Why People Take SO LONG to Get Started?

[LevelUP]

These comments are based on my personal experience and my analysis of what other students have said.

Why do people Take SO LONG to get started on the path of earning a college degree using DegreeForum?

1. Bad Experience in High School or College
They didn't get good grades, hated going to school, or ran into high DFW courses. As a result, they think they aren't good enough for college or have trouble in a particular subject such as math or writing. They ARE GOOD ENOUGH. This will be a GREAT EXPERIENCE. Have some faith in the process.

2. The Paradox of Choice
Which college to pick, which degree to choose, which alt credits to select. Sometimes it's better to make the wrong choice as long as you move forward. All the schools recommended are good, they are regionally accredited, they will do the job of helping to advance your career.

3. They Don't Think They Have Enough Time
They have a full-time job, family obligations, or other things that take up their time. Even spending 5 hours a week is enough time to make substantial progress. Usually, 20hrs is the max time needed.

Does anyone have their stories to share? What was the one thing that pushed you over the edge to get started?

[rachel83az]

I think cost is another major one. Until UMPI came along, people were still looking at paying thousands of dollars even after accounting for financial aid. People without degrees tend not to have thousands of dollars just laying around. If they did, they wouldn't even need financial aid in the first place!

If money is tight and you invest what you have into education, but something stops you just short of the finish line... you've just made a very expensive gamble. You've just spent money that could've gone towards bills or to repairing your clunker of a car, but you don't yet have anything to show for it. That kind of situation is always going to be in the back of anyone's mind when they're tight on money.

THANKFULLY, UMPI came along and it's now possible to get a degree for less than it costs to rent an apartment for 2-3 months in many places.

[thewupk]

For me it was time. Full-time with family obligations made it very difficult. I had browsed degreeforum and had a basic plan for about 3-4 years before I finally took the plunge in 2020. When the pandemic hit I was able to work from home which became a huge time saver as I was commuting 2.5 hours per day. Then throw in that generous Sophia offer at the time and I was able to really jumpstart my path. I finally got to the point where I enrolled in TESU at the end of last year and plan on graduating after the summer. My path wasn't the cleanest or cheapest (taking several courses at TESU that could be done at SDC.com for example) but it's one I felt comfortable with and I can finally see the end.

[Vle045]

All of the above for me.

1. I did great in high school with very little effort. College was a bit harder. I just scraped by. Mostly because I never learned how to study. Certain subjects never seem to click for me. I am currently trying to get through the US History 1 course on Sophia. This would technically be my third try at this specific course. I was in AP classes in high school and could have attempted to take the test for college credit but I didn’t want to. I ended up taking it the next year during my freshman year in college. I got a D. Even with the same dang text book. It was enough to move on, but not transferable now. I understand the general concepts of what I am reading, I just can’t seem to remember dates and names. It drives me nuts. I am just wanting to scrape by with a minimally passing grade on Sophia. That will be enough for me. Yes, I know I may not need it. But I might.

2. Good grief the choices!!!! Especially the free and cheap stuff. Right now I have a year access to Sophia for free. So I guess I better get in as many courses as I can. I might as well go for as many business courses as possible…. Maybe they won’t be useful… but maybe they will. Then there’s Coursera. I jumped on the Coursera Plus for a year when it was $100 off. There’s some computer type stuff that could be for credit and some other stuff that might simply be good to know. I tried the ENEB deal. That one is brutal for me. The Reading is boring. Grammatical errors in the text drive me nuts. It is pretty much 100% self directed. The videos aren’t very useful when a good portion of them are in Spanish. Then there’s the actual college choices. I liked NAU a lot. They have the HR I was looking for. But….. they only transfer in a max of 64 credits. Leaving me with 56 to take. UMPI is appealing. But I don’t know which concentration to pick. And It seems I will need to take about 18 courses no matter how I slice it… or I’d have to take courses on more costly alt site like Study.com and I am not sure I want to do that either. TAMUC is extremely appealing because I can very easily get that down to 11 courses if I pass that dang history class.

