Tips for going to college?

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I have been out of school something like 21 years. I will be going back this fall. I did some correspondence course stuff before but this is actually on campus I have to go. It is a full time course. I'm also probably going to be one of the older people taking it as I'm 40, female, and it is a course that will qualify me to be a computer system administator.

Good luck!

I went back at the age of 30, and it's been a remarkably successful experience. I stayed back in high school, and the years I didn't stay back I had to go to summer school. College is much easier, I'll be finished at the end of the year. The benefits of going as an adult are the total lack of interest in the social scene. I'm not going to school in order to see my friends, and I couldn't care less about the latest fraternity keg party, or sporting event. I'm there specifically to learn, and as such, my motivation is pure. If you are able to remove the outside stresses and pressures that school can bring, it becomes so much easier.

Well yes that is it too less "social" stuff of highschool. I am there to learn but I do hope to make a few friends. I'm not sure how hard that will be with the age difference or if it will weird some out because I'm closer to the instructors ages and may end up hanging out and talking "shop" to them so to speak. I would like to make a few friends that share similar interests as I am very socially isolated offline. I have 2 friends in different cities here that are too far to hang out with and I don't often talk to them. I have another friend in another province who I talk to but have no chance of seeing due to the distance. I have my son and people I run into/aquaintances but I need to actually have a friend or two offline.

However I am wondering just how odd it will be in class room dynamics going in at my age. When I went to the open house everyone kept talking to my son instead of me and he kept reminding them it was me not him and visa versa. I'm going in under full scholarships but also they know I have worked on computers self taught on modern ones. So I don't know how odd I'll be. At the open house it was all kids in their teens to about 21.

Most of the people on my course are around 19, but we do have a few older students as well. They mostly talk to each other but they seem to get on well with the younger students too. In lessons it doesn't appear to make that much difference. People are more mature about things like that as they get older. That's what I've found anyway. The way the courses are is probably very different over there though, I live in England. But here the older students seem to get on fine.

I am 35 and just went back 2 years ago and am still going and really excelling. I was inducted into the honor society and made the national deans list. Damn shame I waited so long to go back... but I think I had to wait till I was ready.

My advice:

1) Enjoy it! Have fun! School has changed since you were there last.

2) Sit upfront. It blocks out all the distractions of what is behind you.

3) If the younger kids start making a racket in the lecture, assert yourself and tell them to STFU. Don't worry if they keep it up. Allot of the class will drop by the end of the first month or so.

4) Group projects suck. If you can, get assigned to work with other older adults. They tend to take things more seriously and don't do things at the last moment like allot of the younger kids do.

5) Schedule time out to study. Don't study at home where you might get tempted to do something else. Go to a coffee shop and read there or at the park...

6) Don't overload yourself with tons of credits... start off light and then build up if you think you can take more.

7) If you get wait listed on a class, show up anyways. Odds are a few will not show up and you can add the class.

If you don't like the instructor, see if you can move to another class taught by someone else.

Hope this helps.

Jim

Thanks for the tips. I'm taking a CST course which is a full time study in set things and is certified. Second year is a continuation but I get to choose a specialization. I will be in school from 8:30am to 3pm at a tech school. Only thing I somewhat dread is pulling cables. I have to do rj45 installs and stuff too. I know how to fish wire sort of but I dislike it because I don't want zapped or something. I'm not totally sure on class size but it's probably not much more than 20.

don't ever tell your class that you have asperger syndrome!!

Teachers and staff already know that my dx is autism.(Depending on the doc and how long they know me I've had both. AS was given on a 45 min interview with one for example and my testing for school puts me in a grey area I think between the two)

The Dean of the Computer Dept knows I'm on the spectrum and made a point of saying they wanted me at main campus and vouching for me on some course requirements. *grin* I think my having a label actually goes to my advantage as he was also told I've done computers as a hobby for over 11 years.(self taught on unix and windows as I originally trained in the 80's on apples)

I think it's good for the staff to be aware of AS/Autism. My tutors at university know and they've been great. Much more supportive than high school.

In highschool I had no support. They didn't integrate special needs kids here officially until 1981. I was born in '67 and first dx at 6. The school didn't want me. That is both the staff and kids in the whole town. I had to deal with daily swarmings, psychological abuse, and teachers being rough on me because they didn't want my kind there. They made no secret of this to my family. But my family didn't want me in residential care and refused to send me there then fought with the district/school to keep me. At highschool it wasn't as bad. But though I was in highschool by '81 they had only then integrated some physically disabled kids and not really many with what they deemed mental handicaps. I was treated as gifted but other than giving me some harder/different course work I still recieved no services and the odd teacher still wasn't too happy with me. Kids were more bareable because by grade 6 they quit the swarmings and eased off on some of the psychological abuse they'd done. But in highschool didn't quite trust most of them because of years of growing up dealing with crud in school and out. I did have some friends though but not many and dated outside of my town. So college should be a huge difference. Now there are supports and attitudes have changed. Many also have no clue what AS is or their knowledge of autism is so little that they are "wow" because I don't fit the percieved stereotype that media often gives. In adulthood I've found most people nicer though some are still ignorant twits. But I'm so clumsy in non ac social interactions I mostly just have "aquaintances" offline. So I am hoping to find a person or two with similar intrests so I actually have a friend to do things with.

I had no support in high school either, I only found out about Aspergers last year, so before then nobody knew, they just thought I was weird, quiet, etc. There is a lot of support available in colleges and universities though so you should find it a lot better. And the older students on my course seem to get on fine as well.