Going Back to School

[ACG]

Thanks for the advice. I called the local community college, it is a very large college: the counseling department, who then said check with administration, and I think it is on their website too. They are one of the better junior colleges. It is just a few miles from my home. I could just register, it would cost me about $30 and hour in line.

I have a lot of on the job experience 20 years. I've been an office manager to a large environmental engineering company, a law firm, a financial services firm, a government entity. I have certifications in human resources. If I get a degree in what I know, it is a business degree, but that means statistics and I'd need a tutor for the math. I've done hiring, firing, health, safety, contracts negotiaions, office build outs, presentations, contract negotiations, you name it. I've been very lucky to have moved up the food chain without a degree, but many times employers won't look at me because I have no degree, like I'm stupid or something.

Mostly it is personal, again to prove I'm not stupid to me. When I was married I always had to quit school, so I've been able to fit in classes here or there.

Now things are different and I've got some money that I could use for school.

K, thanks again, this is all really good information.

[tulip]

I think the Community College admissions department would be the place to start. The counseling department is for current students, so their response makes sense. You have to find out whom to ask, and you have to keep asking until you find out.

What was your previous coursework in? What do you WANT to study? Just because you have administrative experience does not mean that you have to study business administration, unless you want to. This might be an opportunity to study something that you've always wanted to learn about. Your administrative experience will serve you well in whatever field you end up studying. Go with your interests, not what you think you "should" study. But if you really want to study business administration, then go for it. It's helpful for whatever you end up doing.

If you need to take statistics, just take it. The teacher might be really good and you might be a more mature student than you were before, so you might not need a tutor. I surprised myself by getting Honors in advanced statistics in graduate school--after doing everything to avoid taking ANY math courses in undergrad (I took extra foreign languages and a philosophy class). I was just a better student the second time around, and I had a good teacher.

Keep an open mind and enjoy it. While I won't go back to college, I do enjoy learning new things and taking courses every once in a while.

[carinapir]

Hm, I was able to have a full counseling appointment at my local community college (OCC) without having to register but I am a former student so that may have been why.

Now's a bad time to register because the Fall semester has already started but maybe you can find a late starting class or apply for admission and wait for the Summer or Spring to get into a class. There are lots of 1 unit "fun" classes at a community college. If you can get your hands on the community college's catalog (probably online now a days) you might be able to learn most of what you need to know from that. At OCC, there also used to be flyers in the counseling office that detailed what classes to take to transfer in each major as well as the catalogs for local Universities. I used to work as a student assistant in the OCC counseling department and I learned a ton from just reading the catalogs.