Back to school...at 41?

[brazilianboy]

I have always regretted not graduating from college with a 4 year degree. Right after highschool I went to a prestigious southern California art institute and got my certificate,then went straight to work apprenticing in a tattoo shop after which I went right into owning a couple of shops with my then girlfriend and later wife who was also an artist at the shop we worked at. I took some community college courses in the bay area majoring in journalism,music comp, and drama tech but dropped out after the first 2 years and didnt have enough credits for an associate. I went to a San Francisco mortuary school for half a course, but didnt finish. I even went to The Culinary Institute of America in Napa for a few courses.

I didnt have the best or worst highschool grades even though my SAT and ACT scores were pretty decent. In highschool I was always art,music,journalism,and theatre/drama inclined. And a jock. All through highschool I was doing art and journalism for school publications and commercially,teaching classical guitar at my instructors school,and working in reperatory theatres on the weekends. I didnt play in the school band because I was in athletics pretty heavy. I was involved in boxing and martial arts competitively. And I skipped school alot to spend time partying at the beach with the party crowd,surfing,skateboarding.

I didnt take any math or science courses beyond the bare basics it took to graduate as things were a little different in the late 80s and it was easier to graduate then without much math or science. I hated high level math. I flunked out of Algebra 1 in the 8th grade,took it again in the 9th grade and barely passed. I then waited clear til my junior year to take business math to get the two math credits required back then to graduate. Science I took biology and geometry and got by. Im a whiz with numbers and a great money manager though. I did alot of pool hustling when I was younger and gambling,and Ive managed alot of the bands Ive been in, and I became a business owner. But now that my kids are teens I cant even help them with their math homework. I look like a moron. Thankfully my wife is a college graduate and a math wizard and can help them.

I mainly want to go back to school because Im getting older and my music career is getting close to just being too dumb to keep doing it as it is a lot of work for not alot of money playing the kind of niche music we play. I have my own businesses so I have income and I am able to drop out of life for a couple of years and go back to school.

Another reason I want to do it is I get alot of guff for it from my family. Every one in my family is really motivated and educated. My older brother is a professor of sociology at Berkley with a PHD,my 2 older sisters are school teachers,all of my half and step sibs have degrees,my retired bank CEO mother has several degrees,my stepdad is a retired county school superintendant and principal with several degrees,a niece just graduated and is a marine biologist,a nephew just finished pharmacology school,and my own daughter graduated college early and is now training to be a hospital administrator. Even my younger brother who is a successful auto body/paint shop owner got in trouble and ended up in prison managed to get a degree in business when he got out of prison.

Then theres me with the lowly art school certificate.

How hard would it be for me to go to back to college after so many years? I just cant imagine sitting in classes with kids. I would feel like an idiot. Is it a pipedream at my age? I dont know for sure what I would study but I have a few ideas. Would I have to take the SAT or ACT again to even get in a school? If I had to take any math courses beyond business type math I would just be sunk. Science I can handle,I love science. But high level math I just dont get,I have a mental block that just wont let me understand it. Ive tried to understand it while my wife has helped my kids and its just a foreign language to me.

Any info from people my age who have been there or are there now would be greatly appreciated.

nice initiative !!
I dont study in the US, but here in Brazil I have a 70 year old colleague studying Law.
She proably never work with her degree but she said, before dying, is one of her last dreams and she is working on it.
I also have an aunt that she is a Speech and language pathologist (49 year old) and she is almost finishing another degree.
Good luck on your new journey!

"Intellectum valde amat "

 

[criticalbass]

You are a hero! You are a successful person who has skills they don't teach anybody.

Your second post helped me understand what you really want.

Seems to me you have two motivators. One is to acquire some usable skills to replace those you think may not serve you in the long run. I applaud that, and urge you to do the research necessary to assure yourself that when you have completed the mortuary training you have a realistic chance of securing either solid employment or you can start your own business, or perhaps each in turn.

Still on the first motivator, lots of people in the nasty national job market are acquiring new skills now, and many are finding that nobody wants a forty or fifty year old computer tech. Again, be sure the path is not illusory.

Second motivator appears to be family perception. What dolts! You are obviously more successful than most Americans, and I will bet lunch you are more successful than many of your detractors. It really irritates an academic when someone like you has a bigger wallet then them, when they were brought up to define success as only achievable through formal education.

You will never fit their mold, and since they have adopted the pattern of denigrating what (hopefully not who) you are, they'll find ways of continuing that. "Think what he could have done if he hadn't waited so long . . ."

I like the support you are receiving from the others who have posted here. They are trying to be very helpful. However, there is no magic in formal ecucation and the paper that comes with it. You have done the real magic, and have the capability to do more. If formal education/training can add to the quality of your life, by all means go for it, but, again, do it for an achievable reality.

Look at the two years you are considering investing. Outline what you might achieve with the training you are considering. Do a second outline (plan "B") that goes another direction with the same time and resource outlay. Obviously this does not mean just keeping the status quo, but looking at other possible life changes.

