Going to college, I'm 21

So I go to my city's community college, and I I'm 21 and I'm sort of embarrassed about it. I've been going since 2009 but stop going for a year but I'm still enrolled. A lot of people, including friends are graduating this year and moving on. Once I'm done with community college, I'll be moving onto a University (Towson University in Baltimore specifically) and as I said, I'm a little ashamed of the prospects. Like I'm be around probably 23 maybe older when I finish and will be an oddball in college especially if I can/will stay one campus. Can you even take up a dorm if you're that old? I feel that I won't be able to enjoy college life.

I'm going to college and I'm 26. Never too old to go.

What's your major?tratyu92

That's why I'm asking this, because college in the the US is usually depicted in the media as a place where only the right out of High School crazy party types go.

That's why I'm asking this, because college in the the US is usually depicted in the media as a place where only the right out of High School crazy party types go.

DazedDarkness

It's mostly true. I was way too young when I got out of high-school to start college. I learned that the hard way.

Who cares how old you are? I see plenty of 40 year olds in some of my classes and I dont think any less of them. Better to go to College at 26 then 40.

Well yeah, a lot of 18 year olds go to college and party a lot. Not necessarily because they planned on it, but because they are used to being controlled, and they go a little crazy when they make their own decisions.

That being said, if your goal is to party, being older gives you an immediate advantage. If it's not, then who cares what age you are? I know a lot of older people that go to college. Sometimes people just choose to take time off school and go back later. Not strange at all.

If you are looking to avoid the party crowd, I would suggest picking a more advanced major. Something that will give you a definitive trade skill. English or business is kind of generic, and people usually get that when they just want to party, and can't think of anything else they want to do and/or don't want to put in the work.

There are people in their 30s, 40s, and 50s that go to school. Don't think too much aboutcd_rom

Pretty much what I was going to say.

You're never too old to go to school.

I graduated at 23.

I started going to college at 23 after i left the Military.

And let me tell you, I'm never the oldest in any of my classes.

It's not too old... Hell I have had this one guy in two of my classes over the last two years (we are same major and interested in the same things)... He is in his 50s... Granted he doesn't live on campus, but 21 isn't much of an age gap for living on campus... I plan on living on campus until I graduate and I am a second year student and 20 right now, so I will be here until I am 22 probably... Most of the people that live here are 19-20 and first or second year students... Usually by the 3rd year people get apartments, but I would rather pay less and use my student loans living here than live off campus and pay more out of pocket up front.

Sometimes waiting a little longer to go to college can end up being better since by then you may find you're more ready for it. I wish I had waited, I went to college when I was 16 - UK school leaving age is lower than that of the US - straight after finishing my exams.
It was a big mistake to go so soon, I had already been told by then that any farther education would be pointless due to life long disability that would only end up being seen as a risk in the work place.

But I didn't like the idea of doing nothing, until my graduation at 18/19 I was utterly miserable. I hated college due to being surrounded by idiots who only cared about being drunk and having party after party so that they could be seen as mature.
I returned there when I was 25, left six months later for the same reasons. I hated it and felt I was just wasting my time.

While farther education is very useful, you have to be certain that you are truly ready for college.

It's never too late to get an education. Once you move onto a larger school, you'll see many more people who are much older than you. Things happen in life, and people move at different speeds. Don't be embarassed about going to school.

I graduated college, but I'm thinking about going back to school, and I'm 26. I don't think you're ever too old for school. A lot of people who are middle aged go back to further their careers because they can't progress without more education. Go back.

Does it really matter how old you are? There are lots of older people going to college.

Alot of people go to college at thirty or even forty...nobody should rush going to college.

It is not that bad.

Nothing to be ashamed about. I have good friends (28 and 31) that decided to go back to college, and there of plenty of people who go at even older ages. I've had classes with people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s. You're only 21. No one is going to give it a second thought.

If it helps, think of it this way: people who start college later are typically much better students. They are certainly more motivated and are getting an education because that is what they want, not because it is expected of them.

I started going to college at 23 after i left the Military.

And let me tell you, I'm never the oldest in any of my classes.

Blue-Sky

This^

So I go to my city's community college, and I I'm 21 and I'm sort of embarrassed about it. I've been going since 2009 but stop going for a year but I'm still enrolled. A lot of people, including friends are graduating this year and moving on. Once I'm done with community college, I'll be moving onto a University (Towson University in Baltimore specifically) and as I said, I'm a little ashamed of the prospects. Like I'm be around probably 23 maybe older when I finish and will be an oddball in college especially if I can/will stay one campus. Can you even take up a dorm if you're that old? I feel that I won't be able to enjoy college life.

DazedDarkness

Don't worry about feeling out of place in college if you're a little older than alot of other students. It's not a race, and actually, you'll see undergraduate students at universities who are even in their 40s, 50s, or older.

