Hello everybody.
I am choosing a good school with some older students and unconventional admissions.
I am biased against community college,
I would like a solid education in Science, literature, history, math, in that order.
I am also a unconventional thinker, believe a lot of conspiracies of past and present, etc. am not in the mainstream.
If anyone has any experience, or can even think of one professor that I might like a lot somewhere. I would appreciate any pointers. I’m open to going anywhere and also have some financial help.
Thank you!
Actually literature is not such a big criteria. I don’t really want to go to the NW, but am open to Canada, especially New Brunswick, N.S. and B.C.
Have you considered Eckerd, in St. Petersburg, FL? They have a strong commitment to educating older, non-traditional students.
You don’t mention your qualifications so it is hard to see where you could go. You can look at the average age of students, look on the student’s tab on collegedata.com Like the average age for Portland State is 27. You will find a younger cohort at privates unless they are privates with adult ed programs.
Going to college for one professor is short sighted because you may have one or two classes with them. But a quick internet search turns up
This prof at Brandais, an excellent college
http://www.brandeis.edu/facultyguide/person.html?emplid=14684cb9298a1279816e52d48bee1b094d3c643f
James Tracy, Florida Atlantic University (you might especially like this one, google him)
http://www.fau.edu/scms/tracy.php
University of Buffalo professor Steven Hoffman
Laurie Manwell of the University of Guelph, Ontario
Kathryn Olmsted, a historian at the University of California, Davis
http://history.ucdavis.edu/people/fzkolmst
Brendan Nyhan, an assistant professor of government, Dartmouth
http://now.dartmouth.edu/2014/09/brendan-nyhan-political-myth-reality-and-human-nature
I don’t have many qualifications. I am a good writer and also and artist. But I don’t spend much time doing either of those. I did well in school, but dropped out, ruined my gpa and graduated from a boarding school with P/F system.
Community college is the best option. Where I go MVCC. a lot of adult students go there.
Err… Florida, but Eckerd looks very good.
I can’t find the mean age at collegedata.com?
I don’t know about Eckerd’s median age, but my husband’s lifelong best friend went there for his degree as a middle-aged man and was very impressed by their resources and support for non-traditional students. He did not live on campus, but it’s very accessible to St. Pete. I think the trolley runs past it between downtown and St. Pete Beach. The location is splendid, by the way.
Since you don’t want to go to a community college, how do you propose to get into a university with no stats or testing?
I would suggest that you do an “open university” that has “distance learning” such that you aren’t applying to the university for a degree but rather just want to take a class here and there.
Check out the Columbia University School of General Studies. It is specifically designed for older, non-traditional students. Admissions are probably very competitive though.
I am definitely going to check it out, although it may not be where to start.
Any Eckerd-type places outside of Florida?
You should also investigate your own home-state public Us. Some of them have flexible admissions policies for non-traditional age students, and the costs would likely be reasonable.
Depending on the skills you have to offer an employer, another good option would be to get a job at a college or university that has courses you like, and where you can take a certain number of classes each semester for free. Most colleges and universities offer that as a benefit, and many non-traditional age students complete their degrees in that way.
UNebraska at Omaha’s General Studies program could be a viable option for you: http://www.unomaha.edu/college-of-public-affairs-and-community-service/division-of-continuing-studies/ .
Maybe adcoms of elite colleges and large state schools have been conspiring to make community colleges look bad to get more people to apply to them so they can lower their acceptance rates and increase their selectivity and ranking. How’s that for a conspiracy theory?
Take some classes at a cc to increase your GPA. If you get a degree, your high school record may not be considered at all (it wouldn’t be in NYS). See which schools your local cc has articulation agreements with, then check their admission requirements for transfers.
Not Columbia GS, I’m sure.
Excelsior College is distance learning, specializes in non-traditional students and has some provisions for life experience credits.
Do you know how much you can spend each year on college? If so, how much?