Why People Take SO LONG to Get Started?

[Tedium]

I've been in one college or another since 2007. I wanted to get my BA, MFA, and PhD in English/Creative Writing. It was the only thing that I did well, and I couldn't think of anything more boring than a business degree. I was completely and totally full of myself, like @jsd above. I would get pressured by the head of the department into invite only senior-level courses, get praised for my stories and essays, but still couldn't be bothered to show up to class. I was way too immature to be getting any sort of praise and I had a lot of growing up to do. In hindsight, I was a jerk and I'm surprised anyone even gave me the time of day back then. I was young, dumb, and mean. So many burned bridges and wasted opportunities.

Anyway, I've just been chasing greener pastures ever since. I was always trying to find a way to make the English major thing work. I hopped from school to school, and wasted so, so much time and money. Someone on this forum used to have a line in their signature that said something like, "Don't be fooled into wasting money on trying to hack your degree. You can waste a lot of time and money trying to save time and money." Something to that effect. That was me. I just didn't heed their advice back then.

Then life keeps on happening and I didn't have the discipline to power through low points to accomplish my goals, so there has been a lot of starting and stopping, even as late as my last try at COSC in 2016. Honestly, I stopped thinking about it for a long time because it got me too depressed. I just gave up. My plans had changed and I had failed at my old dream too many times. I got as far as I had in my hospitality career with only my GED, so I figured I would just stop stressing myself out about higher education.

I heard about Pierpont and I figured that was going to be my only last shot at actually having something to show for all my years of blood, sweat, and tears in higher education. It wasn't that useful to me because at the time I couldn't get a transcript for it since I didn't take any classes with them, but at least it was SOMETHING.

Cut to a few months ago, and the GM I took over for was cleaning out her office and found some of my printed transcripts that I accidentally left behind when I was in her office while she was working from home. It was from when I had enrolled at UMPI (I'm a sucker for that green grass, remember?), but two severe hurricanes back-to-back had blown that opportunity away. I took another look at my COSC transcript. I was only two courses away from graduating. I counted up my credits and realized that I didn't have to try and kill myself taking 30 credits in one or two terms. I just had to suck up my pride, write the Provost and go over why I sucked so much the first two times and why I don't suck now. Changing my concentration really helped speed things along and cut out some DSSTs I thought I had to take (thanks for the eagle eye, @dfrecore). And Sophia made the math so much less painful than I thought it would be (big ups to @raycathode for the encouraging words).

I just found out today that the Provost approved my appeal, and they already have most of my transcripts, so it looks like I'll be starting my Capstone May 23rd. As long as the registrar comes up with the same evaluation that we did on this board. I see no reason why she would get something different, but you never know. And I'm not going to let it slow down this focused momentum I've got going on if she does. I'll just pivot and keep on moving. I hope my initial failures can be a cautionary tale for someone out there that might be stumbling down the same path I was. Get this chapter successfully behind you and move on with your life. Don't overthink it, y'all. Just do it.

TL;DR - I was a jerk that was enamored with the idea of being an English major/academic, so I passed up many opportunities along the way in an effort to salvage some kind of imagined prestige. I have since matured and realized that no one really cares, and I should just shut the hell up and finish something I started for once in my life.

[dfrecore]

For a long time after I found this forum, it was a time & money combination - I had 2 little kids who I was homeschooling, a husband who traveled weekly, and not a ton of extra money lying around to pay for school. So, I did things as I could, slowly. Luckily, lots of things came up along the way (free 3 months at Study.com, free course at Sophia, free Kaplan PLA course, free Ethics course, offer of a free course in exchange for an unbiased review from Ed4Credit, etc.). So I went from having 72cr of RA earned over the course of 10 years, to 90cr with CLEP, DSST and ALEKS ($420 total) in 2011, but then didn't have time or money for a few...and then to 107cr with the free courses between 2015-2018, and then it was getting really close. One more month of ALEKS to get my College Algebra done in 2015. A course at PF for $269 in 2016. 5 TECEP exams in 2015 to make sure I got the residency credit (back when it was a thing). And then I really wanted the HR concentration instead of General Management, since I was just ONE course away from being able to get it - and then my local CC had the Organizational Theory course in the summer, and I jumped on it. So, 7 years to do the requirements of the degree once I knew which one I wanted - but I did 2 things right: 1) I locked in my catalog (thank goodness); and 2) I persisted, and did things as opportunities arose, or I had time or money. I got my BSBA w/HR in 2018. But it took a very long time (30 years and 1 day after earning my high school diploma).
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I have paralysis by analysis - I love to come up with plans, but am not always good at DOING them! Which is why it's nice to create plans for other people. (And why I'm married to my husband who never lets things stand in the way when he wants them, and never spend 5 seconds analyzing or overthinking things). So new things would come up all the time, and my husband would say "do NOT spend time worrying about this, just keep going until you get where you want!" He would not let me get distracted. I continue to tell people this all the time - choose something and then do it. Generally speaking, ALL of the degrees we talk about most on here are fine. Just look at the plans, choose the one that makes sense for you, and then get moving! Do not do nothing because you have too many options. Pick one and go.
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All of that to say that I struggle with ALL of the issues mentioned, so I know what it feels like, but you can't let any excuse stop you from going after your goals.

[natshar]

I liked the idea of getting a degree but I didn't want to actually do the work to get there. One could argue that some of the alt credits options are less work than say a butt in seat RA course. BUT they still take work and self motivation.

I heard about BA in 4 weeks in 2012, didn't take my first CLEP test until 2015, and didn't graduate with my bachelors until 2020. So it's been a long road. But I did it!!

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I have paralysis by analysis - I love to come up with plans, but am not always good at DOING them!  Which is why it's nice to create plans for other people.  (And why I'm married to my husband who never lets things stand in the way when he wants them, and never spend 5 seconds analyzing or overthinking things).  So new things would come up all the time, and my husband would say "do NOT spend time worrying about this, just keep going until you get where you want!" He would not let me get distracted.  I continue to tell people this all the time - choose something and then do it.  Generally speaking, ALL of the degrees we talk about most on here are fine.  Just look at the plans, choose the one that makes sense for you, and then get moving!  Do not do nothing because you have too many options.  Pick one and go.
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This is good advice!!!

[davewill]

As a kid I had undiagnosed ADD, and limped through on raw intelligence, usually ignoring all homework assignments, then scraping a B on tests. Going to community college I did little better. The only F on my transcript was a failed HEALTH class. Why did I fail? I forgot to go to the final exam, and was too embarrassed to contact the prof and ask for a retest. After pretending to go school while working for 6-7 YEARS, I finally admitted to myself that I was never going to transfer to a 4 year school, and gave up.

Later on, I figured out that I had ADD, got medication, and it did wonders. I didn't bother going back to school after that as I had a family and was making good money doing what I like. I found degreeforum after having an offer rescinded because I didn't have a degree. It made me mad. I will say that once I looked, I didn't spend much time dithering. I spent maybe a month and a half reading and sorting out my choices, then applied to TESU (then TESC, but the change happened before I graduated) and started killing off classes one at a time. Took about two years, which is about what it would have taken an average student going full-time. I could have gone faster, but between work and home life, that was the pace I was comfortable with.