Back to School for GrownUps

I hope Patricia over at the Communciation Exchange (and Subjective Soup) won’t mind that I have swiped her title…

Patricia’s article about Making Mistakes got me thinking about a particular prof - and about one mistake that I could easily have made - but didn’t.

I am generally considered - at least in academia - to be a good writer. And that is often reflected in my marks, especially for essays. I have been known, even, to on occasion, receive a 100% on papers. When it came time to approach a prof about supervising my major paper  - it would have made sense - in some ways - to choose one of the profs that I knew I could get really high marks from.

I like really high marks.

But I didn’t. In fact, I chose to ask one of the profs that typically gave me marks at the low end …As …but just barely.

I could have worked with other profs - and done well - but with this particular prof, I learned so much more than I would have otherwise, I think. No matter how well written my work was, she always thought it could be better - and helped me to get it there. She was always willing to spend the time that was needed to edit …and while she wouldn’t fix anything for me, she asked the right questions so that by the time it was done, my essay was awesome … even SHE said so :)   Only 90 I ever got from her… and I won the university’s essay competition with it too.

Taking the easy way is often attractive…but clearly, at least for me, easy is not always best.

Being willing to work with someone who points out your mistakes is a darned good way to learn… having someone just tell you you’re wunnerful can be nice…but doesn’t do a darn thing to encourage learning.

So, I was talking to a friend from my undergrad university earlier today (cancelling our lunch ) but oh well… some things just can’t be helped.

Anyway, we were talking about classes, and papers and averages and so on …

She is a very good student, and gets very good grades - this semester managed an average significantly higher than mine.

And yet, I get scholarships and she does not.

Do you know why?

I apply for them!

Yes, there are a few scholarships that just fall down from heaven. Or whatever - someone nominates you, or you earn some sort of distinction that qualifies you. I’ve got two of those over the course of my back to school adventures - one of each sort, totalling $2,500.

But for the vast majority of scholarships that are available to students - including mature/ returning/ adult/ nontraditional or whatever you want to call us students must be APPLIED FOR!  My scholarship income to date from these types is $18,500. So far.

Yes there are a lot of hoops to jump through re: some of them …but even if it takes several hours to complete a scholarship application, if you are successful, that’s a whole lot of $$/hour.

There are all sorts of ways to find out about scholarships that are available to you. Google, as always, is your friend.

I honestly have not had much success with scholarships through online sites - but that could well be because …well … I haven’t actually followed through and applied for many of the one that come up through those sites.

Where I have had the most success is through the schools I have attended.

I’ve never been on a college or university website that didn’t have a link to resources re: financial awards & scholarships, I don’t think. Certainly not recently.

Laurentian U actually sends the forms out in email for its in-course scholarship - all one has to do, if their overall average is about 80%, is fill out the (very basic) darn forms!!!!  The amount one recieves is automatic based on overall average - I recieved $2500 last year; my friend would have gotten even more than that if only she had returned the forms!!!!  10 minutes of time for more than $2500 …. who doesn’t jump on that? 

Lots of people, that’s who …. DO NOT BE ONE OF THEM!!!

And you don’t even have to have great marks for a lot of them, either …. I mean, they tend not to fund people who are not passing - but there are all sorts of scholarships that are based on leadership, or need, or essay writing or nationality or employment or or or ….

There are millions & millions of dollars in scholarship money given to students young and old every year in both Canada and the U.S.

Have you asked for your share?

What are you waiting for?

I highly recommend you start with your own college/university’s website - but don’t stop there. You will also want to try googling your province or state and scholarship - bet you’ll find more there.

Here are a few other sites you might want to try - and remember, google is your friend Lots more there also.

1. Scholarships.com
2. StudentAwards.com
3. FastWeb.com

If you have had experience in finding and winning scholarships, why not drop a comment and help to encourage other people to do the same?

K, so I have been all over the blogsphere today because hubby read this article about b5media in the Toronto Star this morning - yes, it was printed on Monday, but he just got to it today, the slacker.

Anyway …that had me hopping around looking at b5media and from there I got to thinking about how I really should at least try to get adsense up and running on my personal blog and from there I got to looking at other back to school type stuff in Google (was checking where this and flitting show up in search results - that reminds me, got to get back to that!) and saw some articles like this one about 7 Reasons to Go Back To School and thought hmmm… good topic for a blog post.

