Has anyone here done it? Decided to go get a college course at 30? I’m 36 now and after living almost half my life, I looked around and thought well sht! I’ve done NOTHING and if I don’t do something right now, I will never have anything ever never! So I am taking an addictions worker course (44weeks) when I haven’t used these parts of my brain in 20 years. Not really anyway…
I don’t know where to even start and computers are not my friend not at all. So I’m double screwed… Does anyone know of any brain or memory testing apps or brain exercise apps? I really need to do this prooperly also I owe the government for this course and they get their money we all know that…
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Yes. It’s different now that you actually want to LEARN something. HS days… Fuck that. They’re lucky I even showed up, but now it’s like I cant soak enough of it up!! You’ll feel the same.
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What @D.Sims said is perfect! I remember from my college days, my friends with easier majors were partying all the time. Not me, I had a hard major and was studious, lol. But, yes, like D.Sims said, the only people that seemed to take education seriously were those that went back later. I truly respected those students more.
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I hated HS with a passion. Only reason i showed up was to meet up with friends so we could go surf/skate. Barely graduated. 6 years later i went and got an AS degree, I loved every second of being in a school that was teaching what i wanted to learn. It was tough, but i made it fun for myself. That landed me a great job that I’ve been at for over 31 years now. Fast-forward to 50 and i started school again to work on a BS and again it was great, but 2 heart attacks sort of put a stop on that…Now I’m 58 and about ready to retire so I’m done. 
My advise, drop all the distractions, ditch all the social media junk and focus only on yourself and the education. Enjoy it. Interact with your classmates, look into the tutoring services they offer and never be afraid to ask for help from them. They get paid to help students. It may seem like a lot of work and may be frustrating or overwhelming, but it’s for a very short amount of time and in the end it will yield big rewards.
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YASSSSSS!!! 1000% @trcallahan. Well said, WELL SAID!
Minus ELR of course. We’re a POSITIVE influence!! 
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Oh yea, absolutely. ELR is excluded from that of course
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Yes yes yes. Do it! HS math sucked for me. Pretty much passed my math classes by a hair, and learned nothing. Went to community college immediately following and tanked that too. I decided to get my AA at 31 and aced every class. Deans list, honors blah blah blah. The difference was that I wanted to be there as opposed to expected to be there. That and having instructors who actually gave a hoot for the students. The irony was that I learned nothing in HS math, but later excelled at math problems involving complex equations in circuit design and troubleshooting. It’s where I first learned about ohms law and how to use a scientific calculator. 30 years later, I’m still amazed. Seems like it happened to someone else.
I wish you luck, and plenty of success. Go into it knowing you’re a different person with different life experiences that can get you over the hump, and you’ll be fine.
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If you truly want it, you’ll do a fantastic job. Just get/keep the ball rolling.
My wife went back after a huge delay. Finished her AA at 38, graduated Magna Cum Laude with her Bachelors in Psychology at 40, and is starting her Masters program next month…at 42!
You got this!
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Absolutely! I went back to law school at 30, at night, while working a fulltime job.
I LOVED it.
Someone in my class said he was discussing it with his wife and said, 'but I’ll be forty when I graduate law school!"
She replied, “well, how old will you be if you don’t graduate law school?”
I thought that was pretty on point.
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Yes, I have continued studying over the years: so much so, that Mrs Squirrel wants us to play scrabble with the letters after our names.
If you are getting into learning after a long break and not too savvy with computers, then I can think of a few free resources to get you back into the swing of things.
Personally, I think having you name a few things you are really interested in is the start. As, from this, I can choose materials which are more likely to engage you.
Luckily this wizard has over a decade in teaching and syllabus designing.
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That is a very cute response from her. Sadly, I am one of the few who read law as their first degree (England and Wales with NI, HK and International). Though, the later is more of an international quasi-contract.
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Well, if I retire, I’m thinking nonlinear geometry could keep me busy. I was an architect first.
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I did full time college after a 4 year military enlistment. I knew I wasn’t ready for it right out of high school. I enrolled in evening classes whenever possible just to have more mature classmates. It really makes a big difference.
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It’s up there with fluid dynamics and vortex shedding when it comes to giving most a confused headache. Luckily I lived with a maths student who was sadly obsessed with spatial theorems but luckily was a massive drunk. So, I developed a very deep appreciation of most fields and studied a far few to ensure that I can direct a client to the right person.
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Exactly so! Knowledge doesn’t exist in the categories we assign to them. Those are for convenience. My most creative ideas come from connecting a bit of thought from one category into another.
I truly regret that I will die before I scratch the surface of what I want to learn. sigh
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Sadly that’s the price of grasping the core of basic understanding - You’ll never see all the cosmic events which we expect to happen: I would love to see the whole process of Andromeda and the Milky Way merging. Or, on a more local level, seeing how students deal with quantum tunnelling as the mechanism for photosynthesis (That will definitely be a high school subject in the next 60 years). Mrs. Squirrel tends to run away when I mention anything regarding anything ‘quantum’ (Though she did watch the second Daniel Craig Bond film).
I just take pleasure from helping others grow and develop. That, and having the ultimate joke on my tombstone.
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I went back to school exactly 20 years after my associates degree. I got a degree in computer science. It’s not easy but I had a blast, I also had a hard time with upper level math. That held me back for a few semesters. I was ready to quit and only get a certificate, but I found an amazing tutor, and made my way to a diploma in my hand! Go for it!!
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I went to college after working for 17 years, including an apprenticeship to get started with. The job sucked in the end and I did a 3 year evening course, ending up with some diploma, not quite a full degree but something between an apprenticeship and a degree.
That was the first time in my life where I actually enjoyed school (homework stuff still sucked). The hardest thing was to get rid of the distractions and in the 3rd year I was close to giving up over the programming part of the course. I still have no idea how I passed that exam.
So don’t think about it too much and go for it. Take any opportunity to learn something old or new. Resist the urge to drop out after the first 3 weeks when you start to realise what you’ve gotten yourself in to. It’s going to be worth it.
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I would love to go back on my terms. There are classes I would love to take. But then my terns… No “course”, no end game “degree”. I would not plan on taking exams. I have no respect for others qualifying or endorsing my knowledge. I decide the course without regard for prerequisites. I pay them, they deliver the knowledge, end of story. At present self study is what I practice.
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