Thinking of going back to school

[Blue Ginger]

I need some unbiased opinions on going back to school after 12 years but I'm not at the point of talking to my family about it yet.

When I graduated high school, I was very close to a break down and was not up to going to uni. I also had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and was not going to build up a massive debt and still not know where I was heading when I finished.

That was in 2002. Since then I have mainly worked in general admin roles, including 3 years in Ireland and UK. I did a traineeship in Admin with my first job, but have had no structured learning since. And I'm bored. I no longer want to be everyone's punching bag.

I am thinking of combining my love of books and history into a degree in history & museum studies/art curatorship. If anyone here has done something like this, I would love to know how the course was.

But any advice about going back to study would be helpful, especially from anyone in Oz.

[mjr]

Have you considered looking into legitimate universities that have online programs? Some universities offer complete undergraduate programs online for specific degrees. I'm doing that right now for Computer Science.

It does take a certain time commitment and discipline. Make sure you're ready for that. Think carefully about how many courses you can handle at once, too. This will, of course, influence how long it takes you to get a degree.

Is there a way, alternatively, that you could get the experience/knowledge you need without the university? Is there a museum nearby where you could volunteer on the weekends? Maybe talk to some of the faculty to see if they could help you along with some of the experience/knowledge.

[TheSHAD0W]

There are many people who've gone back for higher education degrees later in life. Most schools would be happy to have you, especially if you aren't going to be using up dorm space.

Something you should consider: (1) Rather than going for a degree program, you might want to take a course or three in the subjects you're most interested in. "Histury & Museum Studies" and "Art Curatorship" aren't degrees which would advance most careers, so rather than go for the whole shebang you may want to save some money and specialize instead. If you change your mind in the future you could take the rest of the courses needed.

[fireheart]

Id agree with both posts above, here's the route I would take.

1) check and see if there's a WEA centre in your state (not clear which one) as they do have a few classes about history and the like, so you can specialise. While it won't necessarily count as credit towards a uni course, it'll look good on the old resume.
2) I'd then take a look at open universities Australia and see what courses they have there. You can go off-campus for this and unlike entry to an on-campus program, you won't need to sit the STAT. If you need resources, you can access online collections of whatever uni you're affiliated with or you can sign up with a university in your home state as an "associate" borrower (gives you borrowing permission, but not computer access)

Checking open uni, it looks like your best pathway would be a BA with specialisations in history and whatnot. The open uni staff can help you in that regard.

[csquared]

When I saw the thread title, my first thoughts were "Go for it".

Then I saw what you wanted to study. That sounds like something that would be a hell of a lot of fun. Unfortunately, I believe that it is one of those fields where you have to wait for some one to die before a position opens up. The Wife wanted to get a Masters in Library of Science. BOOKS! What is not to love? But it is the same thing in that field.

Talk to a career counselor and find out what the job market is like for that degree. If nothing else, as The Shadow suggested, take a couple of courses for fun.

Good luck!