Need advice for going to college

[brewer]

Beg, borrow or steal. Get your ass back in class.

[Aegon]

I'm a lawyer, I've been out for 10 years and I absolutely hate it...you should only do it if it really is your calling in life (which is only the case for a very small percentage of people who go to law school--almost all of them are doing it because they think they'll make money).

Unless you get into a state school it is an awful lot of money (it will easily set you back six figures) and you'll be stuck making the same $60K as an associate for a small to medium sized firm, or you'll be stuck doing document review (if you don't know what document review is, look it up).  If you think you're coming out of school with a $100K+ job in hand you're absolutely kidding yourself--the largest firms in the country have immovable criteria for hiring so that they can show off to clients that they only hire the most credentialed lawyers.  This means you either needed to graduate from an Ivy League school (or of that ilk like Duke, Stanford, etc.) or you were top of the class of any non-prestigious law school.

If you're already making $60K a year then there is no need for you to go to law school unless practicing law is a burning desire within you and that's the only thing that will make you happy. Even in the largest cities in the US, you will be very hard-pressed to do better than that.  In fact I would discourage you from going to college altogether unless you're totally miserable with what you're doing...remember that ANYONE can get a college degree now so unless it's a something in hard science, it doesn't really improve your earnings potential.

I had wanted to be a lawyer for a good part of my young life but decided I didn't want it enough to go through any of that.

[Aegon]

What about Poly Sci instead of Law?

I started a Masters after I turned 50.  I have another Masters and a PhD.  I was working one full-time job plus a part-time job at the time, so I could only take one class per semester.  Online courses helped a lot.

Thought 1:  If you take more than two courses a semester while working full-time, unless you can actually study on the job, you won't be getting much sleep.
Thought 2:  It will take considerably longer than 4 years to get a Bachelor's Degree, if you're employed full-time.
Thought 3:  Really be SURE of what degree best suits your goals.  And know that there are good jobs available in your future career path.  I chose my degrees badly - no jobs.

But - older students who really know what they want tend to be good students.  Motivated, organized, hard working.  Go for it!  Good luck.

As somebody who will soon be graduating with a degree in History and Political Science, I wouldn't say there are no jobs... but any jobs that will use my Poli Sci degree are all in D.C.  Nowhere else. I'm looking at multiple jobs right now, and they're all in DC. You can't get much of a job anywhere else without a graduate degree. 

I think people underestimate the value of liberal arts degrees. As long as you're actively networking and getting internships in your time at school, you won't have trouble finding a job. That's just my personal two cents.

[The Grand Nudger]

I keep threatening to go back, but then the extension office has some awesome program or research requirement, and all of the time and money I might spend going to school ends up going to that.