When is it too late to go back to school

[un1xl0ser]

I want to go back to school (I am a two semester drop-out of a state school). I just got back from spending some time at the MIT campus and while I don't think that it is absolutely necessary, I lust for the formal teaching with good, enlightened CS teaching.

Part of what opened me up to this was postings on HN of EWD's "The Humble Programmer" and "On the Cruelty of Actually Teaching Computer Science" that were posted here.

I'm happy with my career, but now I am struggling moving into C and systems programming which is what I like. My carrer progression was 6 years of SA work, then more like security administration SA work (Kerberos, firewalls, fighting off snake oild vendors), and finally Kerberos engineering which I have done for a few years (C code, high level understandings of the protocol, evangelism).

Is there any path of going back? Work experience credit? I feel like the 10 years of IT that I have done counts for something. I'm 30 now, is it worth it?

[willpower101]

Also don't try to go to a CC to save money first unless you know for a fact that you want to want to transfer to schools they articulate with. Many of the schools with the best CS programs take a ridiculously small percent of transfers.

Are you on the East coast? How were your sat/act scores? I would try CMU, Urbana-Champaign, Georgia Tech, NC Chapel Hill, & maybe Berkeley if you're willing to move that far.

Remember as a nontraditional student you will get increased financial aid availability for housing and other expenses that someone under 23 doesn't get.

Also note that if you can get into a private school, they usually have incredibly high grant offerings. The hard part isn't paying for private, it's getting in.

Lastly, your financial aid works of the previous tax year. While in school I was able to keep my income below 15k / year and got full aid the entire time. If yours is higher, then your expected contribution may match or outweigh the yearly cost of a public school, but you'll still have a shot at very high aid packages at private schools because of the cost difference.

Check financial aid info at http://www.collegeboard.com Your next step, no matter what, is to fill out the fafsa at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov You have to wait for a pin so start right now. Then when you get your pin, it shouldn't take you more than an hour with a W2 to estimate your EFC.

Armed with that information, you can start asking the right questions about cost. And if you decide to wait another year, then all you have to do is update your account instead of redoing the whole thing.

[nostromo]

Jeff Bezos's Regret Minimization Framework: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ

[un1xl0ser → nostromo]

While I don't like to regret anything (just course correct), I enjoyed his technique and it made me think. Imagining what you would regret helps, thanks for sharing it.

[mzbridget]

I went back to school at 27 and finally finished with a BA and MA at 32. I would totally do it again. However, I would do some things differently but at least I did it because that was one regret I had - not having that formal education. You could fulfill some of your longing formal edu by taking some courses online (and free) through the top unis. I'm taking an intro cs course through Stanford with 25 other women and we're connecting through a google group. You get the lectures, the books,the assignments just like a regular class. Doing this with others keeps you focused and you get study groups. The biggest benefit is that you don't incur a bunch of debt. Also, yes, there can be work experience credit but it is difficult to get. Talk to an admissions counselor and they can help you with that.

[Mz]

Go to the college and talk to them about testing out of some classes. CLEP is one of the big names (for such tests). There is (at least) one other, but I don't recall the name. Colleges these days increasingly offer classes which are work-friendly in terms of scheduling. I'm 46. I've dropped in and out of college and off a lot over the years. Divorce and health issues have so far prevented me from completing my bachelor's. However, I have completed my Associate's, a Certificate in GIS (the equivalent of master's level work) and some other certificate from a technical college that my employer put me through. I never did get a GIS job like I had hoped (due to my lengthy health crisis, basically) but still totally worth it.

Do you want it? If so, then go.

[JHLewisJr]

There are numerous paths for going back to school. A big question is cash - Will you have enough to pay for school and take care of other obligations in your life (do you have a family? Mortgage, etc)?

Learning is always good - you just have to pick the method/path that works for you. You also must keep your expectations inline with your abilities and method of schooling you pick.

Unless you go to a very good school or you want the full-time campus experience, you might be better off going part time. At 30, you will not be part of the regular social scene - so you can gain most of the experience in a part time program. If you live near a large city (New York, Boston, Washington DC, etc) there are very good schools that have programs aimed at you. The hours are arranged for people with full-time jobs.

In your 10 years of work you have learned how to manage your time. You are also much more motivated than you were when you were 18. Studying and homework are easy compared to work.

If your company will reimburse tuition, you can afford the better quality, higher cost university. Unless you have high hopes (move into research) just about any reputable school will be fine as you stated your goal is to learn and change the direction of your career. Not having a BS is a handicap.

I highly recommend going back to school. Look at the programs close to your location and weigh the benefits/costs of part time vs fill time. Will the cash cost of going full-time be recouped by a much higher salary? If you are serious, you can finish in 4 years if you take classes in the summer, test out of everything you can and take distance learning classes. Maybe less than 4 years if your classes transfer.

It will be a lifestyle change - can you handle going to class 2-3 nights a week? Read and study on the weekends?

Get some information and get started. Even if you think there needs to be some changes in scheduling at work, I bet you could do one course a semester.

BTW - I went back and got my BS in CS after 5 years - then an MS part time and finally a PhD. If you enjoy the material - it can be done.

Good luck!

[Lmclean]

30 here and 1/2 way through my bachelors, I had no coding or tech experience and I've not looked back. I had a hunch I'd like it; I've always been good at maths and logic.

Jump on in, it's lovely in here!

[md1515]

I don't know about the CS industry, but I know many other industries have employers sending employees to school fully paid-for. Usually I hear about MBAs being paid for, but I imagine you could at least ask your current employer?

[un1xl0ser → md1515]

It is paid for, but there is realistically no time to do it without some major changes to staffing.

[willpower101]

Whatever you do go to a school where everybody is smarter than you. I turned down Georgia Tech for my local state school based on insane OOS tuition and wasn't challenged in the slightest. It was mind numbing.

[stray]

It is too late the moment you die.

[logjam]

Never too late. It's absolutely worth it, and at 30 you're hardly too old to do absolutely anything you want as far as career changes.

But I think that way beyond the technical training you will get in CS, the true value of a university education is taking classes in a wide variety of fields: literature, sociology, biology, math, physics, foreign language, history, etc....and having a chance to talk to other smart people about what you're learning. As someone else recently said, the intersection of the humanities and engineering/sciences is a wild and rewarding place to live.

[un1xl0ser → logjam]

I agree that the holistic benefits of going back to school are certainly more valuable to me than the CS classes, but I also think that I would appreciate CS in a different way than I would have being 18-23.

I expect that the fact that I am used to working borderline psychotic hours means that I could be able to maybe even perform some interesting work at the same time as studying, but this is not something I think that I should count on. That said, I really want to avoid accumulating debt and the 20-30k that I would expect from a "good" school is something that I am carefully weighing with the more affordable state school.

EWD worked at University of Texas Austin.