Have any of you gone back to college in your 30's

[Chance]

For traditional students, all they want to do as an undergraduate is finish. Your mindset, and motivation, is different and I think that's going to help you a lot. If you're going for engineering, push hard to stay ahead of the curve, and avoid group projects like the plague (engineering students are just as bad as every other student in that regard). Let your professors know you've got a family, and most will be a little more flexible with you. Have some patience with staff, as they're used to dealing with whiny children, and sometimes don't turn that switch off very well.

Good luck.

[45dotACP]

My favorite nursing professor went into nursing at age 40....she's a professor and a pediatric nurse practitioner who took care of a number of her students as patients. You can do it. It is most certainly worth it and most certainly within grasp.

I was a bit of an oddity, being a serious and mostly standoffish 20 year old who worked 2nd shift since getting out of high school and I got along with the adult students better than my "contemporaries".

My little brother is the same way, and currently in an extremely competitive engineering program. The number of stupid kids in those types of classes is greatly reduced and you'll find most engineering students are driven, self motivated and competitive so I think you'll get along just fine.


I was a tutor and a mentor to new nursing students and I'll say this....take full advantage of tutoring and if there is optional "Supplemental Instruction" taught by tutors or TAs, you should consider it mandatory. It's just like shooting...the more practice you put into the concepts, the better you will be. Good luck to you man!

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[Jared]

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone.

I find it interesting that so many of you guys mention that professors may be willing to work with me a little bit, as that had never entered my thought process, but it is encouraging. That is very good news. There is a community college very close to me that I should be able to do some of my classes at as well, plus my associates degree came from there and was designed at the time to transfer for those that wanted to go into engineering at the closest university, where I'll be going for my B.S.

My current employer has a tuition assistance program in place that far too few employees participate in, IMO. The HR rep that I spoke to the other day about it had no idea who I was (there's a lot of employees where I work) but when I told him that I'd been there for over ten years as a tech and was looking at moving up to the engineering level, he was very happy. His words "You have no idea how hard it is for me to find candidates for engineering positions that have the degree and field experience. You won't have a problem getting a job as an engineer here." So that stoked me up pretty good. He didn't say what they pay engineers, but he did mention that it'd be a very nice bump in pay as well.

Honestly, the thing that finally pushed me over the edge in deciding to do this was my family. We're comfortable now, but like a lot of folks, I'd like us to be more comfortable.

[SeriousStudent]

That's excellent news, and I wish you the very best of luck. I know you will be a highly-motivated student, and will do very well.

[Willard]

I completed my MS in my early 30s. I'm now 45, retired military, and working on my MBA during a transitional phase. I will say that some of the quickness of mind from my earlier years is gone and it is harder to memorize information. However, it is easier to understand concepts holistically, if that makes sense. Also, your work ethic should be far beyond the younger students, who will give minimal effort. I actually dropped a class when I learned grading rubric was 55% group participation and 45% individual. The idea was to help you work as a team, but after a military career, I don't need a PhD to teach me this. I want control of my grades, so I dropped that class and will take it in a future semester with a professor who allows me to control my grade. I'm not there to carry others, or earn a lower grade because it wasn't as important to someone else. Things like that may be a frustration, but otherwise, anything you've lost in mental acuity should be compensated for by life experience and willingness to put forth more than your peers.

At any rate, get in there and do it. I know one lady who went to law school in her 50s. Lady asked her husband should she start law school at 50 because she'd be 53 when she graduated. He replied she'd be 53 either way...she could be 53 with a law degree or 53 without one, just pick which one you want to be when you are 53.

[Matt O]

I will say that some of the quickness of mind from my earlier years is gone and it is harder to memorize information.

Given how much one benefits from maturity in terms of focus, this is probably the chief drawback of ageing in regards to learning. I attained fluency in a category IV language in my latter 20's, but I'm sure if I were to start that process now, I'd either not be nearly as quick, or not as successful...or both.

[ffhounddog]

I went for my MBA and managed a 3.75 GPA with a full work, Reserve Duty, and one 4 month overseas trip at the beginning where I could only get a B due to participation. It works, granted I work for the governement and nothing I do in education really matters.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Great! One thing is the school that you will be attending. I taught night classes at state schools that had a returning adult population. For the most part, the schools were very supportive and the students well motivated. Primarily undergraduate schools with kids just out of high school might be a culture shock as the kids are very immature nowadays. Anyway, most profs are supportive of students who are interested and want to work as compared to those just looking at their phone during class.

Another factor will be the admissions standards of the school. If it is basically open admissions then classes will be easy but frustrating for the serious student.

[ranger]

As a leader in a business that is dominated by engineers and other technical specialties - go for it! There will be a flood of retiring technical subject matter experts over the next few years and there is a shortage of replacement engineers, etc. We need every engineer we can get!

[Jared]

As a leader in a business that is dominated by engineers and other technical specialties - go for it! There will be a flood of retiring technical subject matter experts over the next few years and there is a shortage of replacement engineers, etc. We need every engineer we can get!

One problem my employer has, right now, is it's a large operation in an area without a large population. We are struggling to find repair technicians (what I am now) and engineers in spite of the fact that they pay their techs well and our benefits package is pretty good. And the place just keeps growing. If I was gonna give a High School senior in this area career advice, I'd tell them to get into what I'm doing, because you will be able to get a good paying job if you're willing to do the work. Sadly, most of them just aren't.

ETA: On the Engineering side of, it's even worse. There's not enough people with the degree to begin with, and the last couple we hired with the degree had exactly that, a degree. No relevant real world experience, and no time whatsoever actually working on things and using tools. That's why my HR guy lit up when I told him that I'd been a tech at this facility for over a decade. He was looking at a guy that knew the equipment well with enough motivation to take it to the next level.