Yes, I am living up to my screen name today as a matter of fact

ANYWAY… I could do up a list of MY reasons to go back to school …. and/or of some of the reasons other people have talked about …. and/or what I think …

but why should I do all the work?

It’s almost Christmas and my husband’s exwife (yeah, I know; weird, but we are weird like that) is on her way over to pick me up to go out and do some last minute Christmas shopping  and anyway bunches of my visitors here are people who did go back to school or are doing it now or who are thinking about it, or who are so glad that I’m doing it for them so they don’t have to…

So come on, speak up and participate why don’t you?  Pretty please with whipped cream and a candy cane on top

What triggered your return to school (or thinking about it? or not doing it?)

Even though I am not entirely sure that the whole PhD thing is doable unless my fall down go boom problem gets resolved by then, have decided to go ahead and start jumping through the next round of hoops, aka applying for Phd programs.

Which means I need to contact profs and arrange for reference letters, fill out the online forms, get my transcripts ordered, and rewrite my Statements of Intents. Could be worse though - this whole process is becoming very familiar. Scholarship, program… there just isn’t that much difference between the application processes.

When I was looking for Master’s programs, I applied for 4 - and was accepted into all of them. This time around, I think I will limit it to just 2 - Trent’s Canadian Studies program (depending on the outcome of my meeting there later this week) and York’s Phd in English program. Although…. Ross does keep mentioning BC… as if I would go that far away from my kids and grandkids. Just can’t see it. But suppose it wouldn’t kill me to look at the U of Vic mailing I received. Maybe.

After all of my papers are written, my applications’ stuff for here arranged, and my students’ essays and exams are all marked. Geez, I still have an awful lot of stuff to get done before Christmas! I’d best get busy.

But before I do … here are my top droppers for November: thanks to all of you - and everyone else that’s dropped by, also

According to an article in yesterday’s Toronto Star written by Trish Crawford, the more education single mothers have, the more likely they are to spend quality time with their children.

Higher education = less time at work required to make decent income = more time for children.

The research was conducted at the University of Maryland, and involved studying the time diaries of more than 6,000 mothers. It was published in the December Journal of Marriage and the Family

Trying to do the school thing while you are a single mom is not easy. Been there, done that. My kids were old enough that they didn’t need the mommy all of the time… I can’t imagine how I would have managed it when they were little - but I do know quite a few who have manged it.

Would love to hear what you think… or, if you’re a single mom that’s doing the back to school thing, how you’re finding it.

So - once you’ve found a reputable online school - in my case, Athabasca University - the next challenge is to succeed in your studies.

I have enjoyed my online courses, although I do miss the actual classroom experience. There is so much to learn from classroom interactions … online courses, in my experience, are pretty boring by comparison. Reading, reading, and more reading….and my experience with the profs/tutors of my online courses has been pretty limited overall.

One of the biggest challenges for me with Athabasca U courses is that they do not set any deadlines for you - at least not in the courses I’ve taken so far (2 Shakespeare and now Adolescent Psychology). You can take up to 6 months to complete all of the course requirements - and if you need longer, you can cough up more $$ and have another 2 months.

So you have to be self-motivated, in other words, or it just doesn’t get done…. or at least not well.

There are, however, other formats. I have also done a couple of online courses through Laurentian University’s online option, which is called Envision. Those ones follow a regular semester and came complete with due dates for all assignments.

For some people that can work a lot better.

Trick is to know your self. Do you need due dates? If so, look for an option that will provide that structure. Or set your own, and commit to following through (good idea; not one I’ve succeeded with though!).

The best advice I could give anyone considering doing an online degree?

Don’t sign on to do a whole program, degree, whatever…. try ONE course first… THEN go from there.

Would love to hear about your experiences of online courses!

For those who don’t have the option of attending a college or university in their own immediate area, online courses can be a viable option.

It is, important, however, to do your research first. While there are reputable schools that offer online options, there are also some that are less than reputable … and a whole lot of companies that are out there to make a buck, not to actually help you.

An online friend of mine once got taken by a company that promised training for medical transcription services… she’d do the course and then they’d ~help~ her to find jobs. Uh huh…the ~help~ was a printout of all the medical services in her area - doctor’s offices, hospitals, etc… nothing she couldn’t have found in the phone book. Oh, and a tip sheet re: how to go about approaching them to offer her services.

She would have been a lot better off to approach one or two of them before she shelled out money for the course … might have discovered that they weren’t interested.

