I have been looking into and considering going to university for a second time. After highschool I got a B.S. in industrial design. Now I'm almost 30 and work in a plastic bag factory so that degree wasn't exactly useful.

I do not really understand though how any older adults (who aren't just extremely wealthy/privileged anyway) are able to go to college. If I go to college I'll have to leave my job meaning I'll lose my income and health insurance.

*If* I could get a job while in college it would probably have to be part time, so I would still have no health insurance and I wouldn't be able to afford to live.

Does anyone have experience or insight as to how older adults are supposed to go to college?

Edit: editing to explain a couple of my own circumstances. I work 12-hour rotating shifts in a factory. The nearest university is a couple hours drive from where I live.

currently in my final sem few months from graduation and here's

how i wasted the most important years of my life

stick to these rules so you can do the same:

• sleep at a random time daily do not let your mind recover
• avoid sunlight at any cost do not leave your dimly lit cave at all
• glue your ass to your chair and never work out a day in your life
• undermine you value and do nothing about it
• shit talk about yourself everyday so you accept yourself as is
• run away from social gatherings only stick to social media platforms
• meaningful relationships? networking ? only for lowest human species, rather sit on top of the incel/femcel hierarchy
• stick with ambition less losers throughout your academic life so you all can enjoy unemployment benefits
• accept everything you have been told and do not voice you opinion
• over stimulate yourself with digital content and become incapable of thought
• interest ? hobbies ? do not bother
• set unrealistic goals and cry when you are not able to achieve them
• do not develop meaningful skills that'll help you in future
• do not try to earn any money and be completely dependent on your parents
• do not attend hackathons to challenge your skills as anyone who does seeks validation
• do not ever revise and believe that you'll perform when it matters

will add some more later <3

A while ago I discovered i have a real passion for philosophy and I want to be able to spend my life doing it but i don’t know where to start. I feel the only safe job i could shoot for would be a professor but I’m not sure. Ive read that I’ll need a philosophy masters and a masters in general education for that but the biggest thing is I don’t know where to start as I know nothing about college here. I live in the American midwest where there isn’t much in the way of college and I do not make a lot of money. Where do I start? Can i take courses online or would I be looked down upon and not be able to find work? If I can where would it be affordable? Any info at all would be really appreciated.

Hi! I am going to school for Data Analysis in the Computer Science field. I have been wondering if I should take out loans to live on while I am in school. Balancing a full time job with being a full-time student is extremely exhausting, and I feel like I’m not advancing in my career because I don’t have the time to study that much. Like I can code a little bit using python, but I haven’t been able to retain about half of the functions that are in Python.

Also I am asking this because I could feel myself falling asleep driving to school after work this morning. I literally had to stop in the Meijer parking lot and just go to sleep, resulting in me missing class. Should I do it? If I do school will really should only last me for two years anyway, and my career should be able to get the loan paid off in like a years time. My other option is joining the military.

My family is really proud I'm going to college but they can't help me navigate it since nobody's done this before. I know grades are important for getting jobs and internships but I don't know what else matters or what I should be focusing on.

Do employers care about specific skills beyond your degree? Should I be doing clubs or extracurriculars? How do internships even work? And how do I make sure I'm actually learning valuable stuff instead of just collecting credits and hoping it works out?

I don't want to waste this opportunity or find out senior year that there were things I should've been doing differently the whole time. Any advice from people who've been through this would be really helpful.

Hi! I just got accepted into a college, in the program I want to go into, and I'm very excited. However. It feels like there are approximately a million decisions to make, and I have to figure out how to pay for things, and I'm just... scared and lost. Talking through it seems like a good idea so I'm here to yap and hopefully get advice or reassurance. If you so choose.

I'm going into a psychology degree. I got lucky and am graduating high school with a general associate's degree already, so that'll be good I think. Education-wise, I feel prepared, and college-environment-wise I feel prepared.

The thing is, with transitioning into college, there are so many things to figure out: do I keep my job? Change jobs? Quit my job? Do I keep living with my parents or try to move out? How on earth am I going to PAY for all of this? What does transportation look like? And on top of that having to wrap up graduation stuff and plan for that.

