Returning To School At 5o:
Returning To School At 5o:
(OP)
I hold an Associate of Applies Science degree in Electronics and I'm thinking of returning to school for a Bachelors in Electronic Engineering. My employer offers 75% reimbursement which would leave me with another 20k towards student loans that I already have. My question is: Would it be a good investment for me at the age of 50 to do this, as I feel I still have several good years ahead of me. Would I have a good change of getting a job as anyone else? I really need to talk with someone about this other than a someone from a school. I do believe I should do this soon to get it behind me. By the way I'm also a woman. Are jobs good for women out there? I need all input. Thanks.





RE: Returning To School At 5o:
I would go for it, it won't do you any harm and employers these days are looking at older people to employ because there more experienced and generally more reliable.
desertfox
RE: Returning To School At 5o:
I've learnt more (relevant, applied stuff) on the job than I learnt at uni.
- Steve
RE: Returning To School At 5o:
Fifty is kind of a magical age in the USA. Magical, in the sense that all of a sudden, you become, by definition, too old to learn new stuff, too old fashioned to have anything useful to say, and just generally too expensive to keep. Those are totally bogus excuses. Your health care costs will also start inching up. That's most likely true.
To my jaundiced eye, if you were a man, you'd already have been let go. Your gender makes it more difficult for them to just dump you, because you are a member of a protected class.
If they educate you and then discover to their utter shock and amazement that there is no work to match your newfound qualifications, you might just quit in a huff. ... instead of suing their ass off for gender discrimination when they really just wanted to exercise age discrimination.
Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
RE: Returning To School At 5o:
It can be done, but you may need to choose the school carefully. Some schools overload the students and force them through a rat maze in order to filter-out the best. Only a young person can handle several years of cram-test-cram and 4hr/night sleep. Some smaller schools and mostly commuter schools are a little less intensive.
When I was 50 I audited a masters-level EE course at a nearby major state school. The class was same course to one I had taken 30 years before. Made me reaize that if I went back for a masters, I would only be able to handle a single classs like that per semester only if I didn't have a job. I could work the problems and get them right, but several problems in one hour time - NO WAY!
RE: Returning To School At 5o:
"Good to know you got shoes to wear when you find the floor." - Robert Hunter
RE: Returning To School At 5o:
tech4now in Tennessee.