by Kay Fielding

Created on: October 03, 2009

Colleges are set up so that you are meant to complete the work. If you take a break, you might find yourself with these problems:

1. Your continuous coursework is designed to get you through in a four year period. When you quit, you will likely fall under the rule that you have to begin a new catalog which means that you have new requirements and new classes that you have to complete. This is very time consuming and frustrating, and although last year, your course work was great, this year someone determined that it was not. So you have new classes and more time to complete your degree.

2. Sometimes folks end up getting out of school and find a great job. They want to stay at their job. But it is a full time job, and they cannot go to college and work. Doing both is too demanding. Later they realize that their full time job was really not a lifetime job, and they have to go back to college to complete a degreeby this time, they will often have far more responsibilities which makes it harder.

3. Students get away from studying, and they forget how. Many returning students need to take a refresher course on how to study. I did. It was great, but it was one more class I needed to take to complete my degree.

4. As you age, the population of the college campus does not. Although there are more and more students who are older, college is a place that many people are younger. Sometimes this youthful campus is a problem because, as an older student, you have more experience, but you feel out of the circle. That can be hard when you are grouped with people ten years younger than you are.

5. Students in college are often young, without a family of their own, and free to do as they wish. If you decide to return later, you might find yourself with a family. Those responsibilities come first, and you will find that they also create a lot of time away from studies. When younger students have more time, they tend to have better grades and compete with you in the classes. This can result in you being very dissatisfied with your grades.

6. Scholarships are mostly meant for seniors in high school. There are some that are for adults, but they are far harder to get and find. If you quit, they also quit. They do not start again when you do.

7. Often by the time you are older, you have more income and more assets. Those make it hard to get a grant.

8. Once you quit, you have to start paying back student loans. If you return, you have student loans that you still have to pay. They don't go away, and once they start, they don't stop.

It is a better idea to stay in school and get it done. You might find yourself in a great job that you don't want to leave, and they might require an education. If you don't have it, you could be passed up for promotions. Stay in college; complete it, and then you're really ready to get out into the world of work.

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