a thread for people continuing their education way after everyone else

So I guess at this point I have the FAFSA done, I just need to send it in to the school I want to apply to. I have a list of probably dumb questions to ask the admissions people, who I will call this week.

FWIW I just turned 24, graduated in '05. I've been meaning to go back to school for years but various bad decisions, indecisiveness, depression, doubt kept me from doing it. I'm pretty much consigned to the fact that I'll be surrounded by a lot of kids but w/e.

make me feel less like a chump who's wasted his life thus far :\

29, have ~65 of 120 credits, no clue how long it will take me to get the rest, as I'm never going to be able to go full-time. Add another year for secondary teacher certification.

I got confirmation of my MA in the post the other day! It will won't help me land the career of my dreams.

(not that I especially want a 'career' - what a vile word)

what about dreams, or has the cold hard reality of broken Britain crushed those too?

i turned 36 today, applied last week to go back for my BA.

Corey, you are hardly "way after" -- I would say slightly after is a little more accurate. I have students in their 50s and 60s. Also, so proud of you!

Why do you find that term so vile?

(xpost)

xp :D

also I think since I'm now an "adult" in terms of tuition-cost designation that means costs will be less horrible?

Not having to account for your parents' income should help with grant money and secured loans (lower interest, IIRC).

jon the word is vile because for me it predicates an upward trajectory through corporate systems - not to be all banaka about this but I ain't gonna serve

I wish I'd have done this, just waited 'til I knew wtf it was I really wanted, at least to a better degree, and done more growing up before starting college. Milo is OTM about your age – 24 is when FAFSA starts being really helpful.

I think you should feel proud of your decision, and not feel like a chump. What do you want to study?

I keep thinking about doing this, then freaking out about being OhFuckSoOld and not fitting in, then it off, and then thinking about it a year or so down the road and oh hey shit now it's even worse. It doesn't help that I have no way to really work around my awful 9-6 job and the only stuff I've ever shown an aptitude for or been any good at is kind of useless and unjustifiable in this economy.

IMO it is really not that bad being 7+ years older than the other people around you. Most of the time you're in a class you're not talking to the other students, and if you are it isn't about stuff that's related to 'omg u old.' I promise you most everyone is worried about themselves, not about you being a different age. And there's often a couple other students older than the freshmen that you can be in a weirdo older people club with if people not old enough to drink really do make you that uncomfortable.

most of my classes im going to do online...of course i look young for 36. maybe i'd fit in. haha.

"everyone is worried about themselves" is a truth bomb about school

also, this is great, corey!!

xp - it's a truth bomb about life

xxp my experience is that the 18 year olds are terrified that the mature students are going to call them out as being know-nothing kids.

seriously -- just try to not be so self-conscious and just do what u do & be awesome
every single semester i get one of those "i know i haven't been in school for a long time, but..." people and i wish they would just chill and focus on the work

what snoball just said has never actually happened in my class

as far as age goes, it depends on where you go to school - like when i went to grad school (which was straight after undergrad), at 21, I was at least 2 years younger than the next youngest person in my class.

xp - meaning: they may fear it, but it never ever happens

what makes me laugh is they are requesting my transcripts from 1994 from the year i actually went to college...im mean a 1.7 gpa isn't going to get me far. do transcipts from that long ago affect admission for someone my age?

also - with the economy the way it is, I'm guessing there are a lot of older people going back to school.

snoball otm – my first year & a half of college I was working full time and taking night classes at a college extension in my home town and all my classmates but a few were old enough to be my parents. I felt like such a fresh-faced, foolish rube at age 18, around all these people who had life experience. No one ever said anything mean to me but I was always expecting it to happen!

xp to sarahel - it never actually happens, it's just this fear that the younger students seem to have, that somehow when they express an opinion to an older person that said older person is going to turn around and say "I've got three kids and a car and a mortgage and YOU. KNOW. NOTHING. because YOU are just a kid!!!".

