The Back to School Thread

you're never too old to enter any field or discipline.

I don't know much about that specific field but generally if it has 'science' in the name of the degree, and it's not a social science, you should be good to go after graduation. I made the mistake of getting my undergrad degree in psychology and found out pretty quick I needed to go to grad school or enjoy working at Starbucks my whole life.

Your age will only be a good thing. Professors will respect you more, you'll take the courses more seriously than your average 20 year old and understand their application better. If the price is right and you can balance it or do it part-time, I see no reason why this would be a bad idea. Make sure this is a field that actually interests you though. Once you graduate it shouldn't be too difficult to get an entry level research assistant position or something like that, especially if you live near a decent sized metropolitan area.

I went back to school at 21 to study engineering, Im 25 now and am very glad I did. Still have a few years left (working near full time and taking some of these classes is pretty intense). I didnt have nearly the discipline when I graduated HS as I do now, and I take my education more seriously than probably ~80% of my peers in class.

Chemical Industry specialist headhunter here...I see a lot of people with material science degrees...what kind of role do you want to get into?

Troll_sl said:

The problem was I didn't know what the fuck I wanted to do, so I lingered for about a year and dropped out.

Click to expand...

Have you solved this problem yet? That should be your first decision when thinking about going back to school: what kind of career do you want when you finish?

Don't devote the enormous amounts of money and time to study something at university because "it intrigues me." If something really intrigues you, you can study it on your own or elsewhere for cheaper (or even free). Especially when you're older, you should make sure you're going to actually get something useful out of the time and money you spend getting your degree.

I know nothing about materials science, but will it lead you to a viable career (or enhance your current career)? Does your current area have many job opportunities in that field? If not, does your current-and-near-future life situation allow you to relocate? Will such a degree require additional training and/or degrees to make it a viable career? I'd answer all of these questions before settling on a degree to go after.

I went back to school when I was 25 and got my associates in nursing. I'm 32 now and I'm about to finish my masters. Nursing is cool because you can get an associates degree and do pretty well or you can go all the way and get a PhD or DNP if you want to continue your education.

Went back to school when I was 24 and graduate after the next fall semester with a BS in computer engineering. Going for my masters immediately after. I'm going to be 30 during my last semester so it is a bit weird in school but there are people going that are still twice my age. I got a job out of it in the end too. Just do your work and have a goal in mind and anything is possible man. You aren't alone!

I'm 33 finishing up my BS. I'm not the oldest person in any of my classes but sometimes come close. I know that I work harder now than I would have at 18 and take it much more seriously. On the fence about my masters, not sure if it will be worth the time and expense in the IT field. If I had unlimited money and time, I would go balls out and get my PHD and teach somewhere, but that just isn't reality.

The worst part of school is group assignments. Because I am older my life has to be very schedule din order to complete my work. Some of these kids just don't seem to give a shit. I have only had one good group experience in college, and that was a kid who was failing out of this class and busted his ass on this project to get a good grade. Other than him, it is hard just to get these kids to return an email. Goddamn kids.

chaos_sl said:

I'm 33 finishing up my BS. I'm not the oldest person in any of my classes but sometimes come close. I know that I work harder now than I would have at 18 and take it much more seriously. On the fence about my masters, not sure if it will be worth the time and expense in the IT field. If I had unlimited money and time, I would go balls out and get my PHD and teach somewhere, but that just isn't reality.

The worst part of school is group assignments. Because I am older my life has to be very schedule din order to complete my work. Some of these kids just don't seem to give a shit. I have only had one good group experience in college, and that was a kid who was failing out of this class and busted his ass on this project to get a good grade. Other than him, it is hard just to get these kids to return an email. Goddamn kids.

Click to expand...

I'm in engineering which means every class I take forces the group thing down your throat. My advice: find a good lab partner and try to take the same classes as them. I had the same lab partner for 4 years and it worked out great.

I got a GED and went to work and didn't go to college until 24. Best decision I ever made was to not go to college right away. I made enough money at the time working part time to get thru school debt free and I didn't waste time partying and actually paid attention and learned a few things.

