Going back to school after you’ve been out of school for a while can be hard. Maybe you didn’t finish high school and time has passed. Is it too late to go back, get the GED, and go for the college degree? We think no. And here’s why.
1. You’re a Different Person Now Then When You Were Sixteen
The you who wants to go to school today is not the same person who left school yesterday. Give your new self permission to take on a challenge that your old self declined to do.
2. You and Your Family Have a Future to Consider
Now that you want to go back to school you probably have reasons like you want to improve your education or now you have a family and you are concerned about the future. Finishing up your education now takes on a new meaning that it did not have when you thought college was not the right path for you.
3. You Can Tailor Your Education to Fit Your Career
More than likely you have been out in the field working on perfecting your job skills. Going back to school now, you have a fresh mindset to choose a college path that will best optimize your job path. For example, college students who take accelerated courses at states schools like NKU Pace choose courses judiciously to fit their career. Universities across the country are adopting this model. You’ve already been to work. You know what courses you need to take.
And more than likely you need those courses to fit your adult life schedule. As an adult who has conquered real life, you know what to do in school to make college work better for you.
4. You Need Skills
While experience is important on any job resume, it is equally true that skills can sizzle and get you the job you’ve always wanted. Going back to school you can learn new skills that you do not have time to learn on the job or at home. Work in a hospital but have no training to work in the radiology department? Are you a paralegal but do not have even one Law course to your name? Or a mechanic without an engineering course to spruce up your skills? Get those skills fine-tuned to advance to the next level.
5. There Is No Such Thing as One Career
Even if you did go to school, finished that degree, the reality is that the current job market demands knowledge that we did not even know we needed five, ten, or fifteen years ago! It is always a good idea to go back to school, because what was your career in 2010 can be a new career in 2018.
College is no longer a fixed path for seventeen and eighteen-year-old high school graduates. College is fast becoming an evolving system where it makes more sense to get on board regardless of where you are in life. Securing your high school diploma and aiming for an undergraduate education, may just be the best decision you ever made.
