Parents going back to college
GTalum
3042 replies25 discussionsRegistered User Posts: 3,067 Senior Member
in Parent Cafe
My youngest has been out of college for 2 years. Somehow, I'm not feeling the life with an eye towards retirement and am enrolling this fall to get my doctorate (I have a master's and a post-masters certification). Perhaps it's because I have parents with dementia and I feel I need to continue not only the life of the mind, but to contribute to the world with meaningful research. I will also continue to work full time and take 6-9 credits per semester. Anyone else go back to school? Perhaps you should talk me out of it.
102 replies
Replies to: Parents going back to college
My friend got her PhD while being in charge of and teaching the CC paralegal program in our state. She worked full time plus the PhD load.
I admire those who do this and have flirted with it myself.
(Speaking of typing... I am a pen and paper gal. I am not the fastest typist... but I managed to beat more than 90% of my younger classmates who typed lightening fast. B-) )
I graduated from college in 1971. I had a bunch of unsatisfying dead-end careers, and then it became impossible for me to hold down a job for several years when my dad and stepmother became more and more needy.They passed away a few months before my daughter went away to college. Once the estate was (finally!) settled, I trained and volunteered as a crisis counselor for the Crisis Text Line (text START to 741741 if you are in crisis! http://crisistextline.org/howitworks) and became inspired! I was admitted to a MSW programs in NYC where I live and started classes on August 28, the same day my daughter started classes for her senior year in college. Fieldwork starts this week.
As my name here indicates, I am indeed an old mom (by adoption: I became a mom when I was almost 50 and my daughter was almost 2). I will be 71, almost 72 when I graduate and I certainly don't think that age is just a number but I feel really good and I am looking forward to doing meaningful work. The reading for my coursework is kind of overwhelming, to say nothing of the technology (there was no Internet when I graduated from college!) but I think I'm getting a handle on it all. And for sure my financial situation in retirement will be enhanced after I go back to work, even if it's just for a few years.
I can remember the drudgery of doing a works cited page. I did one in about 2 seconds online.
I wasn't a very good student the first time around -so it is nice to try again with a mature outlook
I occasionally look into going back for my doctorate, but haven't done it yet. My son's finishing his BS in December, maybe then it's my turn to go back.
Way to go, all of you!
I was so, so stressed out when I started! Between figuring out the technology and all that academic reading and writing, it was hard. Plus concentrating on 4 different courses and 6 students to mentor at my fieldwork site (a small high school for students who had finished at least one year at another high school where they were over-age and under-credited). Very different from my life of leisure as a retiree. Plus I got two colds, one of which eventually required antibiotics, and I was sickest during midterms. Thus the possible C--68 on the midterm, ouch!
I am hoping that next semester is less stressful. I am learning A LOT and have done very well with the high school kids. It definitely helps that I have recent experience with a high school student who had a lot of issues during the latter years (i.e., my daughter, now a senior in college and freaked out about what comes next). Although several (most?) Sundays, the day before the day I had 3 classes, I had a moment of freakout, ruing the day I decided to go back to school and fondly recalling my days of leisure, ultimately I am very glad I decided to go back to school. And I'm even kind of looking forward to going back in a month. All classes are extensions of the first semester, all with the same professors and mostly the same fellow students (including a 62-year-old who has become a friend).
Anyone else?