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I'm 40 and thinking of going back to school

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TecHNooB said:
A little injection of real life perspective doesnt hurt 😛
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I never witnessed a single encounter where a student's anecdote added any value to a lecture. At best the anecdote confirms the theory being discussed, which is useless. At worst it's almost entirely off topic and only brought up so the douche can name drop having a wife or working for 3 months on summer at Microsoft.

I used to commute two to three hours in either direction to university, so when people wasted some of my precious lecture hours I was pretty vocal in encouraging them to save their stupidity for after the lecture. 😀
 
Go for it. A friend of mine enrolled in the Engineering program at our local University when he was 37, graduated with his Engineering Degree at 40 and he was working in less than 4 months after graduating. He was formerly a welder, so it was quite the leap but it paid off for him.
 
yllus said:
I never witnessed a single encounter where a student's anecdote added any value to a lecture. At best the anecdote confirms the theory being discussed, which is useless. At worst it's almost entirely off topic and only brought up so the douche can name drop having a wife or working for 3 months on summer at Microsoft.

I used to commute two to three hours in either direction to university, so when people wasted some of my precious lecture hours I was pretty vocal in encouraging them to save their stupidity for after the lecture. 😀
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🙂 You're my hero! I hate people that interrupt lectures with questions or thoughts that have NOTHING to do with the topic at hand. If your not asking a question or taking a second to point out an error on the board, DON'T TAKE UP MY LECTURE TIME!
 
Rudee said:
Go for it. A friend of mine enrolled in the Engineering program at our local University when he was 37, graduated with his Engineering Degree at 40 and he was working in less than 4 months after graduating. He was formerly a welder, so it was quite the leap but it paid off for him.
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What kind of engineer? I'm 30 and thinking about doing an engineering program.
 
Blackjack200 said:
What kind of engineer? I'm 30 and thinking about doing an engineering program.
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If I could ever wrap my head around the "fuzzy maths" required, I'd LOVE to become an engineer.
For many years, I wanted to study structural engineering. I likes building the bridges and stuffs like that.
 
BoomerD said:
If I could ever wrap my head around the "fuzzy maths" required, I'd LOVE to become an engineer.
For many years, I wanted to study structural engineering. I likes building the bridges and stuffs like that.
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fuzzy math? The fuzziest things I've done with math has been rounding and working with assumed constants. I've used stats (though, not frequently).

What sort of engineer are you thinking about?
 
i recently asked the local CSU if it were possible to go back and get a second BS, they said they are not taking students like myself with the budget crisis. They said I would have to go into the MS program. Umm, that is a lot of missing classes from a BS that I would need to make up beforehand I think.

Oh well, I already have a BS, Ms and PhD in a different subject.
 
Fritzo said:
My fear is that once I have a piece of paper that says I'm qualified, I'll be too old to be hireable. IT is usually a young person's field.
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Well as someone else mentioned, the next five to six years are going to come and go, whether or not you are working toward a degree. What else do you have planned during this time? And how are you going to feel when another five to six years have passed and you still didn't do it?
 
Cogman said:
fuzzy math? The fuzziest things I've done with math has been rounding and working with assumed constants. I've used stats (though, not frequently).

What sort of engineer are you thinking about?
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I got my Engineering Degree in my early 30's, but already had a CS degree, so already had most of the math credits required. From what I remember, Linear Algebra and of course Calculus for Engineers are a couple of the tricky ones, but if you get past the first year things get easier - especially if you get in a study group early on.
 
Rudee said:
I got my Engineering Degree in my early 30's, but already had a CS degree, so already had most of the math credits required. From what I remember, Linear Algebra and of course Calculus for Engineers are a couple of the tricky ones, but if you get past the first year things get easier - especially if you get in a study group early on.
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What are you, 100? You must be the oldest man on the internets! (BTW, the first computer science degree was issued in 1953).

..... Oh, wait, lol, I completely misread that. I thought you were saying that you got your degree in the 1930s.....

Perhaps we are talking about different things. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy_mathematics

Fuzzy Math is stuff that is focused on probabilities n mathmatics, more so than statistics. Linear algebra and calculus aren't fuzzy maths. They are fixed.
 
yllus said:
Good for you! I say go for it.

That said, if you go, please don't be that older student that holds up every fucking lecture by going into a long-winded personal anecdote about the subject at hand. You will receive death threats.
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Yeah, those people are bad enough at work, they don't need to bring it to school.
 
OK, this may sound a little weird, but is it possible to complete a phd from a hospital bed (kind of life inmates can obtain a JD from behind bars)?

Background:

I graduated with a 4.0 with BS' in Physics and Math from a top 20 school. My GRE score was 1550 and I have a year of post-grad under my belt from the same university studying Astrophysics.

I am bed bound but very stable and very bored. Any hope?
 
SsupernovaE said:
OK, this may sound a little weird, but is it possible to complete a phd from a hospital bed (kind of life inmates can obtain a JD from behind bars)?

Background:

I graduated with a 4.0 with BS' in Physics and Math from a top 20 school. My GRE score was 1550 and I have a year of post-grad under my belt from the same university studying Astrophysics.

I am bed bound but very stable and very bored. Any hope?
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https://www.ecollegefinder.org/online-phd-doctorate-degree-programs.aspx

I have no idea how legit this website is.
 
yllus said:
I never witnessed a single encounter where a student's anecdote added any value to a lecture. At best the anecdote confirms the theory being discussed, which is useless. At worst it's almost entirely off topic and only brought up so the douche can name drop having a wife or working for 3 months on summer at Microsoft.

I used to commute two to three hours in either direction to university, so when people wasted some of my precious lecture hours I was pretty vocal in encouraging them to save their stupidity for after the lecture. 😀
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those are the worst.

and yes--it's always the 'older" students that do this shit.
 
Cogman said:
fuzzy math? The fuzziest things I've done with math has been rounding and working with assumed constants. I've used stats (though, not frequently).

What sort of engineer are you thinking about?
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Fuzzy math = any equation that has letters and squiggly lines...😛
You know...algebra, geometry, and beyond...
 
Cogman said:
😀 ah. Ok. Yep, engineering in general has lots of that (at least in school).
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It pisses me off. I'm fine with regular math; addition, subtraction, multiplication, division...but as soon as you throw in the x's, y's, etc...it might as well be written in some obscure ancient Chinese dialect...

I took algebra during my freshman year of high school...but that was a LONG time ago...and I think they've changed the numbers since then. :biggrin:
 
BoomerD said:
It pisses me off. I'm fine with regular math; addition, subtraction, multiplication, division...but as soon as you throw in the x's, y's, etc...it might as well be written in some obscure ancient Chinese dialect...
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Solution: we meet for some grub and beers once per week, and I'll tutor you in algebra. I'm not claiming to be a math genius, as I barely passed entry-level calculus and trigonometry, but I'm solid in entry-level to intermediate algebra and finite math.

Alternatively, you could spend a few weeks/months drilling the algebra lessons from the Khan Academy website for free (you were going to pick-up the tab for grub and beers, right?).
 
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tcsenter said:
Well as someone else mentioned, the next five to six years are going to come and go, whether or not you are working toward a degree. What else do you have planned during this time? And how are you going to feel when another five to six years have passed and you still didn't do it?
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I'd love to do it, but I'm in a situation where I have two teenage kids, a mortgage, and a partially disabled wife. I'm not sure I can afford it 🙁
 
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