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Going Back to College: Everyone Is Doing It
By Patryse Brown
Copyright 2006 Albany Layne Publishing

I remember a 30 year-old man who had returned, after several years, to San Francisco State University to complete his Bachelor of Arts. He felt that he was so old. He kept a low profile and didn’t interact much with other students on campus. He was embarrassed to be working toward his B.A. at age 30 amongst a sea of seemingly all 20 year-old students.
That was 20 years ago; that attitude has since changed. Students of all ages are on college campuses today, and they are not embarrassed to work toward their degrees at age 30 and older, and they aren’t trying to blend into the walls. I also see young students from 12 years old to 17; they used to be anomalies, but not anymore.

When people see that college is attainable, they go. Colleges are making it feasible for working students to earn their advanced degrees. Some people balk when students say they attend community colleges, but guess what happens to those community college students when they complete their lower division units – they TRANSFER to four-year universities.

Jackie, a thirty-something, married woman with four kids is transferring from Hartnell Community College to the Cal State University system in September. Her experience will be much brighter than my friend’s 20 years ago. You will not see her trying to blend into the walls. She will be neither the oldest student on her CSU campus nor will she be the only student who is married and with young children.

That a woman with four children can transfer to a 4-year university attests to how feasible it is to earn one’s advanced degree. So possible, in fact, that everyone is doing it.

Read More Articles and Columns by Independent Newswriter Patryse Brown

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