If anyone ever asks you the difference between education and training, ask 'em if they would rather their kids had sex education or training . . . CB

 

[Random Gadfly]

How hard would it be for me to go to back to college after so many years? I just cant imagine sitting in classes with kids. I would feel like an idiot. Is it a pipedream at my age? I dont know for sure what I would study but I have a few ideas. Would I have to take the SAT or ACT again to even get in a school? If I had to take any math courses beyond business type math I would just be sunk. Science I can handle,I love science. But high level math I just dont get,I have a mental block that just wont let me understand it. Ive tried to understand it while my wife has helped my kids and its just a foreign language to me.

Any info from people my age who have been there or are there now would be greatly appreciated.

nofearfactor,

I am 36 years old and as of last fall had no college at all. I am now at UCO getting an engineering physics degree. I will hopefully graduate at age 40. I am one of the older guys in the class but that is no big deal. You will tend to gravitate to the older students and you will hang out with them. Some of the younger ones I have an older uncle relationship with them. I have never felt out of place in any class.

The hardest part is getting started but you will quickly get into the groove. Being a non-traditional student has some advantages to, your professors will treat you different from the "kids". I quickly received a university job from one of my first professors, being older you stand out more. This is good when you get out into the job market as they have worked with you and can recommend you to companies.

As to the SAT and ACT, at uco I only took a small placement test to see were I needed to be placed math wise, no ACT or SAT. I was not very good at math in high school but due to the engineering degree I am at Calculus 2 and doing pretty good. Don't be worried and just take the first step, you will not regret it.
~Cheers

 

[ghostrider]

I'm 46 and I'm back in school. If I can do it, so can you! Good Luck!

 

[pistolpete95]

Went back to school and finished my BS degree at OSU in 1995. I was 41 when I graduated. Met some nice people, learned a lot, and went from a lifelong OU fan to a season ticket holder Poke fan. If you want (and can) do it, I would say go to school.

 

[dennishoddy]

Your a lien foo. I know for a fact yu just in your 80's.

Actually I'm in the technical field with an Associates, but have many hundreds of hours of tech classes with manufacturers over the years in programming, control systems, etc.
If you want to succeed in life your education must never stop. It doesn't have to be at college level either.
We have a goal oriented system at work, and part of it is getting continuing education. Our company offers lots of opportunities as well as outside vendors, and if one takes advantage of it, it can lead to further opportunities.

 

[grwd]

Dude; been there, done it.

screw that; dont go. Use your motivation to make money in the workforce now, not waste time in a classroom. think dollas!

Nothing better than messing with your head than family.

 

[nofearfactor]

Seems to me you have two motivators. One is to acquire some usable skills to replace those you think may not serve you in the long run.

Still on the first motivator, lots of people in the nasty national job market are acquiring new skills now, and many are finding that nobody wants a forty or fifty year old computer tech. Again, be sure the path is not illusory.

If formal education/training can add to the quality of your life, by all means go for it, but, again, do it for an achievable reality.

Look at the two years you are considering investing. Outline what you might achieve with the training you are considering. Do a second outline (plan "B") that goes another direction with the same time and resource outlay. Obviously this does not mean just keeping the status quo, but looking at other possible life changes.

CB

All excellant points.

What got me seriously thinking about going back to school was a conversation with my kids the other night. My stepson just turned 14 and my stepdaughter is a senior this year and we were talking about what they wanted to do with themselves after they graduate and what they should go into with the job market and economy the way it is right now and what types of jobs will need workers in the future.

Their father passed away when they were small and my wife took the 2 insurance policies she had on her ex and put the money away for the kids education in a trust,and we have added money to it over the years when we can so that they can also have living expense money so they dont have to work while going to school.

The kids seem to have decided on medical field and service industry type jobs. My stepdaughter completed a year of tech school last year in nursing and is planning to pursue that field and is also already taking some online courses thru UOP. My son loves cars and motorcycles and he tinkers around with them with me and my vehicles,so he is considering going into some type of auto and or motorcycle mechanics,body work and painting,etc. His half sister just finished motorcycle mechanics school in Phoenix,Az.

But what was weird was them asking me what I was going to do with my self. I seriously had not ever thought about what I was going to do the next 20 years or so past playing the guitar and running my businesses. Its all I know. My wife has over 25 years on the job in the front office of a small family owned oil field equipment manufacturing company and is planning on retiring when her all of her companys execs retire that she started out with after college. She has a fat 401k and some other investments,owns her house that I have gone in half on,and she wants to do some traveling. My parents do that now and thats just not what I want to do any time in the immediate future. Ive done alot of traveling and been to alot of places in my life already. My wife hasnt though so I am sympathetic to her desire to go places and see things she hasnt had time to go and do while working long hard hours in a busy professional career. Hopefully we can figure out a way for us to do some traveling for her to be satisfied and for me to be able to go to school.

I just feel like I can still be productive another 20 years or so before retiring and becoming a snowbird or whatever. I really do want to put in the time to go to school and finish a degree and then do some work for some years at something I would really be interested in and enjoy at the same time. And it has to be a field that will need workers or business operators. The funeral industry seems to me like a logical choice for an older man to become involved in,either as a worker or as an owner-operator.

After that then I will retire and go travel with the wife,go cross country on my bike, or just go sit in my little cabin house up on the mountain in northern California and watch TV and stay drunk.