I am 23 years old, and I desperately need advice on going back to college

College Search & Selection
1

Hey everyone,

I am 23 years old from the US, and due to health issues, I was not able to go to college after high-school. The gap has been 5 years. Now, I need to back to school, but I am extremely stressed out because I don’t know where to start. I want to know the best possible options given my circumstance. The goal is for me to end up being in the best possible college (rank/strength wise) given my circumstance.

  1. Location: So, I am traveling outside the United States, so I don't really have a place. One of my parents lives in the US and another lives outside the country. So, for me location is not a constraint, and I am open to relocating, living, and studying anywhere in the United States. 

  2. Finances: I do not have any financial constraints, I have the capability to afford the most expensive tuition. And, I do not need to work, and I do not have a family or other constraints. 

  3. Interest: Ideally, I would like to be in business school and major in business related verticals such as finance, applied economics, international business, and etc. I am also interested in colleges that have options to obtain a double major or multiple minor.


Notes:
*In-between my gap, I took classes for a semester at a university and maintained a 4.0 GPA, before I discontinued. However, I would not like to return to this university. I am also thinking about taking CLEP and testing out of some required courses to save time.

Again, the goal is for me to be in the best possible university (rank wise) given my circumstance. I was thinking about getting a private consultant to advise, help, and provide the best possible options for me. These consultants are knowledgable and have contacts. What do you guys think? And, where can I start and go about doing this?

From my research, there are many different options, but my circumstances reduces those options, yet there are still many options. For example, I can start with a university affiliated program with a local community college. The program is designed in a way where the student takes certain core classes, and is expected to maintain a certain GPA to then be guaranteed transfer admission into the affiliated 4-year university. If community college was an option, then transferring into the best university would be my goal. This would perhaps help me ease getting back to college. Another option would be to go to a smaller university and then transfer into the best university.

What do you guys think? What is your advice? What advice could you give me on private consultants, where/how to start, best options, programs that are available, etc. ?

I am so stressed out, frustrated, anxious, and I desperately need help. You all have no idea how much I appreciate you reading this. Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Sincerely,

Jack

2

= Because you have a semester of college completed some colleges will see you as a transfer- when you are investigating colleges, check to see how many credits you can take post-HS before you are considered a transfer

= The GREAT thing about going back to university after a break (especially if you have been working) is that you know more about what you want, you have done some growing up and you can cut through a lot of non-essentials pretty quickly. I know it doesn’t feel like that right this minute, but you will.

= You are saying “best possible college rank-wise” but I hope what you really mean is “best college for getting me to where I want to go” - b/c college is a means to get somewhere, not the final destination. So, for example, Babson College is not ranked as highly as Harvard- but it might be a better choice for you, b/c they have a very open curriculum (so there are fewer gen ed requirements), and they have a heavy practical business focus. Their faculty are top drawer (and often linked to HBS). You would have all the contacts to get top shelf internship / job opportunities- which is the real goal yes?

= The CC/transfer option is a super one, especially as you are old enough to set up residency on your own. Read the fine print carefully- it is a great deal, but there are of course bureaucratic rules that can trip you up. Never assume anything!

= Think carefully about what you want / expect / hope for from college. It won’t be the experience you would have had at 18- you aren’t who you were at 18! Look at the student body of the schools you are considering. For example, colleges with a lot of GI Bill students will have more students who went from HS to the military and are now (like you) going to college (fwiw, UVa is a Vet Posse college).

= Pretty much every college has some form of double majoring.

So, take a deep breath and start putting some shape on your thinking. You want a school with a good business program- luckily, that’s most places! Put some pins in the map- people often build connections near their university so if you are starting from scratch you might as well pick places you think you might like to live! Get some testing done (problematic atm, but you can start doing practice tests online to see if you want to do ACT or SAT). Start researching colleges that you think would fit your idea of ‘prestige’- look at their programs, the graduation requirements (get a Fiske or similar guide to get you started). Work on a SHORT list of initial questions, and come back here for answers!

3

I think you should come back

4

I went back to college at 23, after dropping out after my sophomore year and working for a couple of years. I didn’t have a good undergraduate record at my first school, so my undergraduate degree is from a less-competitive state school, but I have a law degree from an Ivy. It works out. It sounds as though you will likely be treated as a transfer with one good semester under your belt. I think you should consider what will work best for you at this stage of your life, apart from “rank.” Given what you describe, I’m not sure why you would want to pursue a community college option initially, rather than just diving in. Think about whether you will be happy with an undergraduate business degree or will you want an MBA or other graduate degree, in which case finances might play a bigger role and finding a pure business program for undergraduate might be less important, or you might want to look for some sort of combined 5-year program. As you are older, you might prefer a larger school with a more diverse student body. Maybe an honors college within a larger school? You would probably want to live off-campus. Would you rather be in a city or would you be ok in a more rural or suburban environment? If you look online there are any number of free sites that will help you come up with an initial list of schools. College Board’s Big Future is one, but there are others. Just looking through their filters may be helpful in better defining what you are looking for. I am not sure how helpful a private consultant will be, given that they are usually working with high school students.