[QUOTE="DazedDarkness"]

So I go to my city's community college, and I I'm 21 and I'm sort of embarrassed about it. I've been going since 2009 but stop going for a year but I'm still enrolled. A lot of people, including friends are graduating this year and moving on. Once I'm done with community college, I'll be moving onto a University (Towson University in Baltimore specifically) and as I said, I'm a little ashamed of the prospects. Like I'm be around probably 23 maybe older when I finish and will be an oddball in college especially if I can/will stay one campus. Can you even take up a dorm if you're that old? I feel that I won't be able to enjoy college life.

comp_atkins

there was a guy in one of my classes that had to have been in his 70s, i bet that guy felt out of place :P

21 isn't that old to be in college though

I've been in clas ses with people that had kids in highschool.

I've seen people at my college in their 60s as a student.

In college, age matters little

So I go to my city's community college, and I I'm 21 and I'm sort of embarrassed about it. I've been going since 2009 but stop going for a year but I'm still enrolled. A lot of people, including friends are graduating this year and moving on. Once I'm done with community college, I'll be moving onto a University (Towson University in Baltimore specifically) and as I said, I'm a little ashamed of the prospects. Like I'm be around probably 23 maybe older when I finish and will be an oddball in college especially if I can/will stay one campus. Can you even take up a dorm if you're that old? I feel that I won't be able to enjoy college life.

DazedDarkness

I'm 31 years old.

I went to University on a scholarship when I was 18 years old, basically wasted all of my scholarship money on drugs and booze, flunked out of college in one year (technically one semester, but I somehow convinced them to let me stay the entire year and get high even though I was obviously a total burnout).

That was both the best year of my life, and the worst.

In any case, I then obviously had to move back home with my parents since I got kicked out of college and wasted all of my scholarship money. At that point I pretty much gave up the whole drugs thing. Hey, I had my fun, time to settle down. Problem there is that even though I was off the drugs, I still hoinestly didn't give a **** about my studies since I didn't know what I want to do.

I was basically then in college off and on for a **** load of time, not caring about grades or if I flunked a class. Because...**** it. Realistically I never expected a college education to go anywhere, I was basically just wasting time, and I doi what I want.

So then I sort of dropped out again and spent the next 7 or so years just working odd jobs and ****. At which point I sort of got tired of that crap, and went back to community college in a different field.

Things seem to be going a bit better now. Maybe because I'm older and wiser. Maybe because my experience working crappy-ass low-paying jobs during the last 12 years has sort of trained me to be a bit more disciplined. Or maybe I truly STILL just plain "do what I want", and I'll grow tired of this within about a year and drop out again.

Who knows?

But hey...if you're not doing anything, you've sort of gotta do SOMETHING. College might not be the answer for you, but sometimes you've gotta do SOMETHING different once you realize that every day is exactly the same and that there's generally no point in even waking up. If life obviously ain't working for you the way that you're living it, then you've gotta do SOMETHING different. College is sort of the cliched answer and often the WRONG answer, but what the helll? If you can afford it, then it probably won't hurt. Might not help, but it probably won't hurt either, as long as you aren't going into serious debt in order to get a BS degree which won't actually get you anywhere in life.

As far as shame....I guess that depends on why you're going back to college. Some people might go to vollege for friends and respect. I don't. To be honest, I am actually not 100% sure why I'm wasting my time and money going back to college, but friends and respect certaintly aren't the reasons. I generally couldn't give a flying **** whether or not they respect me, so I don't give a **** if I'm older than average. Also consider the fact that I go to community college. So even if I did give a **** about being the old burnout in a class full of children, I'm generally not gonna be the oldest person there, considering that I'm only 31. Nearly EVERY course I've taken at community college has had at least two or three people who were at least 10 or 15 years older than me. So even if I really WAS self conscious enough to be concerned about being the old-ass bastard whose going to schoo, with 17 and 18 year olds, that's still not really an issue at 31. And it DEFINITELY wouldn't be an issue at 21.

I don't know, man...I guess it just depends on why you're going to college. Your age might matter, or it might not. I suppose it just depends on what you're trying to get out of it. I'm almost 50% older than you, and I dont give a ****. But on the other hand, I'm also not you, so your goals and concerns don't exactly translate over to me perfectly.

[QUOTE="DazedDarkness"]

That's why I'm asking this, because college in the the US is usually depicted in the media as a place where only the right out of High School crazy party types go.

airshocker

It's mostly true. I was way too young when I got out of high-school to start college. I learned that the hard way.

That applies to me to some extent.

While I'm definitely not trying to discourage people from going to college immediately after high school, I see college as sort of like drug rehabilitation.

