Rebecca Klein-Collins - Never too late: the adult students guide to college

Never Too Late

Never Too Late

The Adult Students Guide to College

Rebecca Klein-Collins

with the Washington Monthly

2018 by Rebecca Klein-Collins

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Highest-Paying Mid-Skill Occupations. Copyright Emsi. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Emsi.

College Grads Get Jobs in Recovery, Earnings for Majors, Earnings of Middle Skill Jobs, and Understanding Credentials. Copyright Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2018

Distributed by Two Rivers Distribution

ISBN 978-1-62097-321-9 (pb)

ISBN 978-1-62097-322-6 (ebook)

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Contents

Never Too Late

CHAPTER 1

Going Back to College: The Decision, Now the Questions

So, youre thinking about taking the plunge and going back to schoolthats great news!

Why is that great? Because there are so many ways you will benefit from getting more education and earning that college degree or other credential. You are probably well aware of the fact that people with college degrees tend to make more moneybut there are even more reasons to want that diploma. People with college degrees are more likely to stay employedor find new employmenteven when the economy tanks. They also tend to be in jobs with better healthcare and retirement benefits, and they are more likely to have healthy lifestyles and longer life expectancies. Anda real bonusthey are more likely to be happy (Trostel October 14, 2015).

To sum it up, going back to school for your degree is a very good decision!

But clearly you have questionsthats why you are reading this book. You are probably wondering:

What am I going to study?

What college should I choose?

How do I know if that college is worth the price?

Can I make this work with my schedule?

How do I make sure that it wont take forever for me to finish?

Those are really important questions because, lets face it, going back to school as an adult can be a big undertaking. You already have a very full life. You may be working, raising and supporting a family, taking care of aging relatives, volunteering for a worthy cause, or serving in the military. You might even be doing all of the above. You dont want getting a degree to take you forever, and you dont want to waste your time or money. You have to make college work for you, the person you are at this moment in time.

How This Book Will Help

Going back to college as an adult is not easy, but it doesnt need to be impossible. Its important for you to know that some colleges are better than others at making sure that adults like you have the best chance to succeed. Colleges that tend to serve adults better

find ways to create schedules for people who work full-time or irregular hours;

provide support services to help adult learners like you succeed in their courses;

do a better job of making sure that you will keep going and earn a degree;

offer options to help you go faster and finish your degree more quicklyand at a lower cost;

offer degree programs that have a good reputation with employers so that your new degree can open the door to better-paying jobsor a different career path entirely!

But how do you figure out which college will be best for you? The typical college guide is aimed at high school students who have very different life circumstances and priorities in terms of what they are looking for in a college. Also, many eighteen-year-olds have more freedom to go to school far from home and live in a dorm. Thats not the case for the typical adult wanting to go back to school. Adults in their thirties, forties, fifties, or sixties often have established commitments that make them rooted to a much smaller geographic area. You may not have the luxury to consider a college three hundred miles away! But you do need to find a college that offers what you need in terms of academic programs, flexibility, and support.

This book is designed to help you find a college that will be right for you, for your schedule, for your budget, and for your educational and life goals. But it will also help guide you to colleges that will help you finish your degree, and do so quickly, no matter where you live. It wont do you much good to start college and not finishgetting that degree is what is most important.

Adult students want to

complete their degrees;

do it around their schedules;

do it affordably;

finish on timeor sooner.

A lot of adults make the decision to go back to school but dont spend much time thinking about which college is the best one for them. They may take the advice of their uncle Joe to enroll in that college down the road, or they may sign up with the online university with the slickest billboard or TV ads. Some of these colleges will make it really easy for students to enrolland, of course, to pay tuition, whether through loans or through the students own savings. That could be a really expensive mistakeand one that wont get you to your goal. It is important to avoid colleges that promise a lot, put you in debt, and dont help you succeed.