I'm planning to go back to get my Master's after we have a second kid and that kid is a little older (like 2 or 3). Has anyone been away from school for a while (for me it'll be around 7-8 years) and jumped right into graduate school? Is it as nerve wracking as I think it's going to be? All I can think about is that I'll forget a lot of things I learned when I was an undergrad and fall on my face. I realize it's still a ways off (I'm not even pregnant with our second yet) but I was just thinking about it.
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@BelugaBean: oooooo I am thinking of this as well. Still will be a ways off. I think going back, in my experience (I took a couple classes at 25) was better than the first time. I was more focused and cared a lot more, also I had a much more stable home life...
As a mum my concerns are that I just won't have enough time...
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I'm going to be honest here. I think it depends.
For me I went back to school about 3 years after I started working. I did it mostly because I was bored. All I had was work and then I went home and I sat around watching tv and basically doing nothing. My worked offered a master degree program and so I took it. It would take 3 years to complete.
For me it was pretty easy for the first year. After being out of school for 3 years it was not that hard to get back to studying and learning and it was very engaging. Problem for me was the my personal life started to pick up. I found DH and our relationship was going well and I sort of wanted to spend all my time with him and then we got engaged and married during my last year of school. I actually took a quarter off for the wedding and we waited half a year to go on our honeymoon so I could finish up my master's degree.
That last year was HARD! I still had good grades because it's hard to get bad grades in grad school well at least my grad school. It was just hard to get all the assignments done and study for tests and have time for work, my relationship and planning a wedding.
I really can't imagine throwing kids in that mix. I would be hard pressed to go for more education right now.
That being said a lot of my older coworkers also went back to school some of them had young kids and some had elementary school kids and some had middle school and high school kids. It was definitely interesting to see how they balanced but mostly the other spouse had to take on a lot more work for them to go back to school. It worked out for almost all of them.
Sadly one couple actually got divorce over one of my co-workers going back to school but I think it was his fault because 1 master's degree was not enough he wanted to go for his MBA too and I think his wife had enough because she already did so much for the family while he went for his master's degree and thought that things would go back to normal but when he wanted to do his MBA it felt never ending.
Sorry if this is a bit of a downer reply but I thought you should hear this experience. Also your experience might be totally different.
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I started getting my masters last year. It was 11 years after I got my BA
What made the difference for me was the program I'm in. It's in a school within the University that's geared toward working adults (school of professional studies). I expected things to be much more rigorous than they are. But in all honesty, my undergrad was a billion times harder!
I think a lot will depend on what you're studying.
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I went back 5 years later. As others have said, it might depend on what you are studying. I think the hardest thing for me was adjusting to writing papers again. In the beginning, I would just stare at Word and sit there waiting to figure out where to start. It was pretty difficult but after the first semester, the rest of grad school was comparatively easy.
The other difficult part for me in the beginning was the fact that many of my classmates were much younger than I was and came to the Master's program direct from undergrad. I struggled to connect with them since we were going through very different things and had very different experiences.
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I'm starting an MBA program in mid Aug! It's been 10 yrs since I graduated and because I'm abroad, I honestly have no idea what to expect. Right now I'm distracting myself by not thinking about it. I'm a little scared, but after SAH and taking care of LO's for so long, having regular adult interaction will be a welcomed change.
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BTW, I'm thinking about TTC while in school! I must really be crazy!
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I went back to my masters a few years after my BS and chipped away at it over the years. Honestly, i've only been grad school free for about a year and I have the itch to learn again, haha, so I'm taking another class this fall
For me, it wasn't too bad, and my masters wasn't too far off of what i studied in undergrad. Where I struggled was the math--I'd simply forgotten calculus after 5 years, so I did have to re-learn some of that. I think it really depends what you're studying. DH took about 10 years off and went back for his masters in project management and it is absolutely no big deal. Might be different since we work full time and only did grad school part time, but you get broken in pretty fast
Also, I expected grad school to be MUCH harder than it was. In reality, it was far easier than undergrad. It was also a program catered to working professionals so they didn't dick us around too much!
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I started my phd program 4 years after undergrad, and the first semester was HARD but it got much better after that! I wasn't totally out of academia while I worked-- I was a researcher--but it was in a different field so it was definitely an adjustment. Also, I thought I was going to be able to study 9-5 and have weekends and evenings free since I was disciplined from working that schedule, but that was a big fat fail! Grad school soaks up all the time you give it In my experience
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I went back when I was 25, working full time but unmarried and with no kids. My husband and i were living together and we were both in graduate school. We took 2 classes at a time and i'll admit it was tough. I took summer and winter classes too and it took me two years. I'm glad i did it though.
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I started grad school last year, about 13 years after undergrad. It's been way harder than I ever thought. I'm doing an online program, which is nice because I don't have to go anywhere else after work. As far as being rusty, the hardest thing to get used to was all the new online research methods that are available now. When I was in undergrad in the late 90's, you pretty much had to go to the library and check out a book. But the worst thing by far is the amount of work that is required. It could just be my program, but I can't handle more than one class at a time on top of my full-time job. Just taking one class is like having another full-time job some weeks. I've put way more effort into this than anything I did in undergrad. We don't have kids yet, but there's no way that I would be in school and try to raise a family. I'm completely tapped out as it is. We're planning on TTC around grad school, so that I'll be done by the time a baby comes along. My biggest advice since you already have a family is to thoroughly research the program before you apply and really understand how much time will be required.
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I got a masters directly after college, and graduated six years ago. I just submitted an application for another masters program that starts this August. I'm looking forward to it! This program is less research based and more practical, so I'm hoping that it will be doable. I do have an LO, but I also only work part-time. The program is mainly online.
When I was in my first MA program I had an assistantship and so I taught and tutored part-time. That was really plenty for me! If I were working a 40 hour week and had an LO, I think I would still do it but would plan to graduate in three instead of two years.
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@SugarplumsMom: We are also TTC! IF I get in...and IF I get pregnant....I'll probably take off the semester after the LO is born. All big IFs, lol!
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Im going back this semester to finish my undergrad after 4 years. I'll let you know. lol
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One last comment...I have a friend with four kids who went back to get a second bachelor's...this time in nursing. She was an SAHM before that and they lived off of her husband's salary. Her youngest was a toddler. She got her associate's, then worked for two years, then did the credits to get her BS (this while working a full-time job). Now she is the primary earner in the family and her husband homeschools their children. I always think of her when I am waffling about how much I can take on at once.
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@mrs. sketchbook, I didn't take a semester off of my online class when E was born I just timed it so that I took a VERY easy class (comparatively, anyways), and made sure I talked to the professor before I enrolled. I took some Engineering Leadership course and had to write a couple of small papers--but the professor was SUPER understanding about me not being able to turn stuff in on time and having extenuating circumstances! I have found my online program (through NCSU) to be EXTREMELY accommodating.
For me, it wasn't too bad, and my masters wasn't too far off of what i studied in undergrad. Where I struggled was the math--I'd simply forgotten calculus after 5 years, so I did have to re-learn some of that. I think it really depends what you're studying. DH took about 10 years off and went back for his masters in project management and it is absolutely no big deal. Reply
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