Which is not to say that every such company is a rip off …but …..!

If employers you would like to work for would not consider a certificate or degree from the institution you are considering signing up with as valid - you will want to know that sooner, rather than later, right?

Find out!

People with strong computer skills have an advantage in the whole going back to school thing…

and presumably, anyone that finds this blog has at least the basics down pat.

But a lot of people seem to over estimate their skill level, especially when it comes to MS Word

Some of the best features for students include:

1. Turning features on/off (how to make Word stop annoying you)
2. Table of Contents, cross references, and indexes
3. Using section breaks (that’s what you need to have different headers & footers in your document; also useful for page layout
4. Comments
5. Auto-correct (allows you to make very cool short cuts - anything that you use repeatedly can be made into a short cut)
6. Customized toolbars (If there is something you do a lot of, put the button out where it’s handy)
7. Templates
8. Track Changes (an excellent editing tool)

A little bit of time spent learning how to use your word processing software better can add up to a lot of time savings later.

When I did my computer programmer analyst program, for example, I spent WAY too long typing tables of contents … no one ever told me that Word could do that for me, and I never thought to go look.

It wasn’t until I actually had to teach MS Word that I discovered most of the features I now use all the time.

Somewhere along the way, I found the Crabby Office Lady …as you can tell by the number of links above which go to Crabby’s columns, I like her work…. not only does she write very entertaining columns, through them, I learn about the things I never thought to try.

Most colleges and universities have a number of resources available to help students succeed.

And many of them are used by far fewer students than could benefit from them.

Even if you don’t need a particular resource right now - it still can’t hurt to at least know what is available. Then, when you could use a bit of help with something or other, you will know where to go.

As a prof, the one place I wish that more of my students would use is the writing lab. There are 2 good reasons to find out if your school has one, and if so, to USE IT.

1. It never hurts to have someone objective look over your paper and point out problem areas. Students who use the writing lab tend to get higher marks than those who don’t. DUH!
2. Having to get your essay done BEFORE it’s due so that you will have time to take it to the writing lab means that you are less likely to leave it until the last minute…and that is definitely a good thing.

Other resources to check out:

Student success or student support services - whatever they call them… there are often several components that come under this umbrella - job search/career counselling, health/counselling services, and accomodation services & support for those with specific learning, physical or health challenges.

It drives me crazy when I see students who clearly have organizational/learning difficulties opt to fail - or just scrape by - rather than identify as learning disabled and accessing available services. And there is SO much available! One of my favourite tools for school is Inspiration software … it is a powerful took for mindmapping and organization. There are many, many other resources available, and people specially trained to help you figure out what would specifically benefit you.

Mature Students Associations - resources - and often, social events, specific to mature students

Financial aid office - even if you don’t qualify for state/provincial/government assistance, there are often bursaries available to help out in an emergency. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know.

Some possible reasons to go back to school seem rather obvious…. to allow you to get a better job, or one in a field that you like (or think you will like) better than what you are doing already… and of course, as a strategy towards earning more money.

But there are a whole lot of other potential benefits as well.

For me, these have included

• increased self esteem - turns out that I am good at this school thing - both as a student and a teacher - which has led me to believe that I can do more - and be more - than I ever thought possible
• the more I learn, the more I want to learn - and the more strategies I have to go about learning those things that I want to know
• great friends, and helpful acquaintances
• a lot less time or inclination to get bored or depressed
• self-discovery - who knew that I would love hanging out events like the Leacock Festival?

I’m sure I have missed some possible benefits of going back to school…. feel free to add to the list! What unexpected benefits have you discovered through going back to school?

It’s 5 a.m. and the wind is blowing; don’t know if it’s still pouring out - haven’t yet looked…

hubby is snoring.

And I’ve just tied my shoes and am about to down my coffee and head out the door to school.

2.5 - 3 hours away.

I have a class from 9 - 11, after which I will go check in at my motel, where I’ll stay until (hopefully) just Wednesday… weather and exhaustion level permitting, when I get done my last class at 9 on Wednesday I’ll hop in the car and drive home again … although then I’ll have to do this early morning commute thing again on Friday *sigh*

The driving sucks.

Being away from hubby and my dog and my full size bathtub with the jacuzzi jets and my washer and dryer and tv and…. it all sucks.

But it is the price that must be paid if I want to continue to do the school thing.

