how can an adult go to a state school w/ a full time job?

Question

I did well in high school, and attempted to go to college thereafter. My parents are good people but would not help me financially. They paid for it themselves as they feel I should, kinda if you want it bad enough thing.

Anyway, I ran out of money and had to stop going to college. College was easy but I wasn't able to find a full time job to keep going that would allow me to pay for rent, books, etc, etc. Government gave me roughly 500 bucks at the time and said the rest was up to me.

Since then I worked manual labor for roughly 6 years. All sorts of fun jobs from lifting hot heavy metal to cutting the mold off of cheese. About 2 years ago I got lucky and found an opening in the IT industry. I've always been good at computer and have made exceptional progress in my career.

My question is how can an adult go to a state school with a full time job? Most labs and classes are in the daytime. I'm not worried about overloading myself, I study for 6 hours a day anyway after working 10 hour days. Weekends is 6 hours study and 10 hours of drinking (ha, told you i was blue collar)

I would like to only go to a prestigious school (and have been accepted to a big ten) so I can be challeneged. Since I started trying to get into IT 2 years ago i've achieved 12 vendor certifications including a CCNP and MCITP and have quickly raised through the ranks in my company, now providing support for 20 enterprise sites. Online college isn't really an option nor is the tech school (i dont think IT support specialist associates degree is gonna cut it, I'd like to eventually move into design and architecuture vs implementation and support)

Any ideas?

Answer 1

There are colleges that offer degree programs that you can complete on weekends or during evenings. As a working adult with time constraints, you need to find colleges that have night/weekend degree programs, and apply to them. That may or may not be your local state college. That may or may not be a Big 10. But the schedule of classes is something you must consider when you decide where you'll apply.



That's how adults do it. It's that, or quit your job - and since your job is going very well for you, I wouldn't recommend that.

Answer 2

You do it by (a) finding a job that isn't when most classes are held -- evenings, weekends, and/or early mornings -- and (b) working incredibly hard.



I don't mean to sound flippant: I worked full-time off campus and part-time on campus while I was in graduate school. I get that you may not be able to find jobs in your field that are at times that work. I get that you may not be able to find jobs that will pay you as much as you're making now. I get that you may not be able to find jobs that will actually help you get the kind of job you want after graduation. It's just that unless you're willing to quit working and live off loans (which means gambling on a good paycheck after you graduate), this is the only way I know.

Answer 3

large state schools like big 10 schools often have many courses available at different times in the week. you might get lucky for a few semesters and be able to take a bunch of night courses