College for Adults

If you want to go to college simply because you want to make a higher income, take a moment to meditate on how that will work. Some questions to ask yourself are whether your new degree will offer you a higher position in your current field, whether you will have student loans that could put you and your family in a worse situation after graduation, or if having a degree will require you and your family to move. Many times, people assume that just having a college degree will somehow open the door to job opportunities without knowing which doors will open up for them. If you don't plan on moving anytime soon, and you complete a four year degree with an emphasis in anthropology, do you see any viable job openings for your field within a 100 mile radius of your home? If the biggest industries in your local area are retail and medicine, perhaps your new college degree will be as financially valuable as the high school diploma or General Education Diploma that you already have.

You're Not Single, and You're Not 18

The Internet flourishes with information on finding colleges, getting scholarships, and getting into college in general; however, you're not in high school right now. What may be a great opportunity for little Jane who's in ROTC at the local high school is not going to benefit a 38 year old single mom or dad of three who's been working as a shift manager for a local convenience store for the past five years. As an adult, your college choices are going to differ from a teenager who has yet to experience the world of responsibility in which you are already well-immersed. Little Jane can join the military, travel out of state, or enter into a degree program for which she can find job opportunities overseas or across the continental United States.

You, on the other hand, may not have parents who can foot a college bill, nor may you be able to uproot your family for job opportunities or college opportunities which may be afar. When considering your ability to pay tuition, you'll have to consider the conventional loan and grant possibilities. You may have to attend a community college, or take distance learning classes while you maintain full-time employment. Finally, when considering what your ultimate major will be, you may not be able to become that marine biologist you've always dreamed of becoming, unless you have a solid plan in place for moving your family and being separated from them should your new job require that of you.

What you'll need to consider, is what will you need to study in an effort to increase your income? If you have a ton of retail experience, and that's where the majority of jobs are in your local area, perhaps earning a degree in management and supervision will best suit your situation.

You May Not Need a Full Degree

Depending on your situation, you may or may not be nearly as marketable as someone with a four-year college degree. In some cases, adults have garnered years of experience in an industry which generally requires a college education without ever having gotten one. Perhaps, in your situation, you have been laid off, or you've just realized that the entity for whom you work does not pay well enough to sustain your family. Your main problem may simply be that you just don't have the college degree to compete for other higher paying positions or job openings in your local area. If that's the case, your experience should not be discounted; however, there is a good possibility that earning some type of credentials or short-term education would best suit you to make you more competitive in your field.

When looking into certifications, consider the transferability of them into degree programs should you decide to later pursue a full degree. A certification combined with your experience may make you more marketable then that 22 year old with no experience and a full four-year degree. Furthermore, if the classes you took toward that certificate lend themselves toward some type of degree, you may be able to maximize your company's tuition assistance, or even your own expert budgeting abilities, by taking one or two classes at a time while you forge higher into your career path.

Understand Your Options

Finally, as was mentioned earlier, you're not entering college at the same vantage point as an 18 year old high school graduate who quite possibly has a mom or dad who can help out with living expenses. What may be an awesome experience for ROTC Jane may not fit you, nor would you benefit from it. You don't need IVY-league, nor do you need to expand your social experiences. You don't need sororities or fraternities, but what you do need, is a reliable, transferable, recognized, regionally accredited education.

You can receive a great college education through a number of non-conventional means. You can take on-line classes through your local community or state college. You can earn vocational certification through your local community college or adult learning institution. You can take night or weekend classes through the nearest university or college. All of these options are great for the full-time working adult. Some colleges will even award college credit through employer instituted education and experience.

While there are unconventional means of earning college credit, such as distance learning and prior-learning assessments, you must learn to differentiate the valuable means from the not-so-great means of earning college credits. Some on-line schools are, quite frankly, a waste of time and money. You should check to see that the school is regionally accredited. There are three types of accreditation worth checking: nationally, regionally, and DETC (Distance Education and Training Council).

A nationally accredited college is fine. It's a real education that's been checked by a general standard of accreditation, though the standards are not as tough as those for a regionally accredited education. In fact, state colleges are regionally accredited, which means the standards are set by the region, and many of those schools will not accept credits from schools with only a national accreditation. So, lets say you embark on an on-line two-year degree program from a nationally accredited school in a certain field. It's possible that your new two-year degree helps you land a bit of a promotion at your job; however, you learn that you can earn a much higher income in a higher position if you just complete a four year degree. Once you begin looking at your options, you find that you cannot transfer any of your two-year degree credits to many of the schools you've looked into for that four year degree. You might have to start from scratch.

As to DETC, many on-line-only schools are approved by the Distance Education and Training Council. Again, as with nationally accredited educations, if your education is approved through DETC, you're getting a real education, but the standards are not on par with regional accreditation. You may not be able to transfer your credits, though the education may be fine for what you are trying to accomplish. The education you receive through an institution approved only through DETC may help you to receive a higher income, but it too is capped by whatever you received, be it a certificate or a two-year degree.

Find out what the accreditation of your school is, and check it against the regional accreditation agencies through a website such as CHEA.org or find the link on ED.gov.