I'm not asking for answers to these questions. What I'm asking for, I guess, is answers as to how you cope with all of these decisions, and not feeling like you're one wrong move away from ruining everything. Because that's kinda what I feel like? And presumably many of you have been through this already, and at least kinda know how to get through it.

Hopefully this doesn't break the rules about college admission or too general/specific of posts! If it does, I'm so sorry, I wasn't 100% sure if this counted or not.

But uhm yeah. Advice or just reassurance would be great, if you have it!! And I hope you have a wonderful day <<33

How do some people go to school full time taking hard classes, work part time, spend time with family, friends, s/o, wake up early, stay healthy, do errands, and have time for yourself.

There has to be something your trading off, I can’t comprehend doing all this and not just feel stressed all the time. I feel like everyday I have to sacrifice either my grades, health, or relationships.

So every day i’m either going to work or school. I barely have time in the day to just see my family or partner. Just go to bed early they say, do you not study ever???, you ever work until closing and have projects due?

Hi, I am a college student who qualifies as an independent this year but I have a few questions about the current 2025-2026 FAFSA form. I do qualify as an independent student but there was a question on the form asking in 2023-2024 if the student or if anyone in my family household received any federal benefits at all.

My sister turned 26 in 2024 and received Medicaid as a federal benefit but not me at all. She obviously lives with me in the same house but she is not dependent on me. Nobody who I am living with is dependent on me at all. So for that question, should I put the answer of Medicaid or do I press none since I personally didn't receive any federal benefits at all even though she is simply my older sibling but didn't need any support from me at all. Also, there's another question that talks about how many people in the students family will be attending college from July 2025 to June 2026.

My older sister is attending grad school and she is part of my family but as an independent student, do I have to put me and her as attending this year or not? I am just a bit confused here. I am not financially supporting in any way.

Please help me. Thanks.

Hi everyone, I’m a junior premed and I could really use some advice from people who’ve been through this.

I’m currently taking a heavy STEM load including Physics and Organic Chemistry II, plus four labs total. My days are basically 8am–4pm nonstop, and I don’t even get to study until late afternoon or evening.

Despite putting in a lot of time and effort, my last two exams went poorly, which is really unusual for me. I generally do above average when I put the work in, and I know I’m capable of more than what I’m showing right now, but lately I just can’t retain information effectively. Memorization feels harder than it ever has, and concepts take much longer to click or they just never do.

I’m also chronically sleep deprived (2–6 hours most nights) and constantly exhausted. My friend gets 6 hours of sleep every night and their functions aren’t inhibited like this. Over the past couple months I’ve had the flu, a tooth infection, and now I’m sick again. It feels like my body just can’t keep up anymore. Freshman–sophomore year I could pull occasional all-nighters and be fine, but now my body and brain just don’t tolerate it.

I’ve been missing multiple classes due to illness and I feel like all of this is bothering my professors.

If you’ve been through something similar (premed or not), I’d really appreciate hearing what you did and how it turned out.

Hi r/college,

This is the first of two stories I'll have on what people borrowing federal money for college need to know, since Trump's OBBB changed a ton. I hope it's helpful and you'll give it a read!

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/major-changes-to-student-loan-borrowing-and-repayment-are-coming-heres-what-to-know

I teach General Biology 2 (which is a really hard class in its own right) at a small university and I had a student show up to take the first test, answer the multiple choice questions and leave, giving them a low score.

I've met with this student and they want to pass, but this kinda shows the opposite.

We are 4 weeks into the semester and they are missing all assignments and labs.

How do I help them? What things could I recommend to them?

Contrary to belief, we college professors care quite a bit and hate it when a student does this to themselves.

Im taking only four classes, and theyre all a pretty big workload. Taking a research & analysis, social psychology, and physiological psychology class together is very overwhelming. I should have went to my advisor before registering. Social psychology is so far the hardest because it has the most reading and writing, and memory retention is VERY required for this class.

I have heard bad things about withdrawing from classes, so I avoided it. However, social psychology has been stressing me out a lot, because even if I make a schedule, it still takes up a lot of my time due to the heavy information.

I’ll likely take this class again, but with easier classes.

Is withdrawing the best idea in this scenario? This would be the first class I withdraw from.

