I’d really some insights from the great people on these forums.
I’ll get to the point. I am very, very tempted to pursue another bachelor’s degree at another four-year college. I am graduating and getting my BA next month (May 2015) after some hurdles and delays. My school was/is fabulous; I adored it, it challenged and fulfilled me to the max.
But it wasn’t enough, in terms of quantity. I love learning more than anything else in my life. I would relish the opportunity to wholly immerse myself in four more years of studies in many fields. I love academia; I definitely consider myself an intellectual – not in the pompous sense of the word, but I have an enormous thirst for knowledge, and don’t feel that I learned everything I wanted to the first time around.
I know pursuing an advanced degree is likely wiser and more advantageous in the long run, but I don’t feel like I was able to develop a focus or niche the first time around that I could commit years’ worth of time and money to studying.
I know some people get a second bachelor’s if they want to enter a field like, say, engineering, where it’s difficult to delve into professional studies without a background in the fundamentals. This isn’t the case for me.
Do people do this? Am I completely, certifiably batty for considering it? Would colleges/universities be amenable to this kind of goal?
Any thoughts, advice, tips, musings or words of encouragement would be so appreciated.
PS. I’m really full aware of the financial craziness of this idea. So I’m more trying to dialogue about other facets of the decision.
It’s nice to see a life-long learner but there are other much less expensive ways to go about it. An advanced degree is one way. Another is to take CC courses (relatively inexpensive) or look at online options like Coursera. To me that makes much more sense.
Batty. You can view your college degree as a license – a license to go out on learn on your own. Take a single class or two and work before you decide if you want to pursue graduate studies.
A lot of colleges are agreeable to it, some aren’t.Igot a second one because I wanted to do grad work in a field that was unrelated to my first B.A…I had to take a bunch of undergrad courses in the new field in order to get in the grad program and if I took a few extra i would get another B.A. Just do a search for “second bachelor’s degree” on the colleges web site. There are also some master’s programs that require only classes, no thesis, no comprehensive exams…getting one of those wouldn’t be much different from getting another bachelor’s.
If you want to keep taking classes just for interest, take a look at a company called, “The Great Courses”. Lots of fantastic lecture series on all kinds of subjects at a relatively cheap price, and with none of the pressure that comes with homework and quizzes. In many cases, I think I learn more from “The Great Courses” classes than the ones I had in school.
I’d also rate “The Great Courses” lectures as infinitely better than Coursera’s. I’m in the middle of a nine-class Coursera Data Science program right now, and the quality of the Coursera classes is very iffy.
Getting a second bachelors to “learn more” is a way too expensive option in terms of both time and money. It is different if you are doing it to pursue a particular career. I agree with the others, either get an advanced degree in an area you want to pursue or take online or CC classes. You don’t want to spend 8 years, get two bachelors degrees and still be unprepared for a full time job.
My suggestion is that you go out into the world for a year or two, and take whatever job you can get with your current degree. Then when you have a stronger sense of direction about where you want to go in life, you will know whether or not a second bachelors makes sense.
I truly admire the desire for learning that underpins your question.
If you have an idea why your final (okay, your first) intellectual destination lies, can you currently qualify for a Master's and/or a PhD track in this area.
If so, I'd skip the second Bachelor's and immediately pursue an advanced degree (given the finances to do so).
If not, I would get the second Bachelor's -- or, alternatively, take enough inexpensive courses (CC/JC, university/college, online -- to apply for the Master's and/or PhD in that discipline.
Good luck, I respect what you’re attempting to attain.