Are you a parent who wants a degree but is uncertain of your skills?
I am going to guess that you have a full- or part-time job and a family. You decided to enroll in college to earn the degree you have wanted to earn or gain the piece of paper that you have discovered you need if you want to advance your career.
Are you worried that you do not have, or cannot learn, the study skills that are necessary to be successful in school?
Are you concerned that you will be an oddity in the classroom? Do you think that classmates will be younger than you? That may not be true.
I will guess that you have probably been out of school for several years and find your “school skills” to be rusty, at best. Once you enrolled in school, you discovered you needed help with time management, reading, and writing. Some of you may be hesitating to enroll in school because you do not have those skills. You are not sure when you will find the time or the motivation to study, even though you want your degree. Most adults find their skills are “rusty” and are not sure they can compete in an academic environment.
I am here to tell you that you can! Not only can you manage to pass your college courses, but you can also actually do better in the long run than students who enrolled in college after they graduated from high school. Working parents can learn important college skills. In many cases, you already have the basic skills. You just do not know how to apply those skills to college work.
Working parents can learn college skills.
You understand the concept of a deadline and “doing what the boss wants”. Working adults have also realized that people, that is, your “supervisors” in some sense of the word, are going to ask you, indeed, many will TELL you to do some things in specific ways. Young adults just starting their working careers, tend to argue and debate those instructions. Older adults do not waste time and energy debating those issues; they simply do the tasks. That skill will help you in college.
A big difference between older students and younger ones
I once heard about a conversation between two college instructors. One of the instructors taught students directly out of high school. The other instructor taught students who were older. The two instructors realized a major difference between the two groups was that the younger students could learn the theory of a topic, but their lack of living experience caused problems since the students could not think of examples of how the theory would work.
Older students, on the other hand, had plenty of examples. They had never learned the theories and principles behind those theories. Older students, I think, are not “behind” younger students. I think the two groups have different kinds of knowledge.
You know this is true if you think about it. How many times do you see a child or a youth try to do something and you know it is either dangerous or it will not work? You have experience to tell you what the outcome will be. The younger children and young adults do not have that experience.
Yes, sometimes they succeed in doing what they want to do, but it usually does not work out exactly the way they expected, right? You can have that same experience. You can earn your degree. The path will not be what you expect, but your knowledge and experience will help you succeed.
Purpose of this blog
One of my goals is to help you blend those two areas of knowledge. In this blog, I plan to discuss a variety of topics that students need to succeed in college. Some of the planned topics are class skills, time management, study skills, and other helpful, useful skills that can help you improve your self-confidence and your mindset. I also intend to discuss habits; learning how to use habits well can really help you earn your degree and improve other areas of your life.
I am open to questions and discussing topics that interest you. I hope your motivation to earn your degree will also be improved. A person can have all the skills in the world, but if he or she is not motivated to use those skills, the skills are essentially useless, right?
Your children did not grow up or get potty-trained overnight. Many important things in life take time and need small steps to accomplish the big goals. You can start now, right where you are. Take that first step.
I am not your tutor. I hope to be your academic coach. I hope you are as excited to start this journey with me. May I accompany you on your exciting journey?
Let’s get started!
If you found this helpful, please share it with someone you think would also find it useful. I would appreciate it. Your friend might appreciate it too.
When you have an assignment, do you struggle to make sure that you have done all that you need to do?
Have you lost points on assignments because you did not do something that you were tasked to do — and forgot to do it?
Do you get confused on what you need to do for your assignments because each instructor has different rules?
You need the Assignment Checklist!
This is a free checklist I developed to help students with their assignments. The idea is to have the original but make a copy for each one of your assignments. Once you understand the format, you can add a line or three if there is something unusual about the assignment that your instructor is asking you do do.
This is free, as you can see.
If you are in college, or thinking about attending, check out my new Facebook group. Join today and help me build a group that is really useful to adult college students.
Back to School: Supporting Adults Earning College Degrees
If you have any questions or comments, please leave me a note.
Valerie
updated 30 January 2023