28 too late to return to college?
 

Ok, dilemma here.

28, have a decent job around 50k / yr. Too late to go back to college to study something I actually want to do, or be realistic old school parents style. Keep job, lifer, grow old and regret I never did what I wanted. If I go back to change my major, I will be 32-33 by the time I'm done. What I want to do will have nothing to with what I am doing now which means, no exp on my resume when applying for the jobs I want.

It's never too late to go to college

Not only is it never to late to go to university, it's never to late to follow your dreams.

I met a 33 year old in my first year who left a construction job to enter a pre-med program at UBC.

Your old school parents grew up with no opportunities to make a living. You did not. Just make sure you don't come out with something useless and be 30K in debt.

You'll be working for the next 30 years. 30 years. 30 years. 30 years! 30 years! 30 years!

:fullofwin:

If you are financially stable/supported to go back, do it. Will make it that much easier.

Regret is the hardest thing to live with.
Posted via RS Mobile

28 is still young. It's never too late, just do it and I'm sure you'll be happy in the end

Don't ever SETTLE! Strive to the TOP, to the TOP of the goals you want.

9 out of 10 friends I have are settling because they became too comfortable with their current job, but it's not something they want to do.

28 is still young, but realistically you should compare how much money both careers will roughly make you. Now you gotta remember while your in school you probably wont be working/making a lot of money. So you have to minus about 3-4 years of making an extra like 20-40k (assuming you work while schooling). Then you gotta add in how much school is going to cost you, emtional burdens, etc.

Making a list of pro's & con's really helps in my opinion.. :)

it's never too late to go back to school...but it can be very tough if you have young kids.

^ What he said. Just keep in mind, it won't be guaranteed that you'll get your dream job or in fact a job related to your studies. It just gives you a higher chance over everyone else.

I just graduated at 25 and luckily have been employed right after graduation with a decent starting salary. I hated school and just wanted to work and earn a living so I could survive in this world.

I ain't gonna lie though, I've known a lot of people who were tired of their job and went back to school and pursued another career that they enjoyed, while others were not so lucky.

In the end, it's all about your personal goals and priorities. Act on intuition and instinct.

Hard work pays off, follow your dreams to the fullest.

I wouldn't say it's too late, but, maybe you might want to consider doing something to help your current situation? I myself am 30, and most people I know that are in the age bracket 25-45 seem happy and don't necessarily 'love' their jobs. Surround yourself with people you can love and everything else will seem better. The few friends of mine that are doing what they had thought they wanted to do are passing by. But, are nowhere near where they want to be financially. Take myself, I personally don't have a love for my job, but my job pays me well and allows me to do things which I love to do.

Either decision you make, you will regret it.

EDIT: Wanted to add. Everyone (Not saying you, just generalizing people in Canada as a whole) want it all. That will not happen with 99.99% of the people out there. You have to sacrifice if you want to get ahead or do what you want to do. I don't know what kind of career you are hoping for. But, do you really want to retire at 62 or older? Or would you rather gun to retire at say, 50 or 55? If you go to school and finish a Bachelor Degree which is basically the new High School Diploma, how much of a retirement are you going to have saved?

I'm 8 years older then you, have a son and a mortgage and I'm seriously thinking about doing it. It is never to late IMO, you just have to make it work.

Never too late! If possible, you could even try taking some courses part time (e.g. in evenings!)

I'm literally in the same position as the OP. There's all the talk about money, but in the end you have to decide, can you really live with the idea of working at a job you hate until you can retire? Or would you rather have a job that you really enjoy and retire when you want to later in life? Depending on what you do for a living, retiring late isn't necessarily a bad thing. Here's some advice though, don't become a mechanic. I would rather die than continue doing this shit until I retire.

You can't go wrong with going back to school. But as many people have told me, before you decide what you are going to take, make sure you can use a degree (for example) to get a job that you want, rather than just going back and taking whatever and hope for the best once you graduate. Better to try to narrow down the exact job you want, then make a plan to achieve that goal.

It's never too late to return to school

if you dont do it now, next year you are going to regret putting it off for another year.

Don't live with regrets. If you don't enjoy your job, go to school and do something else. I'd rather come out of college at 32 doing something I love than not being happy with where I'm at.

By the way, I'm returning to school in September and I'm 28. Not for a career change, really but I'm mostly self-employed so I have some extra time on my hands. Either it was find MORE work to do or go learn something at school. So I applied to BCIT to learn something new (an advanced electronics course.) so I have a bit more structure to my day (no more waking up at noon and sleeping at 4am) and maybe open up some other opportunities.

Oh, do you mind if I ask what you want to go back to school for?

The reason I ask is because sometimes you can just apply for entry level positions and learn by doing.

Retirement will become a thing of the past. I see myself continuing to work until I'm no longer able to do so, but of course, I will be working less when I get older and probably doing something quite different than what I'm doing now. Unless you're incredibly well-off when you hit retirement age (1% of us will be, let's be honest), you decay physically and mentally fast.

To the OP: I'm basically in the same boat as you (financially and age-wise, though I do have a BA in my back pocket) and I've decided to go back to school soon. I'll have to do it part-time as I can't afford to forego 2 years of wages. You should definitely go back - knowledge is power and even if your degree won't be directly related to a future career, you still grow mentally. If you don't have a family or any large financial obligations (i.e. a huge mortgage or credit card debt), there's no reason why you shouldn't go back. Once you get tied down in terms of a family, etc., that becomes more or less your life for the next 20 years. I've seen it among friends - their whole lives are based around their kids.

I'm in the same boat as well. I'm 28 and am considering going back to school. I've already done what I thought was going to be my "dream job" (working in the film industry), and had already done a bunch of useless schooling for it, even though I was already working in the industry at the time... :lol. I quit it a few years ago and ended up in an industry that I'm not particularly fond of, so I've been contemplating going back to school for mechanical engineering. The only thing that's been holding me back is current loans and the possibility of not being able to sustain myself financially while holding that debt, especially if I do school full time.

im 28 as well and i would also like to go back to school.

how does it work for someone our age to go back? do they accept you automatically? or do they go back to your high school grades? etc?

^depends on what you are going back to school for.

This will be tough, I have a buddy that was in Mech Engineering. He's one of those ppl that doesnt have to study for anything and still get an easy B, and he ended up dropping out of it cause it was too hard for him. And no, he's not lazy either.

Mature students, a lot of courses and credits can be put towards the new degree. I majored in Arts cause it was easy, doesn't do shit. I want to back for a business degree focusing on global management, strategy or business transformation.