More and more people decided to go back to school and continue to pursue their education. The reason may vary. Some people want to sharpen their skills by choosing more specific subjects in their work field or industry, some people want to keep up with the new technology and innovation in their work environment.
Others want to continue their education because for some reason it had to be cut short before, or perhaps they want to pursue other interest, making changes in their career, or looking forward to making a comeback to the working environment and therefore they need a degree or a certain specific certification first.
Therefore, back to college or taking a certification course as mature students – a term used to describe students who are already an adult, and some even a mom and dad- has become something more common nowadays.
Even so, many adults still have doubts and worries about pursuing their dreams and goals to go back to college and continue their education. With all the things happening in their hectic life, many will questions how are they going to add a school and all of their demands and complications into their life when they already have a hard time balancing work and family?
I had the same questions. I was in my early 30’s and a mother of a toddler when I decided to go back to school to pursue my dreams. I’m not going to say that it was easy.
In fact, if I must be honest, there were many times when I felt so overwhelmed and questioning my self “what was I thinking, putting myself and my family through this?
Did I make mistakes by deciding to return to school as an adult and a parent? Will all these sacrifices will be worth it?
Most of the time, when I had these doubts, I sat down for a while and think about why I wanted to do it in the first place. I used them as motivation to keep moving forward, and I was glad I didn’t give up.
Because now, when I look back to my experience of going back to college as a mature student when I was already an adult and a mom, I realize I had plenty of advantages, which help me to go through that amazing experience.
And here are 6 of some of the surprising ways college will be easy for you when you are back to college as a mature student or a student-mom and dad. You will have:
1. A Better Understanding Towards the Subject
Some of us choose a certain career that we have been dreaming of since we were kids, but for many of us, most likely we did it in high school when we had to choose the subject that we were going to study in the university. A big decision which eventually will lead to a satisfying career, or not.
But going back to school as an adult with years of work experience, you will have a better idea of the subject and what you what to pursue since this will take you one step closer to your goal. You will have some basic knowledge about the subject you have chosen when you went back to school as an adult, either theoretically or practically.
This knowledge will help you understand the lesson materials better, enable you to work on your papers and assignments with ease, and enable you to contribute to the class discussions and make them more fruitful for your younger classmates.
2. A Stronger Work Ethic and Professionalism
As a mature student, you tend to do well because you are already used to have responsibilities, even big ones. You know extremely well how to work on a team because in a professional environment, not being able to work well with others could lead to a disaster.
You know better to not dwell on mistakes and move on. You stay away from dramas that might happen during group work.
You handle conflicts better simply because you are already used to them. Those are the things that might happen, but your younger classmates might have not experienced it yet, at least not as often as you are.
You will be surprised by how well you will handle those hurdles, simply because it was something you used to face every day for the past couple of years.
You might even end up being the peacemaker or someone who led things back on track after being derailed by conflict in the group.
3. A Great Problem-Solving Skills
When you are a mature student, most likely you already have a few years of work experiences in your belt.
At work, you are consistently demanded to be quick on your feet, making decisions that will affect many people in your team or affect the company you work for, in one way or another.
You might also have to offer solutions to your clients, changed and fixed something at the last minute. Sometimes the decision you make could involve a lot of money.
One simple mistake could cost you and your company a big amount of money, and one excellent decision can bring more money, as well as other benefits, to the company which will be counted as another excellent performance for you.
Since you are used to be in situations where you are constantly demanded to perform well, you are good at identifying a problem, assessing the situation, and using quick thinking on how to solve the problem in the best way possible, without sacrificing too much time or effort of your team.
4. Excellent Time Management
You have been working for a couple of years now. You have a family to take care of. You are constantly juggling work and life as a parent. If you are a stay-at-home mom or dad, you know how to use your time better and get things done when they need to be.
As a result, when you decide to back to college or take that course or attend online classes, you are going to be much better at using your time wisely and managing it than the first time around, back when you were younger and attend university straight from high school.
You are used to having commitments in your life, which are your job and your family. You determine to make it work and you know that having good time management is the key to the success of balancing them wisely. These traits are going to be beneficial in college
Since you are so used to have a hectic life, adding another one is just going to be another commitment you need to put effort into and you will not have significant difficulties in adjusting to college life.
Back to School Research Workbook
Use this printable workbook to record your Back to School Research. Don’t make all that Campus Visits, Virtual Tours, Webinars, and Q&A with the school’s admission personnel go to waste !! Write down the information you have collected in this workbook.
Study them later carefully to help you weigh in the pros and cons of each university and decide the best place for you to continue your study.
5. An Outstanding People Management Skills
As a mature student, you have seen things and meet many kinds of people, either at work or in your personal life. When you have had the opportunity to meet different kinds of people, your character judgment will be better.
This will be beneficial when you work in a team. People have different characters, different kinds of approaches to address a problem, different work pace, and so on. You will be able to recognize people’s strengths and weaknesses immediately and used them to your advantage.
For example, when you must work in a team, such as working in groups, thanks to your experiences, you will be able to see and measures your teammate capabilities right away. Some might be good at one thing and the other will be good at other things completely.
You could suggest dividing the workload based on what they do best and in the end, your group will work effectively and efficiently because everybody played to their strength and therefore, able to give their maximum effort and deliver excellent work.
6. An Ability to See the Bigger Picture
University education stimulates our critical thinking. We are demanded to constantly analyze things in our subject and discuss many ideas relevant to our study. Being a mature student, you will be able to offer different perspectives during discussions in class because you have relevant work and life experiences to give complexities and examples to the theory you are learning.
The experiences you gained in your career and your life, in general, will allow you to see things in a bigger picture and offer a view from other perspectives because you already have the opportunity of seeing how some of the theory you learn at school being put into practice in real life.
Over To You
So are you planning a late-in-life return to education but still put the idea on the back burner because you still worried your-older than your average classmate’s age- will work against you? Well, don’t. Start looking for the right program for you and enroll!
If you need information on universities and programs to enroll, check on this link.
It turns out that going back to school as a mature student, when we are already an adult and a parent is not all that difficult. There are many ways we can excel during our study because we have advantages from our younger classmates which culminates from years of work experiences and in life that will make our study become easier.
What do you think? What kind of trait you think will be beneficial to you as an adult when you return to college or any further education? Let me know in the comment section down below.
Is this useful for you? Do you know someone who is thinking about going back to school but still hesitates to do it? Share the post and pin it for later.
Thanks so much and till next time!!