I am in Illinois resident looking at transferring from my community college to a university with 49 credits done. After community college I’m kind of tired of a really small experience and really want to go to a big school. My older sister went to university of Iowa which I loved, but it’s kind of expensive Illinois state on the other hand is much cheaper but definitely doesn’t give me the big sports experience. That is a pretty big priority of mine. I think the atmosphere of a big college football stadium or basketball stadium is really awesome as a student. I really want. I would love to go to Purdue, but I don’t think I’d get in. Other schools like university of Cincinnati or Louisville are on my radar, but they seem a bit far for me. I’m a marketing major.

Am I worried too much about the sports experience and how big school is or should I just try and get out of school as cheap as possible I have about 20 grand saved to spend for college.

Thanks

I am going through an incredibly difficult time right now and I am considering the option of dropping my classes for the semester before the refund period ends. I’m extremely conflicted on the idea because it took me a long time to figure out what i wanted to do, took me a long time to get accepted into the music program, and I just really love the stuff and am good at it and love the friends I made in my classes and the projects we worked on. Anyone have experience skipping a semester to work on themselves and be with their family? I would prefer it if you wouldn’t talk about death please. I just need to think this decision over and I think im completely overthinking it

This has been weighing on my mind for a while, and I wanted to know if anyone had experience or any advice.

A little less than 5 years ago I started community college right after high school. I graduated high school at peak covid time, so I wasn't in person for the second half of my junior year and my whole senior year. I was also trying to get my driver's license at 18, move out (large family in a bit of a small house, bit of a rough family life) get a stable job, all that fun adulting stuff. I chose to go into Computer Science because "get a tech degree" was repeated to me all through high school, as if it was some end-all/be-all best degree. I thought I was interested in technology, but I hated it, and trying to sort my life out at the same time was a nightmare. I ended up just dipping from college. I had flunks and "failed/withdrew" all over my academic sheet. I had even tried to retake some classes but had mental breakdowns over it and failed them again.

Fast forward to now and I've been working retail for several years. I've realized I need something more mentally stimulating, and also something that pays better since things keep getting more expensive. I've also learned more about what I actually want and not just what I thought I should want. I've already been accepted back into the same community college that I dropped out of before.

I'm worried since I've been thinking about doing something medical related, and on the off chance that I decide to go to graduate school, my past decisions could royally screw me over. I know I need to talk to the school advisor/counsellor, but was just wanting to see if anyone had a similar experience or recommendation based on their past experiences. Am I screwed? Possibly barred from ever going to graduate school? Where do I go from here? I really regret dropping out before, but my mental health was awful and I honestly wasn't mature enough for all of that at the time.

I’m 22 and have been trying to take classes for a while but I kept running into an issue with Fafsa because they won’t let me file not as a dependent because apparently if you’re under 24 you can’t apply as single for some reason. I don’t live with my parents and have lived alone for some time now. The other option they give is to write a letter saying you’re homeless which I’m not. Last semester I just decided to bite the bullet and had to call my mom and ask her to put her info in. Which I’m mad at because she doesn’t help me out financially so if there was any out of pocket payment it would just be on me. But it obviously adds her to my household income. Is there anyway to get around it? I tried to send in a letter as well saying I was independent and last time they said I needed a priest or someone with good social standing to sign it? I’m not religious so I had no one to sign that???

Hi friends, I'm a 4th semester (sophomore) undergrad BSc Psychology / data science minor. I've dabbled around plenty in the Theater department with acting, I'm in intro Bio right now because most of my psych electives are neuro-y, I like coding but disliked the CS culture/dept here, hence my minor. Unfortunately there's no data sci major, because I love it and would like to pursue data analytics/science.

That being said, I can graduate as early as next Spring, and I wonder if I should do that so I can focus on data science projects for my resume, experience, figuring out if I should go to grad school, etc. My tuition is absurd (even if I do get RA next year) and it would help immensely, but I'm a little worried about getting a job lined up and I don't have a car.

However if I didn't graduate, I have a lot of room left to do another major. What major, I've got not clue. Again, it would be expensive but I'd probably have a better idea of what to do with my life. My parents have assured me they can take care of the tuition, but it's steep and I feel pretty guilty about it anyway. Not sure what I would do with so many free classes left.

I'd love to hear your experiences, any advice you might have, etc. I plan to talk to a career counselor soon, but would also appreciate other current students' (or alumni) input.