I had group assignments in the field mostly (double major BS in Forest Management and Wildlife Management with a minor in biology and eventually a MS in Wildlife Management) and we were allowed to pair up or groups of 3 on our own and there were a few others who were serious about school that I grouped with. Of course most of my classes had between 8 and 10 students.

chaos_sl said:

I'm 33 finishing up my BS. I'm not the oldest person in any of my classes but sometimes come close. I know that I work harder now than I would have at 18 and take it much more seriously. On the fence about my masters, not sure if it will be worth the time and expense in the IT field. If I had unlimited money and time, I would go balls out and get my PHD and teach somewhere, but that just isn't reality.

The worst part of school is group assignments. Because I am older my life has to be very schedule din order to complete my work. Some of these kids just don't seem to give a shit. I have only had one good group experience in college, and that was a kid who was failing out of this class and busted his ass on this project to get a good grade. Other than him, it is hard just to get these kids to return an email. Goddamn kids.

Click to expand...

I went back to school at 25 for a finance degree. I ended up with a 3.85 GPA or something like that, but in high school I almost dropped out (and even failed a few classes my sophomore year). I definitely had way more focus in college. Being married also probably played a big factor in trying harder. You can't fuck around when you've got someone else depending on you (and supporting us financially while you go back to school -- even though I was bringing in income from the 9/11 GI Bill and working part time).

Group projects were the worst, and being in business school, there was a lot of it. My time back in school I basically didn't have to study and I would shit out 'A' papers in an hour the night before they were due. But if I had to write a paper with a group? They'd want to meet at the library for 3-4 hours where we'd sit around and accomplish exactly dick. I'd leave and just think, "Why in the fuck did we even meet today? We didn't do anything. I've just wasted all of my free time for these stupid people." Or even worse, my last management class (strategic management) where we had a group of 4. Within the first week, one of the people in our group just dropped the class altogether. So now we've got 3 people doing a project meant for 4. One of the guys basically just decided to say fuck it, probably since he was graduating and who gives a shit? So the other two of us basically had to prop this asshole up. Super fun!

Group projects are bullshit and a waste of time. Teachers just do it so they have fewer papers/projects/whatever to grade.

For the original poster:

Materials science is a great field. I do a lot of chemical / materials engineering work on biomaterials, and there is a lot of interesting work being done. It is a very employable degree because you will have the background to enter numerous big industries for processing / manufacturing work as well as the research side of things for both big and small companies. The medical applications of materials science that I am familiar with is a very small subset of that field, yet all my friends from undergrad and grad school haven't had problems finding work. I'd highly recommend joining a research lab or getting an internship while you are in school, even if it's on a very part time basis. Employers look for things to set you apart from the stack of r?sum?s, so if you have some expertise in an interesting research field that you can talk about at interviews you will be golden.

The biggest thing you'll need for Calculus is strong Algebra skills. Things like visualizing functions, reducing functions in creative ways, thinking outside the box a little, quadratic equation, etc.

A lot of calculus one is going to be like this:

Calculus I: Professor spends months making you do derivatives by hand. Finally teaches you derivatives are easy as shit and made you learn it the hard way for fun. You might get into integration but depends on your school.

Calculus II: Integration. This is where most people die. Integration doesn't make sense unless you really think about it, and there are a lot of rules. A lot of people will fail or get bad grades here. If you do your HW and think logically this class is actually a joke. Series/sequences can be a bit hairy at the end - they require you to think a little differently.

Calculus III: Pointless class. It's calculus but with multiple variables. It's basically everything you've learned but transposed on a 3D plane. I don't remember anything from this class at all. Literally not a thing.. except maybe double + triple integrals and partial differentiation (important).

After Calc III you'll branch off into other math, but none of it will really bust your balls like calculus will. Pay attention in these classes, they are the foundation for literally everything in physics/engineering.

Edit: I should add, if you're worried then take a pre-calculus course at a community college this summer for a couple hundred bucks. I took one because it was mandatory when I went to a CC, but it really made me extremely strong with algebra. I think it helped set me apart in my future math classes.

It's not that bad as long as you're patient. And if you don't understand a concept, keep working at it until you do. If you get lost, calculus keeps building upon previous concepts so you will get fucked.