5

You state that one parent is in the US. That may make you a resident in the state where that parent lives. However, you are on the edge of aging-out of dependent status, so you need to find out now about that. If the college/university you like best is a public one, your strategy should be to move to the state where that is located and establish residence there in order to improve your chance of admission.

CLEP can be very useful for public colleges and universities, but it is less useful for certain privates. Each place has information about acceptance of CLEP exams right on the website. My kid got 12 semester hours of foreign language credit with one 60 minute CLEP exam.

You are a non-traditional age student, and might feel more comfortable at a big state U where there are more students in your age range. Do pay attention to that kind of thing.

6

" I took classes for a semester at a university and maintained a 4.0 GPA, before I discontinued."

As others have said, this will make you a transfer student. However, having solid A’s in university classes (i) will make the point that you are able to handle university level classes well; and (ii) means that you have kept your head a bit in the frame of “ready to study at university”. I think that this is likely to make you a strong candidate as a transfer student.

The very top universities (Harvard, MIT, …) are exceptionally difficult to get into as a transfer student. However, there are lots of transfer students that get accepted to many very good universities.

At 23 you are probably relatively close to the “sweet spot” of being old enough to be a responsible strong student who knows what you want to do with your life and therefore knows what major you want and what classes you want, but still young enough to study hard and pick up material quickly and remember the basics that you learned in your high school and university classes to this point. I think that you are likely to do very well in university. Particularly with your having no financial constraints I am very confident that you can pull this off and be successful.

The first hard part is figuring out a short list of universities that are a good match for you. There are probably a couple of hundred schools that are potentially good options in the US, and even more elsewhere. You are going to need to figure out how to narrow this down more.

You should not just look at rankings. Rankings do not say much about what makes sense for you.

Do you have geographic preference? Do you want small schools or large schools? Larger schools are more likely to have other students your age – particularly graduate students will on average be at least as old as you are but there will also be some other undergraduate students who are well up in their 20’s. Do you want to be in a city or small town or a rural area?

Also, what country does your other parent live in? Are there good options there? Do you want to consider universities in other countries such as Australia, the UK, or Canada?

I do not think that you need to be stressed about this. You can do this. The first step is just to figure out where you want to do this.

7

Columbia School of General Studies is set up for students like you. CU does not have undergrad B school but the Econ dept. is known for placing students in good business positions.

Harvard Extension school might also work for you. You just enter and take 3 classes (check the exact number) and then your performance determines your acceptance.

Otherwise CC-to-senior college might be the ticket as you haven’t been studying for awhile. Some CCs have close connection to Cornell – TC3 (Tompkins Cortland CC) does and it also has dorms. Cornell offers articulation agreements with many CCs, including LaGuardia CC in Queens, BMCC in Manhattan and others. The CUNY system has dorms if you choose this route. I also believe, but am not 100% sure, that residency for CUNY differs slightly than for SUNYs and you just need to live in NYC for a period of time-- it may not look at where your parents are especially considering your age. Check that my memory is correct on this. If Cornell is a target school for you, you may want to google up a list of which CCs it has articulation agreements with and for what disciplines. Because you’ve already taken university classes, you are not eligible for Guttman CC however.

Finally, as you are a “nontraditional student” you may want to google up a list of schools that like nontrads. Some have philosophies that welcome older students with different experiences into their student bodies. Sarah Lawrence is one, Reed is another, Hampshire. But also I believe look into Yale Eli Program – it’s extremely competitive and they do want to see that you can handle academic work at a high level as part of the application. This forum usually has a Yale Eli Program thread for a given year and you can find out how other candidates prepared.

I get the feeling that you identify as male but in case you identify as female, many women’s colleges have nontrad programs – recognizing that women have issues that sometimes prevent them from attending college immediately. Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Agnes Scott, Hollins I think, Bryn Mawr, etc. all have special programs with scholarships for nontrad women.

Tufts also has a nontrad program.
https://students.tufts.edu/academic-advice-and-support/real-program

Brown has a nontrad program but I think you need to be 26

There are several others.

8

Thank you so much! From your advice and and subsequent research, I have decided that the best option for me is to go to a community college and transfer into a 4-year university through a articulation agreement or guarantee transfer agreement.

The challenge is finding the best school schools that have articulation agreements with CC. I want to major in finance or along the lines of finance in a strong undergraduate business school. What is your advice, how do I go about finding this information, should I get a private academic consultant?

9

What is your home state? Usually your state flagship will have good programs.