Going to college after 40

[frank_f15]

GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif LOOKING at the time of your post you must have just got done with your studys /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif being retiered and never having attened college, i get great enjoyment from making an apperance or 2 at the local school to give the students a hands on view of HVAC a good friend of mine teaches it , and he has me in to do hands on stuff with the students. they seem to enjoy it and i know i do.

 

[r0GuE]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Now I've got a questions for folks. What was the single biggest thing you learned while attending college?? )</font>

Quite the opposite. Mine was realizing how little some profs know, yet are able to buffalo the students since they know even less. Being in the industry for 10 years gave me an edge. I've had to answer questions wrong on a test to get them marked correct, simply because my prof wouldn't budge.

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue"> What was the single biggest thing you learned while attending college?? </font>
Single biggest thing? Impossible to name just one. There were too many.

How (not what) to think.
How to logically think through a problem.
How to write.
How to budget time.
Like you, I learned there's a lot I didn't know.
I learned there were a lot of people out there who were not like me, didn't believe what I believed.
Because of some of the required classes such as art and modern lit, I learned to appreciate things that were not related to my major.
I learned to appreciate just how hard my father worked to send me to college.

I went to school to get a diploma. I left school with a diploma and a love for learning...Love for learning, that's the single biggest thing I learned.

 

[Cityboyfarmer]

Thanks for the positive and inspirational comments guys! It really helps to hear from supportive people. Its great to hear from those of you who have already achieved an educational goal during middle-age; it gives me encouragement that I can do it too /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

I've got lots of technical electro-mechanical education and experience and now I want to take it to the next level and maybe even some day teach others what I have learned over the course of my life.

Now I've got to discipline myself to spend more time studying than I do on TBN /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Ozarker]

I feel your pain....er....joy.

I did the same thing but at 30 and while in the Army. Going between deployments here and there, I managed to get through an AA, BA and MA in just 10 short years /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I have no idea why I went that far. I guess after I got started and got into the swing of things I just didn't want to stop. Of course there was no internet to distract me back then.

 

[Highbeam]

The dean of civil engineering at the university of washington told us that in ten years all that we will remember from our education is that you can't push a rope and that F=MA. The rest is learned on the job. He was pretty much right.

Education is full of filters that are there to weed out the less academic folks. How often do I use differential equations? Never, but that class filtered out some buddies.

 

[LazKat]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Education is full of filters that are there to weed out the less academic folks. How often do I use differential equations? Never, but that class filtered out some buddies. )</font>

LOL! I was told by the head of my InfoSec program that the advanced calc and problem solving classes were there to "weed out the poets, philosophers and dreamers." /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[mcnitt]

I returned to college at age 44. I spent the next four years doing two year's worth of classes while while I worked 45-50 hours a week, raised kids, etc. I did it just for myself. I thought it was an important, but incomplete part of my life. It was difficult, but worth every minute, and dollar, getting my B.S.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Go for it!!!! If you don't, you''ll always wonder and regret not doing it but I'll tell you that it's going to be hard work.

I was one of those highschool drop outs, left school at 16. It took me 8 years to realize that what I was doing wasn't going to keep me happy for the rest of my life so I went back to college at 24. I graduated at 28 with a degree in chemistry. 4 years later I went back to school again to get my masters in petroleum engineering. Each time it was harder and harder work because education, like everything else, changes. It was a life changing experience and something that I never have regreted doing and I'm sure you won't either.

 

[California]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I'm in my second quarter of business management at one of our local colleges attending at night after work. What an experience. It makes you realize you really are middle-aged )</font>

Age doesn't mean much. Learning to recognise changes around you is far more important.

First thing I learned when I started my MBA at age 35 was:

'The world has entered a period of continual change. Learn how to surf along with change and benefit from it, rather than stand still and be drowned. To stay afloat and hopefully prosper in this environment, expect to retrain for a career in a new field every 10 years, probably a field that hasn't existed for 10 years when you train for it.'

In other words, learn to continually research the leading edge of change and anticipate where to participate, to share the benefits that change will bring.

That worked for me - I retired at 54.

Good luck with your new studies!