Going back to College??????????

[dewdropsinwv]

@Chickie'sMomaInNH you are probably right about the kick back. I'm trying to do the reasearch before taking out any loans. But I dont have a lot of time before I have to enroll. I have a lot to think about and consider in the next month.
Things like
How big of a demand will there be for a person with a business degree?
Will the income and benefits help off set the cost of my education?
Will a possible employer turn my application down because of my age?
These are the things that go threw my head with this whole college thing.

 

[digitS']

I went back to college in my 30's.

Dad's 99 so I just hope the extra ed pays off for me ... ha! Family health problems (including my own) kicked the props out from under the plans ... B, C, D ... etc.

I did notice that I was slower than my 18-20 year old classmates. Thank Heavens, I didn't have to take many of those classes!!! What I had to concentrate on was that I was a good deal more experienced and had actually spent some time thinking about this & that. The "kids" mostly had not. Dang! Those kids are well over 50 now .

Anyway, I had a good time and it was something of a decade-long effort for me because, I returned more than once . Counting my 20's, I returned 3 times ... pretty much, whenever I had the $. No, I never took out a loan after the initial 3 years were paid for. Yeah, and I left after those 3 years because I didn't have enough $ to live on and support my young family, loans or no loans. Returning wasn't easy but following through has value and employers like to see it, even if I was taking time off work.

Maturity is supposed to lend this clear-sighted, steady patience and all but ... instant gratification shouldn't just be reserved to the young! Will it be fun? Is there something that you can approach with passion?

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

@Chickie'sMomaInNH you are probably right about the kick back. I'm trying to do the reasearch before taking out any loans. But I dont have a lot of time before I have to enroll. I have a lot to think about and consider in the next month.
Things like
How big of a demand will there be for a person with a business degree?
Will the income and benefits help off set the cost of my education?
Will a possible employer turn my application down because of my age?
These are the things that go threw my head with this whole college thing.

If you wait five years to do this the only thing that's different is that you are five years older.

 

[dewdropsinwv]

I'm doing a lot of research about the job market, pay rate and such in our area. I dont want to waste money on college if the job market isnt good enough. I've spoken to Monty at some length about this for his thoughts and concerns too.

 

[ducks4you]

The market will be good when you finish and many people are unable to finish the classwork for a business degree bc it requires a mastery of math, so YES, it is a good degree and worth pursuing. It is the nonsense degrees that are a waste of time and money.

 

[lcertuche]

I graduated college four years ago with a BA in English.

1. Financial Aid aka loans are nice when you get the but a b!tch when you have to pay them back.
2. A business degree is a better if you want to make a living than an English degree.
3. It's harder to remember facts the older you are but once learned it sticks with you much longer.
4. A lot of instructors thought I was wasting my time (I was in my 50's).
5. You will not have the time you did when younger to concentrate on assignments/tests, etc...Life gets in the way. I failed a couple of classes when my son was repeatedly in the hospital one semester and I dropped another class. Only a couple of Instructors were helpful with my situation. As I mentioned earlier they thought I was too old to be trying.
6. I probably wouldn't have went but DH pestered me relentlessly. He was convinced I was smart!
7. You need a thick skin. The first day of school a recent high school graduate told me to my face I was stupid and all her friends laughed.

I did make friends that I still keep in touch with via facebook. I will always my have education. College changes your perspective. I found every subject and class interesting. I truly never was bored. I wouldn't spend that much money again and I encourage my kids to consider going into a trade profession like electrician or plumbing for instance. They would make more money and have less to pay back. At 59 I never got called for a single interview although I suspect I could stay busy as a substitute teacher. Maybe in a year or two I will do that or maybe go back to college. Tuition is free for 60+ in Arkansas. It does have restrictions like there has to be available slots. I would love to take some more art classes or work towards a Masters but not because I think I could ever make a living at this. Oh I guess I could write the next big book series. "The Life and Times of Linda" Probably not, lol.

 

[Nyboy]

Wow good for Arkansas free tuition for over 60.

 

[ninnymary]

My 3 kids all have college degrees. Only 1 (the pediatric nurse) works in the field she studied. The other 2 went into different career paths, a sous chef and stylist. But they can all support themselves and love what they do. My degree was also in an entirely different area than what I did/do for a living. Nowadays, working hard and networking goes a long way.

Mary

 

[dewdropsinwv]

If you wait five years to do this the only thing that's different is that you are five years older.

Probably going to give away my age but it's actually just numbers. I went to college when I was in my 20's
I never changed my mind about what Degree I wanted. Before technology and all these new programs started popping up, it was just a secretarial degree, so now it's a business degree. I know a little about excel, but I can teach my self how to use it (at least the basics) here at home on my laptop.
Now that I'm returning ( or thinking about it) I'm in my late 40's.
I still have some invesitgating to do. Then I will make my choice.
Possibly get some help from our local job service????

 

[digitS']

From a very young age, I felt that agriculture would be my life's work. Mostly, it has been but it wasn't what I was interested in, in school.

School was a rather exotic place for me. The world it opened up was very different than my own. The more the opportunity for learning about that world, the happier I was in school. It wasn't that I was so bright. I was just curious.

Life was about taking care of X. That was fine. I enjoyed that, too. That's husbandry. I didn't want to leave that but it wasn't easy to continue in agriculture. Moving into a "related field" to ag, increased my income by 30%. I was still barely in the middle class. Think about the opposite: how many in similar circumstances would give up 30% of their income?

I was just watching Warren Buffett say, "If you think about it, if you go back to 1800, it took 80 percent of the labor force to produce enough food for the country. Now it takes less than 3 percent."

Actually, it's about 2% and it was double that when I might have been becoming well-established in my field: 4% in 1980, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment prospects, even working for 70¢ on everyone else's dollar of income, or 50¢, was always becoming more and more difficult.

The closest related field was simply maintaining and operating farm machinery. Wonderful! Not!

Would simply increasing my income lead to a happier and, for me, more sensible life? I didn't think so and I still don't. The windows and doors I opened by going to school had little to do with employment. The reverse was true. I worked so that I could go to school.

Steve

Take the job that you would take if you were independently wealthy. ~ Warren Buffett

‘I don’t know’ has become ‘I don’t know yet’. ~ Bill Gates