^^ actually, it does happen from time to time - i'm pretty sure i've experienced this tbh

I was determined to get my grad degree by fifty. I did it. Most students were half my age, but I think I connected better with the faculty. ;) Don't let age deter you.

in terms of social dynamics vis a vis age, it really depends on the school, what you're studying, the way the classes are set up - i don't think it's possible to make generalizations across the board.

the only safe generalization is that when it comes to school, all people have insecurities of one kind or another

incl instructors/teachers/professors

otm

I started university at 24 (starting straight after taking my A Levels as a mature student, having dropped out due to 'life stuff' the first time around - now THAT felt like continuing way after everyone else). I don't think you need to worry about being too old. I did feel like I didn't quite fit in with either the straight-from-school 18 year olds or the properly-old-with-serious-responsibilities mature students, but this was at least partially down to my own insecurities. In the end I found a satisfactory middle point in which I could simultaneously have fun and work hard in a way that I probably couldn't have managed being younger, and I did make some friends, both from the student populace and the staff. (As an aside, I met my boyfriend during this period of study, where he was also a not-so-mature mature student, so... double win.)

As for money, yes, you will be assessed independently, which means you'd be more eligible for funding/grants. It still won't make it easy, though.

Just worked it out: between an aborted first degree at 'normal' age, a part- time BA in my thirties, an MA, and a PhD, I've spent 15 years as a student....my wallet feels empty without a student card. Long got over 'being old'.

Seriously, 24 and they won't even notice.

I'm just about to turn 41 and I'm finally going to be starting out on an OU degree, should everything go according to plan, in December. It both liberating and terrifying at the same time.

^^^

It'll be great - and you'll stop being terrified about 10 minutes in.

26 and actually just switched my major, adding at least another semester to the whole shebang. I went to a different college straight out of high school but dropped out for economical and other practical reasons. If anything, it's the best time to be going back to school. Gov't loans and a part-time job cover me pretty well. When in doubt, think of the bump in income a college degree will get you. Try and disregard the stress of tens of thousands of dollars of debt.

I live in a college town (a section of town is literally called Collegetown) and go to a college out of town, so with some experience I can say that college kids are mostly annoying little shits. But, like the general population, there're some who aren't and are taking advantage of the opportunity. So seek out those with a good handle on the material and process for study buddies if that's what you're looking for. Join a club or two to help with that.

Is anyone going to a private college?

I think you should feel proud of your decision, and not feel like a chump. What do you want to study?

― 17th Century Catholic Spain (Abbbottt), Monday, October 18, 2010 11:22 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Thanks! I'm going to study music composition.

also, this is great, corey!!

― horseshoe, Monday, October 18, 2010 12:31 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Thank you. :)

big ups to everybody itt!

I seriously wish I could have taken some time off between high school and college. was definitely not ready for college at the time. you'll be going w/ your head screwed on straight which is better than at least half the people on campus.

omg corey come to I Make Music

I've posted a bit of my pop stuff before. I've since deleted most of it from my computer :\

Just worked it out: between an aborted first degree at 'normal' age, a part- time BA in my thirties, an MA, and a PhD, I've spent 15 years as a student....my wallet feels empty without a student card.

I should perhaps have added that my wallet is empty full stop :(

this thread is super reassuring!, although i wasn't too worried about being the cranky old timer in the room or anything. i'm 25 and applying for MAs. i remember graduating a few years ago and thinking that rather than go straight into a postgrad course, i'd rather work for a while and discover the sweet relief of slipping back into a university pace-of-life after being in jobs i hated. the idea of being back in academic libraries and getting qualified for jobs that intersect with things i'm interested in makes my heart beat quicken.

I'd relax - if anything, the person the 'age-appropriate' students will be othering because of mature studenthood is probably going to be an earnest empty-nester type - my college had a few bored bourgeois fifty-somethings who didn't really gel with their classmates.

I graduated in 2004, messed around with minimum wage jobs for a while and finally went back in 2008 when the market crashed.
I'm now 25 and way older than everyone else or way younger than everyone else depending on the class dynamics.

-I meant to say that I graduated high school in 2004, I was 19 at the time. I didn't enter college until I was 23. I suppose that's still young.