3. Time! I work full time, I also work Part time at a little side job. I have a teenage son, hubby that works third shift, and a dog.

[gams007]

All of the above for me.  

1.  I did great in high school with very little effort.  College was a bit harder.  I just scraped by.  Mostly because I never learned how to study.   Certain subjects never seem to click for me.   I am currently trying to get through the US History 1 course on Sophia.  This would technically be my third try at this specific course.  I was in AP classes in high school and could have attempted to take the test for college credit but I didn’t want to.  I ended up taking it the next year during my freshman year in college.  I got a D.  Even with the same dang text book.  It was enough to move on, but not transferable now.   I understand the general concepts of what I am reading, I just can’t seem to remember dates and names.  It drives me nuts.  I am just wanting to scrape by with a minimally passing grade on Sophia.  That will be enough for me.   Yes, I know I may not need it.  But I might.

2.  Good grief the choices!!!!  Especially the free and cheap stuff.  Right now I have a year access to Sophia for free.  So I guess I better get in as many courses as I can.  I might as well go for as many business courses as possible…. Maybe they won’t be useful… but maybe they will.  Then there’s Coursera.   I jumped on the Coursera Plus for a year when it was $100 off.   There’s some computer type stuff that could be for credit and some other stuff that might simply be good to know.   I tried the ENEB deal.  That one is brutal for me.  The Reading is boring.  Grammatical errors in the text drive me nuts.   It is pretty much 100% self directed.  The videos aren’t very useful when a good portion of them are in Spanish.   Then there’s the actual college choices.  I liked NAU a lot.  They have the HR I was looking for.  But….. they only transfer in a max of 64 credits.  Leaving me with 56 to take.   UMPI is appealing.  But I don’t know which concentration to pick.  And It seems I will need to take about 18 courses  no matter how I slice it… or I’d have to take courses on more costly alt site like Study.com and I am not sure I want to do that either.   TAMUC is extremely appealing because I can very easily get that down to 11 courses if I pass that dang history class.

3.  Time!  I work full time,  I also work Part time at a little side job.  I have a teenage son, hubby that works third shift, and a dog.

My degree path cost me almost 4 year since TESU change the amount of transferring alternative credits. I enrolled to a community college beginning last year and still im doing some other course this year to finished the requirements so I lost 18 months because of this changes, and the fees from TESU is increasing constantly let see this coming June what comes new to TESU is better to start sending all the credits you can so later you don't get a new surprise. I expecting to graduate by September 2022, so to any one keep pushing to the end.

[jsd]

This is a great topic.

For me it was a bit of #1, and a bit of #3.

I was a lazy high school student and didn't take school seriously. I was constantly told I was "too smart for my own good' but that I didn't apply myself. I was a bad student and assumed I would always be a bad student, and in fact my first term in community college I continued this pattern until I eventually just stopped attending class resulting in failing grades.

After I established a decent career and matured a bit, learning how to apply myself, I starting taking community college courses here and there until it eventually led to an AA. I realized I loved the learning, but I hated the time sink.

I hated wasting my time butt in seat, and the pace was killing me as it felt like much of the time I was spending was just waiting for some of my peers to catchup instead of actually learning much. Online courses alleviated some of this, but were still a bit of a slog as the pacing was structured for those who might need extra time to pick up on concepts.

When I found out there was self-paced options, it opened up a brand new world for me. The time sink was no longer an issue, as I didn't have to slow down for anyone else (and I could go slow on topics for which I was the one slow on the uptake).

Now it feels weird to NOT be working on some sort of academic goal!

[rachel83az]

Time to get a doctorate, jsd?

[jsd]

Haha... I don't know if my work's $5000/Year tuition reimbursement will get me there.

But maybe someday....

[rachel83az]

Haha... I don't know if my work's $5000/Year tuition reimbursement will get me there.

But maybe someday....

I don't know, there are some pretty inexpensive doctorates out there now! If you're not going for speed, you might be able to find one that works.

[Maniac Craniac]

Haha... I don't know if my work's $5000/Year tuition reimbursement will get me there.

But maybe someday....

That's no chump change!