<p>After visiting my kids on campus and thinking about this, I have realized we really are sending the wrong people to college.</p>
<p>We are sending our kids, instead of ourselves. It’s wasted on them (as it was when we were their age).</p>
<p>And youth is wasted on the young :)</p>
<p>Never too late to go back. We have a wonderful 50+ year old woman who is in our residential college :)</p>
<p>I just told my daughter that the other day. She is signed up for a medieval mythology class that I would give a lot to attend and I told her that I should be the one in college.</p>
<p>No kidding! After our tour last weekend at the most perfect school on the face of the planet(imvho), I wanted to run away and attend myself!</p>
<p>I’m in the process of trying to convince my mom to take some classes at our local cc. I know she wants to but she’s scared. She wants to get an AA in child care or something similar and go work with children. I just wish I could convince her that she’s smart enough and dedicated enough to do it. It’s not a time issue either. No kids at home and no job. I’m hoping going stir crazy will be the push she needs :)</p>
<p>I think a gap year (or gap years) are going to become more common as it gets less and less feasible to pay for college while the student is just trying to figure out their goals. Maybe soon more of the “right” people will go 
:p</p>
<p>I remember attending a Kenyon open house and I was entranced. My DD said to me “there is no way I will ever attend this college. Can we leave now?”</p>
<p>
I had the same reaction to Kenyon when my D was there at a summer program–I thought it looked like the fantasy version of “college.” My daughter’s verdict: “Too much corn.”</p>
<p>Yes, I remember finding the perfect school (for me) when taking my daughter on college visits. Wasn’t the perfect school for her and she ended up going elsewhere, but I still feel wistful when I think about it…</p>
<p>Kids these days are so selfish. They thinking picking a school is all about fit or where they’ll be able to pursue a specific major. It’s really about where can mom and dad enjoy tooling around the college town when they visit. Is the school near a spa? Or golf course? Any good restaurants or charming hotels nearby? That’s what counts in the long run. :)</p>
<p>^^^
That set off my wry detector.</p>
<p>romani, tell your mom to take one class. Just one class. </p>
<p>I bet she’s hooked after that.</p>
<p>I found MY dream school a few years ago when doing college visits with D. Good thing I never visited that school when I was young because I don’t think that I was smart enough to get in!</p>
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<p>Yep. My son’s future MIL realized this after her last one started college, and she enrolled in a Master’s program in humanities. She’s 65 years young.</p>
<p>Hunt, I bet your kids love their colleges and the classes but if they are at all like mine they cannot bear to agree with me about much of anything, especially over how wonderful a class might be or how cool a campus vibe is. If I’m enthusiastic, they are negative. And vice versa.</p>
<p>My older one is moving on from the contrariness finally. He really likes his job, which I don’t get at all! I never liked working much. But we can agree to disagree on that one.</p>
<p>I want to go too but I don’t want to write papers or cram for exams. Auditing a class sounds great.</p>
<p>One of my favorite movies is “Mrs. Washington goes to Smith”. Cybil Shephard is the mother of college grads and decides to go back and finish her degree. She stays on campus and has the full experience. Love this show</p>
<p>I sat in yesterday on one of my daughter’s college classes.</p>
<p>There were four auditors in the class, and it was fun to chat with them beforehand.</p>
<p>Yep. I liked a lot of the schools I visited with my daughter and son. At least the D chose one in a city we loved to visit. I miss that place, and the school was one I would love to have been able to attend.</p>