You can go to rehab because you're FORCED to, or you can go to rehab because you WANT to. Either way, whatever. But you're probably not gonna make the most out of it if you see it as a burden instead of an opportunity. You're probably not gonna make the most out of it if you honestly weren't ready for it and don't really want to do it in the first place. You're likely gonna get less out of it if you're doing it because you think you're "supposed to" instead of because "you WANT to".

But regardless, at any given time, really all that there is to it is to assess whant you want to get out of it, and to then determine if that's worth the costs.

Take this from me, I rarely meet people my age (im right out of high school) everyone is usually 19-23 with 30, 40, 50 yr olds here and there.

TC are you serious? I'm at university and loads of the students are in the late 20's and older. 21 is still very young when you put things into perspective.

[QUOTE="DazedDarkness"]

So I go to my city's community college, and I I'm 21 and I'm sort of embarrassed about it. I've been going since 2009 but stop going for a year but I'm still enrolled. A lot of people, including friends are graduating this year and moving on. Once I'm done with community college, I'll be moving onto a University (Towson University in Baltimore specifically) and as I said, I'm a little ashamed of the prospects. Like I'm be around probably 23 maybe older when I finish and will be an oddball in college especially if I can/will stay one campus. Can you even take up a dorm if you're that old? I feel that I won't be able to enjoy college life.

MrGeezer

I'm 31 years old.

I went to University on a scholarship when I was 18 years old, basically wasted all of my scholarship money on drugs and booze, flunked out of college in one year (technically one semester, but I somehow convinced them to let me stay the entire year and get high even though I was obviously a total burnout).

That was both the best year of my life, and the worst.

In any case, I then obviously had to move back home with my parents since I got kicked out of college and wasted all of my scholarship money. At that point I pretty much gave up the whole drugs thing. Hey, I had my fun, time to settle down. Problem there is that even though I was off the drugs, I still hoinestly didn't give a **** about my studies since I didn't know what I want to do.

I was basically then in college off and on for a **** load of time, not caring about grades or if I flunked a class. Because...**** it. Realistically I never expected a college education to go anywhere, I was basically just wasting time, and I doi what I want.

So then I sort of dropped out again and spent the next 7 or so years just working odd jobs and ****. At which point I sort of got tired of that crap, and went back to community college in a different field.

Things seem to be going a bit better now. Maybe because I'm older and wiser. Maybe because my experience working crappy-ass low-paying jobs during the last 12 years has sort of trained me to be a bit more disciplined. Or maybe I truly STILL just plain "do what I want", and I'll grow tired of this within about a year and drop out again.

Who knows?

But hey...if you're not doing anything, you've sort of gotta do SOMETHING. College might not be the answer for you, but sometimes you've gotta do SOMETHING different once you realize that every day is exactly the same and that there's generally no point in even waking up. If life obviously ain't working for you the way that you're living it, then you've gotta do SOMETHING different. College is sort of the cliched answer and often the WRONG answer, but what the helll? If you can afford it, then it probably won't hurt. Might not help, but it probably won't hurt either, as long as you aren't going into serious debt in order to get a BS degree which won't actually get you anywhere in life.

As far as shame....I guess that depends on why you're going back to college. Some people might go to vollege for friends and respect. I don't. To be honest, I am actually not 100% sure why I'm wasting my time and money going back to college, but friends and respect certaintly aren't the reasons. I generally couldn't give a flying **** whether or not they respect me, so I don't give a **** if I'm older than average. Also consider the fact that I go to community college. So even if I did give a **** about being the old burnout in a class full of children, I'm generally not gonna be the oldest person there, considering that I'm only 31. Nearly EVERY course I've taken at community college has had at least two or three people who were at least 10 or 15 years older than me. So even if I really WAS self conscious enough to be concerned about being the old-ass bastard whose going to schoo, with 17 and 18 year olds, that's still not really an issue at 31. And it DEFINITELY wouldn't be an issue at 21.

I don't know, man...I guess it just depends on why you're going to college. Your age might matter, or it might not. I suppose it just depends on what you're trying to get out of it. I'm almost 50% older than you, and I dont give a ****. But on the other hand, I'm also not you, so your goals and concerns don't exactly translate over to me perfectly.

Ah yes - college/univerisity was basically a time to get smashed when I was there, certainly for those who'd just ended up there as a continuum of their education without giving any thought as to why they were there. I was probably a little like you - smashed it way too hard, got kicked out after my second year, managed to get back on and then stumbled through my final year losing it on whatever I could get my hands on. Took me a good 12 months to get my brain in some semblence of working order after that. Those who actually used univerisity as means to get where they wanted to are the ones who ended up with the good grades, so I completely respect those who venture back into academia at a later age. I may be doing the same thing at some point as I've been stuck doing the same thing for 11 years and it dullls me to the eyeballs. Hopefully you'll finish your course - it'll be worth it I'm sure.

23 is certainly not that old for college.