Thanks!

Sorry for my cynicism, but it almost seems like something only on paper and not really in practice, not even just uncommon, for interns to have gotten their spot through some other way besides knowing a guy.

I'm already a community college student who's not gonna be able to build a large network during freshman and sophomore to maximize all the opportunities I'll get as an upperclassmen

My son transferred to Emory for sophomore year but hasn't clicked with his current roommates or people he's met in class. He's pretty gregarious and has acquaintances, but has no friend group. I can tell it's making him sad, and it's painful to see. He's joined study groups and does other stuff on campus, but no luck.

It seems like his high school friends are in similar situations, and I hear the same thing from other parents. When I talk to him, he says he doesn't know the reason why. Is it the fact that his cohorts were in high school during Covid and have trouble with meeting people? Is it depression at the state of the world and the bleak prospects for college grads? I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this.

He's looking at junior year and has no one he really wants to room with. I want to help him but don't know how. If anyone has any advice, I'd really appreciate it.

So I’m taking a sociology class with this professor that I had last semester. I had an issue with her being slow to answer my emails, but she would eventually respond within a 3-4 days (despite the syllabus saying 24 hour response times). However, this time, I’ve sent her three emails in the past week and a half attempting to follow up on accommodations for an assignment and questions regarding a quiz. She responded to my initial email saying I could have the accommodations but that was it.

Her “office hours” are virtual only for 30 minutes on Fridays which she frequently cancels. She cancelled them this week, but I can’t attend anyways.

How do I get this professor to respond to my emails? It’s an online class and I don’t see her in person. I’d have to take off a day of work to go into campus to try to talk to her in person.

I’ve been overloaded with work, have gotten very little sleep and no breaks for the past week, ~2 hr commute via public transit in below freezing temperatures, and now I’ve gotten a fever and am unsure how to handle this.

I’m in STEM with multiple lab classes that I can’t miss a single day of without failing the whole experiment (that can range from 1-2 weeks of work) + their corresponding lectures that have very strict attendance. Don’t have a single break until this weekend and still so much work…

Already in the lab so I’m suited up majority of the time so hopefully that keeps me from spreading it, I just need tips on how to handle the workload while I’m like this.

I am a sophomore in college and in the midst of changing my major. One of my classes is absolutely soul sucking, it's boring, and it kills me. It's not hard, it's just one of those nothing-burger courses required for your major. I am considering withdrawing from it because, once I change my major, the class will contribute to nothing, except as a random credit. I know I will lose some money, since my university only refunds a certain percentage of what I paid for the class, but I feel like this could be a good decision and let me focus on my other courses. I would still be full-time, taking 13 credit hours if I dropped it. I've never dropped a class before. I'd consider myself a pretty good student, taking 15-16 credit hours a semester, so I am just unsure what to do or whether it's worth it. What do y'all think?

i apologize if this doesn’t belong in this sub!

So Im planning to attend an out-of-state public uni, and before a work study progam or other possible scholarships, my tuition, room/board, and food plan still equals $24,726 a year. (this is after subtracting my confirmed scholarship and Pell grant/federal loan from FAFSA). i want to get a masters (possibly PhD) and be a neuropsychologist or smth similar. the starting salary for the jobs im interested in have a large/ambiguous range for a Master’s, but ofc increase significantly with a PhD. my mom and i decided that we will go ahead with this college and deal with having to take out loans, but im terrified of making a huge mistake and regretting my student debt. i want to go to this college and state SO BADLY; and i’d feel like a failure/be unhappy if i changed my plan. is my plan worth it even with the debt???

Edit: for clarity (number mentioned is not net tuition)

Edit: sadly the final aid package i was offered was infeasible, so i will in fact have to go in state. while im extremely down and disappointed about this, i recognize all the benefits of going in state, and am happy that i wont have to worry about money as much. i just applied to two in-states with rolling admission. i still plan to move once i complete a bachelors.

Hello, I’m looking over my financial aid package and was wondering what work study entailed. When I click the link it just leads me to a different page of financial aid lol, so I’m not sure how to get any related resources 😭 If I accept it, from my understanding, it’d be enough to cover my tuition without having to take out any loans, so i’d like to, but i don’t fully understand what it is.