Is college still worth it as an entrepreneur?

Yep this is what I don’t want to miss out on

College undergrad is a once-in-lifetime experience

But what a lot your business while you are away ?

Columbia offers business admin (or it might be management, one of the two)

Sorry to break it to you, but an experience that you are looking for you kind of missed. Yes, you still can get a diploma (at any age) and learn a lot. But unfortunately, when an adult shows up in 5th grade, he/she cannot feel like a child even if he/she will act like a child, but nobody will treat an adult like a child… Children will look at you and will ask what is wrong with you…Same thing in your situation. When you will be with 18 years old who just graduated HS, never lived alone, many never worked, and still live of mommy and daddy…And then you - with your business… What are you going to discuss? Girlfriends from HS? Or how it was cool to get drunk and not to get scolded by parents since they are not around…Seriously, do you enjoy company of 18 years old now? There is a huge maturity gap between 18 years old and 23 years old.

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It is offered as a concentration, not a major

I totally agree with this but…many colleges have co-op style housing that includes undergrad and graduate students. Still dorm/house like but mixed ages that could be more appropriate for where you are now. Still can have parties etc.

I think in a unique way you could be an asset to a university,if you wanted to or just go undercover as an older student.

You can certainly go back to college, but it won’t be the traditional undergrad experience. You’ve missed the window for that. You’re kinda like the NBA player that goes back to college because he always promised his mama he’d graduate from college.

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While I’ll agree you probably missed the boat as far as the full 4 year college experience, living in dorms with 18-22 and going to parties, from a classroom experience, it might not be that bad. My last 3 years with school I specifically picked the “old guy” (he was 23 or so) as my lab partner, because I figured he would be more serious about his work. He was, and we stayed lab partners for every classes thereafter. He remains a friend - my only friend from my major (civil engineering)

And FWIW - I went back to community college just to take a class, and I was taking the class with my kids’ friends! The same kids I had thrown class parties for and was the team manager for their soccer team, lol. And my kids were 10 years older than the professor’s kids. Now that’s old! Ha!

I don’t know what the fuss is about the OP’s age.

There are lots of “non-18 year olds” in college. I took a graduate seminar my first semester as an undergrad (I was interested in the subject, I had reasonable foreign language skills to keep up so the professor let me in). I was 17; most of the grad students were 25/26/27.

If the OP wants a Bachelor’s degree, why would it matter how old he is?

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From what is posted above, I have a feeling that OP wants college experience more than degree. He/she most likely does not need a degree for a career anymore.

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The college experience is more than drinking in a dorm room. My POV hasn’t changed.

But he/she wants particularly undergrad experience and frats… That is totally different from grad experience with research and hanging with friends by interests.
BTW, adults have parties too and some get drunk too. However that is not a point of a discussion. As far as I know most adults do not party with kids. I guess very few do, but that is more an anomaly than a norm.

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I hear college experience and I think going to concerts and plays and performances on campus; attending symposia on cool subjects by visiting scholars and political figures and “famous people”, leaving the library at midnight and getting pancakes just because your next class isn’t until noon the next day. To each his own!

In theory yes… Now, as an adult who can pay would you prefer Royal Ballet or dance of college girls (I am exaturating); school band or professional orchestra?
I would go for Royal Ballet. My 21 years old just flew from Ireland study abroad to London specifically for Royal Ballet (did not even bother with London… :rofl:)

I have known quite a few people (including my sister) who didn’t finish college at the normal US age and went back to school in their mid to late 20s. Maybe they didn’t have the “typical” college experience but they were still able to have a great, life changing college experience nonetheless.

In some countries, students go to college after their military service. I spent some time in a dorm in Israel (long story but I happened to be in my late 30s) with undergraduates there. They were definitely not children any more but were still having a good time together in the dorm, making friends and experiencing that stage of life together.

Maybe the OP would feel out of place in a typical US freshman dorm, but I would guess that they could fit in just fine in a transfer student dorm, or in a co-op, or in a university in another country where college students are treated more like young adults.

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My college symphony was more acclaimed than the local professional symphony so this is an unfair comparison in my case. All of the performing arts were head and shoulders superior to what was available professionally and there were several Pulitzer prize winning professors on the faculty who were screenwriters, novelists, poets, etc.

So yes, my friends and I tried to see every single performance we could, including new works, workshops, staged readings, etc.

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I can imagine much more mature students after 2 years of service in IDF. They are so much more different from 18 years old American students who just left mom and dad…

Well, you were very lucky! Not every campus has it. Also visiting artists (Perlman or Yo-Yo Ma etc.) events at colleges are available to general public and you can buy tickets to participate in a concert or a discussion at any age.

I started grad school when I was 25. I lived in an apartment complex that was all students. Most of them were in their jr/sr year of undergrad. I had a lot of friends that were undergrads that I met in the complex. I also had a completely different friend group that was grad students. I think if the OP was able to live in a similar situation, they could get much of their desired experience. A 24/25 yo can mix much better with 21/22 yo than 18/19. I would not want to live on a dorm floor with a bunch of 18/19 unless I was one of them.

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Just thinking that your age is not off from Master’s level students, and you might want to pick and choose classes that will benefit your business and your interests. Courses like accounting and finance, or things that are of special interest to you like art, music, theater, etc.
You may want to take part time courses, and or figure out how to find the older students on campus. Also figure that networking will be very valuable if you can connect with people who will be interested in you and also who you will be interested in working with in the future.
Very best wishes