going to use a computer at the Veteran's Lounge or something.Just seeing the agenda's being pushed and supported by the young kids scares me and makes me sad and angry.The booths that are set up.The clubs.the displays.It is a different and changing world now.I do not like it.But hey who cares.I am just an old man walking to class with Carhartt bibs on and a backpack.

 

[Ben Harmless]

I'm loving these stories.

I was a high school dropout, but did start college as a youngster before dropping out of that. Hopped jobs. Finally finished a BA at age 30. Quit everything, moved out of state. Went back for my MSW at 34 while working a stressful job, and graduated at 37. For whatever reason, everyone in my program was about 10 years younger or 10 years older than I, but it really didn't matter to anyone at that point. A few years later, I'm getting ready to get an independent license, and flirting with a PhD. I'm also doing something that's both worthwhile, and that I'm good at.

I've never been happier than when I went back to school.

 

[Resojazznblues]

.

 

[Matt Sarad]

At 33 I returned to College to finish the teaching credential. I had started 6 years earlier. I spent the interim teaching in Montessori schools in Southern and Northern California.

I pissed off the younger students by getting the highest scores. I refused to get in study groups due to knowing that such groups were 80% slackers. I was working 6 nights a week at the post office and taking 4 classes each quarter.
I didn't have time to fool around.
I worked, slept, studied, and went to school.
A year later I had two offers and worked until I was 62.

 

[P-Nutz]

Do it!

Dropped out of college for ten years, got my BS at 34 and my M.Ed. in my 50s. It's all good!

 

[Chester P Squier]

My 42-year-old son has decided to get his MBA. Since he is working and has a family, he is taking 1 class per semester. Don't know how it will take.

He set the curve in every test he took in the class he took the past semester.

Brag, brag, brag.

I never did set the curve.

 

[roeg]

If you count @ 27.yes. other than that,avoiding it at all costs.
happy to be a teacher though.

 

[Tarkus60]

My wife did it at 50 and had success! Made her dream come true....

 

[Milspec]

There is a short-cut to the degree if you just want to write a check.

When I was working in the nuclear power field, I was told that a lot of former nuke sub guys got their degrees at an online college in less than 4 months time. I contacted that school (well known and fully accredited by the way) and they sent me the information packet.

Basically, you could get credits for life experiences towards your degree....and they were VERY generous with the credits. They would take your work history and any other pertinent experiences and would evaluate how many credits it is worth towards the degree. All you had to do was write the check to pay for all those credits as if you earned them as a student and you had them towards your degree.

In my case, I would have needed another 32 hours if I enrolled in the local college, but I only needed 9 through this online program after I write the check. Those 9 were just the generic pre-reqs for the college and didn't even have anything to do with the degree discipline.

I didn't do it though as I really didn't want to write that check (approx $10k), but an aweful lot of nuclear power plant operators went that route after leaving the Navy.

 

[Tenderfoot]

Started college in 1975 at age 29 using my GI Bill benefit. I remember telling one of my professors that at my age I would probably have a hard time keeping up with the younger students, who were in the majority attending classes, and fresh out of high school. He told me I would most likely do better because having served 8 years in the US Navy I was most likely to be more disciplined and focused on getting an advanced education while the younger students, especially the freshmen, would be too busy partying.

Turned out he was right. While they (the younger students) partied, I studied and ended up with a higher GPA than a majority of the class.

Took 5 years but I got my BA in Business Administration in 1980. The BABA degree (as I call it) opened opportunity doors for me as having a 4-year degree was necessary for advancement at General Electric. At the end of my 30-year career I retired as a Senior Professional. Without having the BABA, the most I could have hoped for would have been Associate Professional.

draggindakota, don't focus on the past but plan for the future.

Good luck!

 

[Old Smokey]

Frankly, I think you’d be mad to pay out of pocket to go back to college unless you need a very specific degree in order to get a very specific job.

 

[Rusty Spanner]

I'm 52 and started my second nursing degree in September, at the University of Cumbria in Lancaster, England.

I feel like the luckiest man alive.

It took me until my late 40's and many years as a neuro rehab coach and care worker to realise that nursing was for me.
I took a degree as a band 4 Registered Nursing Associate three years ago.
I was classed as an apprentice, so combined work with study.

It was wonderful. But hard. Unbelievably so.
Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Trust paid all my tuition fees and in addition paid me £18000 a year whist training. Yes, I had to work and study at the same time, but what an opportunity!
I qualified as a Band 4 Registered Nursing Associate.

The opportunity to upgrade my degree to a band 5 Mental Health Nurse became available last September and I took it.
Again, I will be paid. £21,000 for the work I do outside studying (40 hours per week) and my fees for the course are covered.
My God, I love the National Health Service.

It's hard. The hardest thing I have ever done in my life.
I have been so panicked and wracked with anxiety, felt like a failure and doubted that I could carry on.
But my wife, my friends and my colleagues have carried me forward.

You owe it to yourself to be the best that you can be.


Please drop me a line if you need a chat!

 

[Chud]

Yep, and loved every minute of it. I was a horrible student in high school. The Marines straightened me out a bit, but I wasn’t ready to go back to school for a long while after. Started my BA when I was 32, and was Phinally Done 12 years later.

 

[Milspec]

Yep, and loved every minute of it. I was a horrible student in high school. The Marines straightened me out a bit, but I wasn’t ready to go back to school for a long while after. Started my BA when I was 32, and was Phinally Done 12 years later.

Sounds like a true Marine to me.

It took me 7 years to get my BA while working full-time. I changed majors 3 times and finally just decided to take what I was closest to finishing. I used to joke that I was going for the record number of undergrad credits without a degree. Wasted a lot of money.

In the end, I walked out with a BA in English, BA in Film Studies, and minor in Geology....that is why I work for the post office now.

 

[teletail]

Got my bachelors degree at 40, started my masters at 55. It’s only too late to go back if you’re dead.

 

[bettyseldest]

My brother died last year, aged 62. He always tried to do the opposite of what I did. He passed his 11 plus, but managed to persuade my parents not to send him to grammar school. I was 18 when I went on to study for a degree, whilst that same summer he left school at 16 to work as a trainee legal executive. After a couple of years he left the solicitors by mutual agreement, and after a period of unemployment became a warranty clerk with a Volvo truck agency. He spent the rest of his life in the motor industry, progressing to high level positions, including eight years running the largest Toyota Landcruiser agency in Africa, Sunseeker North Africa, VAG & Mercedes Iraq, Hyundia Libya, and finally a VAG agency in Myanmar.

Working on behalf of his widow to track any pension entitlement he might have, I started working through his LinkedIn entry. I found that he had City & Guilds qualifications in motor mechanics, gained whilst he was training as a legal executive. A BSc degree, gained in his late 30's from a university which I cannot trace on Google, and a Masters degree five years ago, gained whilst working in Malta, from a Philippines university which has no record of offering the subject. If my little brother can manage to accumulate all these qualifications having left school at 16, we have no excuse for not bettering ourselves.