<p>I'm almost in my 30's and at a mindless job that shows no future growth/promotion. I've never taken the SAT's. I signed up my senior year of high school to take them but freaked out I would do poorly and never took them. I'm meeting with a guidance adviser at a community college to see if I have any options. I didn't do so well in high school and am worried I won't be accepted into a community college. I do have a high school diploma. I'm worried I won't do well on the placement test as I haven't been in school for over 10 years now. </p>
<p>Even if I was accepted at a community college, I'm not sure what I'd want to major in. I'm interested in medical office work, animals, writing and business. I have a lot of interests but need to find a way to narrow it down. My goal is to obtain a better job in the future. I don't have any children yet and I work full time. I would need to continue working full time to pay for college, bills, etc.. Any advice?</p>
<p>Does your CC have a career explorations class? The one near me has a 1-credit, self-paced class described as “An individual approach to a college major or career search, including a general orientation to self-assessment and decision making techniques. Resources available include: interest, values, and personality inventories; abilities assessments; computerized career guidance systems.” I personally found it at least somewhat helpful.</p>
<p>Many CCs are open enrollment - your high school GPA isn’t relevant, and no standardized testing is required. If you don’t want to pay for remedial courses, do some self-studying before you take the placement test. Many CCs also offer refresher courses to prepare for a retake of the placement test if you aren’t happy with your initial placement.</p>
<p>Don’t be afraid of placement tests. The community college will help you with course selection based on the tests, and will provide classes that help catch you up before you start classes that might be hard, based on your time out from school. You can try to study on your own but you don’t have to: they have remedial courses.</p>
<p>Your meeting with the adviser will be very helpful.</p>
<p>Medical assisting or a vet tech program might be good. There are all kinds of certificate and associates degree programs in the medical field (also nurse’s assistant, respiratory tech., surgical tech., radiology tech., pharmacy tech. etc.). Our CC has vet tech and also animal care specialist.</p>
<p>I am personally a fan of certificate programs. If you can improve your work with a certificate, maybe consider it. You could later add courses to get the associates degree.</p>
<p>Lately, I know people who are doing certificates after finishing a BA in college…</p>
<p>This just jumped at me: writing and business. So many companies are now looking for online content and search engine optimization. I work in corporate communications where we just hired a company to provide targeted blog content and analysis. With your interests this may be one avenue.</p>
<p>I went back to school in my 50s. In my experience, the CC I started at did not require ACTs or SATs for non traditional students. The placement tests were actually a good thing as they identified areas of weakness where i wasn’t ready for college level classes. In my case it was algebra as I had not done that in over 30 years so I started off in a remedial algebra class (doesn’t count toward degree requirements). I’m good at math and ended up taking math through business calculus and statistics.</p>
<p>In my case, I had previously recently taken the GED. I’m from the UK and we don’t get diplomas for graduating high school and a job I applied for wanted the GED. To prepare for the GED, I went to some prep classes at the local vo tech to refresh some dormant skills. I did really well in the GED and found the studying interesting enough that I decided to go back to school. The vo tech class was more like self prep really, but they provided really helpful study tools/books and refreshed a lot of things I was rusty on. They were also there to help with questions. I found those books and practice tests had really helped me when it came to the placement tests for the CC. it might be worth inquiring if there are some GED type courses like that you could take (they were free as part of a program in our state, not sure how it would work when you already have a HS diploma but worth asking). </p>
<p>Good luck. I really enjoyed my whole “back to school” experience and hope you do as well.</p>
<p>I’m 43 and currently enrolled at CC. No clue what I want to do (I’m employed FT, so…), but I’m fulfilling the Gen Ed classes all online and will figure out the rest late. Good luck!</p>
<p>I imagine the thing with the best outlook is going to be either HVAC, Computer Science (whatever they call it at the CC) or IT. Since your primary reason for going is a better job, you should consider one of those.</p>
<p>You might be interested in doing some career exploration online, and use that as a guide to what you want to do. CC majors are typically much shorter than BA-level majors and so you want to have an idea of what you’re going into before you start, but most CC majors also require general education classes, so you can take a few of those part-time while you figure out what you’re going to do. Math, English, history, a communication course and a computers course are standard; many also require distribution requirements in the humanities (literature, history, philosophy) as well as a fine art (art, music, dance, drama).</p>
<p>There are a lot of allied health jobs in the medical field that require 2 years or less of college. One that jumps out is medical coding and billing, if you like medical office work and business. You can usually get a one-year certificate in medical assisting as well, which is routine administrative office tasks within a medical office. Vet tech usually takes around 2 years. If you are interested in more hands-on medical work, there’s radiologic technology, medical sonography, occupational or physical therapy assistant, dental hygienist and others.</p>
<p>Ideally, when looking at vocational training or certification, you discover an arena with job opps. And decent pay. Depending on where you live, this can be important to scope out. A cc can often help with that. I mention it, Consolation, because some of the work mentioned above is not a sure bet, in my area.</p>
<p>One great thing about cc is you get to explore. My friend went back in her mid-40’s, aiming for a BA, so many general courses to start with. Just loved so many of the classes, really felt alive. Go for it. Nothing to lose and so much to gain.</p>
<p>The most important thing for your success is motivation. Having an idea of a potential career will help keep you going in the courses you don’t enjoy (every field has them and every college major). You have to focus in on an area, being too general/all over the map only gets you through the general requirements. CCs and U’s usually have career planning offices that include interest and aptitude testing for free to students. Finding out fields others like you gravitate towards can be helpful.</p>
<p>PS- most college students are also adults. Being under thirty does not make you an older adult. You are at a prime age for learning skills. Good luck and enjoy.</p>
<p>I’m overwhelmed at all the responses I’ve gotten to my question. I must admit it makes me nervous going to school (I’m not great at front of the room presentations back in high school). But hearing how school has enriched your lives does make it appear to be less scary and more exciting!</p>