Time To Finish Something
January 11, 2023 6:31 AM   Subscribe

I've got a bad habit: In my life, at different points, I've gotten from 3/4ths of the way to 9/10ths of the way to a bachelors degree, but for various reasons was unable to finish, and wondering if there's any way to salvage anything.

Here's my college history:
  • early 90s: Technical theater: dropped out beginning of senior year
  • Early 2000s: Information Technology: Completed core courses, didn't finish electives because was working on Business Management core classes
  • Early 2000s: Business Management: because employer was paying for classes, took these courses on top of IT courses at same college, 1 semester short of finishing when lost job and tuition assistance
The last courses I took were 18 years ago, but after that time I got into a good job where I've been since, so it hasn't been a "need" to finish any degrees, but I'm almost 50 and I would like to be able to say I graduated college at some point since I spent 6 years taking classes.

So, I'm looking for suggestions on what might be the best way to salvage any existing education -- and is it possible to leverage classes I finished two decades ago? -- and end up with one or more degrees without having to do a lot more schooling. Anecdotes are fine, hearing from someone who went through the same thing could contain helpful info.

One other factor is: this sort of 'recovery' is often advertised by online colleges, but do any of those carry more or less stigma of being a diploma mill?
posted by AzraelBrown to Education (16 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Good news! You, as what is typically called a "returning adult student," are a targeted demographic for some colleges and universities these days. The place I teach at, for example, has seven fully-online baccalaureate programs, and one (the BLS in Applied Social Science) is explicitly designed for returners.

I suggest you search institutions near you for the "returning adult student" phrase and see what turns up.
posted by humbug at 6:40 AM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Whether you can leverage the old classes probably depends on the school. I would start by contacting them and seeing how much can still be used toward a degree. You're probably more likely to be able to count them at the same school, rather than trying to transfer them. But yeah, I'd be pretty surprised if you had to start at zero again.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:48 AM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Contact the school! I dropped out 2 courses shy of a degree in *1996* and over the pandemic I finally got in touch and all I had to do was pay a library fine and register for classes (and pay 2021 tuition:)). I graduated in October.
posted by warriorqueen at 7:14 AM on January 11, 2023 [39 favorites]


Best answer: I'm happy to hear about warriorqueen's success (congratulations!), but it's been my experience that credits can expire. I've heard of a 10 year expiry and a 20 year expiry. But just the existence of that difference supports kevinbelt's and humbug's advice to contact the school -- every school employs people whose job it is to answer these very questions.
posted by AbelMelveny at 7:31 AM on January 11, 2023 [4 favorites]


Best answer: Thomas Edison State University is the state of NJ's adult education institution. Get them transcripts from all your old classes and they will tell you how many credits you need to graduate.

I suggest this place all the time -- it's a real degree, from a real university, and it not differentiated as an online degree, which is crucial -- and I have had two MeFites MeMail me to say thank you for the recommendation and that they completed their degrees, so that's nice!
posted by DarlingBri at 7:32 AM on January 11, 2023 [12 favorites]


Best answer: Go visit Admissions Offices of state colleges and unis. Get copies of transcripts for everywhere. Some schools can give you credits for work experience. You might have to fill in some courses; we'll be rooting for you. Post an update at some point.
posted by theora55 at 8:08 AM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]


Best answer: Call the folks are your closest regional public college or university and ask them. Many schools are down in number and are doing a lot to lure folks in.
posted by bluedaisy at 8:41 AM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I'm happy to hear about warriorqueen's success (congratulations!), but it's been my experience that credits can expire.

The liberal arts advantage, probably. But it's so worth calling and asking. I really thought I'd have to start at some point (and FYI that was the second university I'd left with <3 courses to go, so OP, you are not alone!)
posted by warriorqueen at 8:56 AM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]


Best answer: My impression (not sure what it's based on) is that credit expiration is determined by the degree-granting unit within the college, so your information technology credits might expire differently than your business credits.
posted by kevinbelt at 9:00 AM on January 11, 2023 [2 favorites]


Best answer: Empire State College is the NY equivalent to Thomas Edison in NJ. I've had two friends graduate from there rather quickly using a mix of old credits and credit granted for work experience. Many states have these. If I were you I'd try to find the one in your state.
posted by overhauser at 9:45 AM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]


Best answer: I've just returned to University after a 20-year gap. I am doing a BA in an arts & humanities subject, and I wasn't able to transfer credits from my old humanities degree, so I'm currently learning how to write an essay and use a library. So, I think it depends upon the institution and what you want to pick up.
posted by peacesign at 10:14 AM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]


Best answer: I also want to encourage you to consider local public institutions where you can take at least a class or two in person. Online learning can be great, but it can overwhelming to be back in school after a long break, and being able to be on a campus and interact in person with your instructors and use the library and other resources in person can be incredibly helpful for the transition. They may also offer some online classes. So, in a nutshell, look at who is near you first, as it likely to be less expensive and easier to manage. The publics that are a step below the top tier (so, basically, the non-flagship publics) are hungry for students.
posted by bluedaisy at 11:08 AM on January 11, 2023 [3 favorites]


Best answer: I'm with the people saying not to assume that credits may be too old- UC Davis let me transfer to their undergrad program with some credits from community college that were 20 years old. It depends entirely on where you try to finish your degree.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:20 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Congratulations warriorqueen.

At Waterloo university it depends on the faculty. One faculty will not accept courses older than 10 years old Another faculty will. Same university.
So there's no hard and fast rule regarding age of credits.

Another point is grade inflation, I'm an old, and when I looked into returning for another degree , One university said they would adjust my grades by a fair bit due to grade inflation i.e. increase mine to correspond to modern standards.
posted by yyz at 1:55 PM on January 11, 2023 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Nthing Thomas Edison. Helping people consolidate credits from all over the place and quickly finish a degree is their speciality.
posted by Jacqueline at 6:35 AM on January 12, 2023 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thank you all -- everybody gets marked best answer because they were all helpful. Lots to think about but that means there's more options than I had thought.

This thread did spur one tiny step of action: I emailed the department of a local university in what would be my "dream job" to see what they think, if it can be done part time / online / etc -- if I'm going to spend some tuition money and my goal is any degree, maybe I can mold something interesting out of it.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:18 AM on January 12, 2023 [1 favorite]


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