There are no graduate school programs near me. Until recently, I would not even have been able to do the undergrad thing either - there weren’t any of those until a few years ago.

It will be a while before the local campus is ready to even think about such things …. if I were a young un, I might have opted to wait… but I’m 47… too old to wait that long for the opportunity.

And so I rise and ~shine~ and do what I have to do.

It costs… not so much in terms of $$ … but in time, energy, sacrifice, committment.

What would it cost you to go back to school?

Ah - but what would it cost not to?

One of the best ways to figure out whether going back to school - or taking a particular program or course - is to have a look at the job postings in your area.

What is it that you want to be when you grow up? Find a job posting for that job - or better yet - a whole bunch of them.

What qualifications are they looking for?

And just as importantly - what are they paying?

Going back to school is, for many people, an excellent course of action.

BUT

if you are doing it to improve your career options, it would be far, FAR better to do your research before you make any decisions - and before you’ve put out any money!

This is a lesson that I learned the hard way.

I decided that I was going to go back to school and take computer programming. Applied, got in … paid… did well in my courses.

And THEN it was time to look at the co-op job postings our co-op consultant had posted for us.

Excuse me????

The hourly rates being offered were higher than minimum wage - but significantly lower than what I was used to making in social services.

ACK! That was not a happy discovery.

But really, I had only myself to blame.

The newspaper I read (for years) came from a much larger city than where I lived. Yes, programmers could make decent money - there. In a much smaller city, not so much.

As it happened, I fell into teaching, and it all worked out very well… but it would have been a much better plan to have done my research first!

I strongly advise it.

Which is not to say that you shouldn’t do it unless… but we’ll talk more about that another day

There are so many possible reasons to consider going back to school as a mature/returning student.

In some cases, it comes down to money/opportunities… if you are not happy with where you are and what you are being paid, why not look at other options?

In others, it is about doing what you love, or have always wanted to do.

In mine - at least once - it was a response to burn out. Best decision I ever made.

I had been working in the mental health system. I had been working mostly with kids and I loved it. It was my passion, and I was totally committed to it - to making a difference in the lives of the children I worked with.

But then I had a serious car accident, and I was physically not able to work directly with emotionally disturbed and acting out kids.

After about 4 years off, during which I mostly played video games and went to physiotherapy programs, I was able to work again… but not with my messed up kids. I worked with adults.

Spent some time as a Rights Advisor - that was a job that I could have done for years & years. But then Mike Harris won the election in Ontario, and one of the first things he did was axe the Ontario Advocacy Commission. You still had rights if you were mentally ill in Ontario - but you no longer had the right to know about them, or be supported to exercise them. Details, details.

Anyway - I did some other social service type jobs …but the climate here was very much at odds with my own personal beliefs and values, and it did not take long for me to crash and burn out….waaaaaaaaaaay out.

I just could not do it any more. In one week there were three incidents that contributed to my decision to go back to school:

1. A woman (that I didn’t know) who was mentally ill - but not seriously mentally ill enough to be eligible for help in Mike Harris’ Ontario - killed a toddler that was being pulled for a ride in a wagon by a 14 yo babysitter. I wonder if the babysitter ever got seriously mentally ill enough as a result to qualify for help.. probably not.
2. I met with one of my clients and she complained about her doctor wanting to increase her dosage of antidepressants. Even with the proposed increase, my dosage was higher. That struck me as wrong - that I was being paid to support people that needed less medication than I did.
3. I received a call telling me that a client had committed suicide and I was to go and mediate a support group that that client’s family had been attending for years. I did not know a single person in the group - but I was expected to go be supportive.

   Before the meeting, I sat outside the meeting place - on the edge of a concrete planter, I remember - and wrote reams of paper - tears streaming down my face - about how I could not do it - had nothing left to give.

So - even though I was a single parent, and had 2 kids depending on me - that week, I filled out applications for college.

I decided that I would go work with computers.

I knew next to nothing about computers.

But I liked writing on them. I was newly involved in the Internet, and enjoying that.

And I knew that computer programmers were anti-social types who could work in a cubicle and not have to interact with people.

And besides, computers do not call you up in the middle of the night and threaten to commit suicide unless you come up with the right thing to say or do.

So - I went back to school.

Have you gone back to school? I would love to hear your story. What caused you to take that step?

Are you thinking about going back? Love to hear about that too… why you’re considering it…what you’d like to take… ?