Hi, my name is Todd, and I've been lurking here for a few weeks after becoming interested in finally getting back to school after some 20 years of dawdling about. When in my preteen/teen (back in the fabulous 80s), I always tested well but could never maintain long term focus on anything in classes... Bored too easily, I scraped by high school, did rather well on my SATs for not studying, and went to two 2-year colleges and one university (roll Tide!!) for about a semester each, but it was always the same story.... Bored to tears, and ambivalent about the subject matter... Well, that was a waste of my money so I took a year off from college and found a short program offered by Strayer University (College at the time.) 10 accredited courses, each done in a two week timeframe. All computer courses, starting with intro to computers, and included Unix, COBOL, C 1 & 2, Systems Analysis and Design, and a few other courses. Fast enough to keep my attention, some of the later courses were even challenging, which was another thing I needed. After that I earned a tech job working on Capitol Hill for a few years, and during that time I got my MSCE+I from Microsoft... 9 tests, all done with self paced study on my terms. Years have gone by and a few doctors have been seen, and I've been diagnosed with ADD & minor OCD, which answered more than a few questions about my past performances. Thankfully there's some wonderful medications out there that make life much easier with these issues. I've also come to the point in my life, where I'm edging 40 and don't want to be stuck as a computer tech for the rest of my life. After much discussion with my wife, I've decided to go back to school. I started doing research (mainly on CLEP tests, as they're the most similar to the testing situations I've excelled at in the past) and found this forum. I've been reading through it for about two weeks now, and finally decided to post and say HI... (Hi!) This forum has truly broadened my horizons as far as my educational outlook. Initially, I thought I was going to be stuck doing 3 years at a B&M community college (that long because of my fulltime work situation and just the cost itself) to get an AS, and then spending another 3-4 years at one of the local universities to finish off a bachelors. But now, after a good amount of looking around, number crunching and such, I've got a new goal, and degree could only be a year away. This week I'm going to start down the road of doing the 3 math classes + a statistics class class through ALEKS as well as taking 2 CLEPS on Friday (A&I Lit, and Humanities.) That point on I'm going to do a few CLEPS & DSSTs here and there, and I'm going to attempt the GRE Comp Sci test in April. In Jan, I'm going to hit the local CC and take a couple of night courses so I can get Freshman Comp I out of the way (along with finally doing a college class 'the right way' and sticking with it til the end. This time, its personal... ) Depending on how wacky I'm feeling I might attempt the GRE Lit in English or GRE Psychology, in Oct. Around next August, I'll apply/enroll in Excelsior and see where I'm at as far as my degree. And then its on to apply to SWOSU for Graduate school for their Masters of Education in Technology degree.
Todd, I would say that your story is very similar to mine, which average high school grades because I was pretty board in class and we aren't that far apart in age. I've moped around for nearly 20 years after high school trying to find out what I wanted to become. I attened college after high school but to only drop out because of personal issues. I finally got tired of not being able to give my children more and went back to a local community college and completed my degree after 2.5 years. I was gun-ho when I returned and did very well for myself. I was concerned about the time it would take to finish my associates but was happy when it was over. I wish I would have done a little more research and find an school with accelerated classes like the one I'm attending now. Even though the associates took me 2.5 years, I will complete my bachelors in 1 year so I made up for lost time. Plus, the community college I attended paid student back 50% of the cost if they passed any certification exam, which I took full advantage of by passing the ccna, a+, network+, and MCSA exams. The second benefite was that the school was affliated with the current college I'm attending which offers tranfering students additional scholarship money for attending. Hopefully, after obtaining my Bacherlor's in IT by next April I will be on to studying for my Master's in IA, which should take an addtional year of study. My entire attidue towards learning has changed and my only problem now is that I don't feel like I'm doing enough in a day.
Todd, Welcome to the board. I also went to high school in the 80's and did the absolute minimum to get by. I tried college but it was not for me at the time - I failed New Student Orientation! It took until 1999 for me to go back to school to take some classes at the local CC. I took a few classes and took a few exams to get my MCSE and MCP+I (one test from my MCSE+I). I got serious in 2000 and applied the credits from the Microsoft exams plus my A+, took a few CLEPs and I had an AA. Then two live classes and 16 CLEP/DANTES exams later I had my BS four months after my AA. The point - you can do it and you can do it really fast if you want. Best of luck with your journey.
Hey Todd, welcome. It's never too late to go back. Another Alabama alum is Joe Namath, who went back to Alabama to finish his degree...42 years after he left to go pro. http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/22264293/ Best of luck to you.
