Are you taking the courses you want to take, nontraditional student? Maybe it's time to consider changing course...

This posting is an Expanded continuation of a posting called: More Tips for Nontraditional Students: 10 situations, plus possible solutions.

We talk about #3 today.

#3. You are NOT interested in the same things you used to be.
Does this strike a chord with you? Are you starting to question the classes you have chosen, or maybe your course of study or major? Here is the sort version of some advice: Consider changing your direction - - you major - - or your plan.

OK we all know that is easier said than done. You may have really invested in your major or plan so far. It's not easy to change! You can (of course) talk to your advisor about your Plan B, which may include a new direction. Maybe going into another field will be easier for you. Maybe it will interest you more, which will make the studying and grades easier too.

There are some sites online that can help you decide which direction to go. 

Here are the "Expanded answers to the Advice Posting so far:

#1: Were your grades great, or would you like a redo of them, nontraditional students?

#2: Not enough credits to graduate, CLEP, addition, accreditation, transfers, more.

#3.  Are you taking the courses you want to take? Or is it time to change course?

#4.  You don't know if you want to continue, for any reason. Can you continue on?

#5. Are your student loans adding up too fast?
And here are some more resources to help you decide whether it would be best to make a change, OR not.

 Question time: are you doing what you want to do?

What do you want to be when you grow up? (Some aptitude tests online...)

and Are you trying to decide what to take? (This posting has my favorite Pro vs. Con sheet decision method, explained.)

Good luck in your decision-making, nontrads.
Here is the original posting again you might like to check out: More Tips for Nontraditional Students: 10 situations, plus possible solutions.

My next posting will talk about #4. You don't know if you want to continue, for any reasons. You feel burnt out. Get advice about this one soon.

Betsyanne

Some Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog

Join Nontrads on Facebook, Nontrads on Yahoo, and Nontrads on Twitter

Were your grades great - - or would you like a redo of them, nontraditional students?

This posting is a continuation of the last posting, More Tips for Nontraditional Students: 10 situations, plus possible solutions.

We explore #1, in more detail today.

#1. Your grades are NOT what you want. The answer from the other posting was: "You can always take the class over, maybe extend the time (take an Incomplete), or move on to another class you can do better in."

Yes, that can work. But it's a lot more complicated than that, really. Who knows what the reason was for this happening. It could be because of a lot of things.

Also, you may not have this problem. You may be doing fine and have gotten the grades you want in every class. If you are like me, though, you did not always get straight A's... sometimes a class was harder than others, and you got a lower grade. This can happen for many reasons.

You may have gotten lower than A's in more than one class. You might even have gotten such "bad" grades that you might be on probation, or have to take classes over.

Don't think it's the end of the world. It's not. Many people have had things like this happen, for many different reasons. If you have learned from what happened, that is good, and hopefully you can come back from this stronger, and more able to succeed in school OR in life.

Don't give up... and don't give up on school, or yourself. There are more ideas to help you solve this problem.

A. You can talk to a trusted friend (maybe a fellow student) and come up with a plan to do better next semester.

B. You can talk to your school Advisor about that too, and finding out what you can do to make things better and to do better next semester. And, depending on what was going on with you, an appointment with a Counselor (often free at your school too...) might also help you pinpoint what to do next.

Here are some more things to think about:

Your GPA can be affected by having a "bad" or low grade in a certain class. You may find you have to take a class over to try to fix this. That is totally OK.

ADDING: Someone wrote me about this option. And reminds me to say that your original grade might not be changed - - instead, you may still have your original grade listed on your transcript. The new one will also be listed. And your GPA may change for the better. But it's not like a Magic Eraser for your original grade. Just saying.

But beyond that, anyone can have a "bad" semester. It happens.

C. In a worst case scenario, you might need to work for awhile and pay back your student loans, then apply again later, either where you went to school or to another school. There ARE choices out there that you can make to start making things better for yourself.

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Have you gone through a situation like this? How did you handle it?

Leave a comment below.

This Grades Tip posting is just one subject I will be exploring on the blog later on.

Here is the original posting you might like to check out: More Tips for Nontraditional Students: 10 situations, plus possible solutions.

And here are a couple of other postings that might help you now, and in the future.

Some Study and Final Project Tips

What Successful Nontraditional Students need to have, and

Woman graduates college after 40 Semesters (wow...)

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And here are the expanded answers to this posting, so far:

#1: Were your grades great, or would you like a redo of them, nontraditional students?

#2: Not enough credits to graduate, CLEP, addition, accreditation, transfers, more.

#3.  Are you taking the courses you want to take? Or is it time to change course?

#4.  You don't know if you want to continue, for any reason. Can you continue on?

#5. Are your student loans adding up too fast?

Betsyanne

#1. Your grades are NOT what you want. You can always take the class over, maybe extend the time (take an Incomplete), or move on to another class you can do better in. - See more at: http://non-traditional-students.blogspot.com/2014/05/more-tips-for-nontraditional-students.html#.U5N3iS_GJow

#1. Your grades are NOT what you want. You can always take the class over, maybe extend the time (take an Incomplete), or move on to another class you can do better in. - See more at: http://non-traditional-students.blogspot.com/2014/05/more-tips-for-nontraditional-students.html#.U5N3iS_GJow

Some Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog

Join Nontrads on Facebook, Nontrads on Yahoo, and Nontrads on Twitter

Are you a Nontrad? There are others. And there IS support out there...

There are new nontraditional students who enter school every semester.

Are you a nontraditional students? As you may know, Nontrads may be older students, some have families, many work full or part-time, and some have been to college before.

Others have taken a short or long break, then have finally gone back to school.

It takes planning and support to go back to school. It's a big step. Some have dreams of a better life, and others have dreamed of learning about a new subject. Some take out loans and some have full or partial scholarships.

Know that there IS support out there. Some support may be at your school, in the form of nontrad clubs or study areas, special classes or times, and dedicated Advising areas.

If you are an online student, some of your fellow students may be nontraditional students too!

Go, nontrad students!

Here are some more Nontrad links:

The Nontrad site and blog

Join Nontrads on Facebook

Nontrads on Yahoo

and Nontrads on Twitter

Good luck on Midterms - plus sign up for the Nontrad News

Good luck on Midterms!

Photo credit: CollegeDegrees360 on Flickr.

I am wishing all nontraditional students the best of luck on midterms. And I hope you have a GREAT Spring Break, even if you have to work on projects instead of taking a vacation.

Here are some sites and postings that may help you with studying this semester too.

#1. Midterms and Grades - how to improve them

#2. Nontraditional Students and Midterms - how is it going? Are you in the groove?

#3. My best study tips (and what are yours?) 

PS I need just one more person to sign up for the Nontrads News (below) and then I will make a new issue. Thanks ahead of time!

-Betsyanne

Check out scholarships at the Find Scholarships and Grants Blog too.

And here are some more Nontrad links:

The Nontrad site and blog 

Join Nontrads on Facebook 

Nontrads on Yahoo

Nontrads on Twitter

Defining ourselves as Nontraditional Students

Defining the Nontraditional Student (...what others may think, what I think, and what you think...)

Debt and the Nontraditional Student: a discussion.

Okay. A lot of nontraditional students have debt.

Many have student loans, and some have debt from before going back to school too.

Many of us have used credit cards too much... or decided to get something (like a computer) that was needed today instead of tomorrow. As far as student loans go, some people think that they should be forgiven - - and that school fees are way too high. And there is no guarantee that a student will actually get a job after graduation anymore. So how is a student supposed to pay student loans when they don't have a job?

First off, there can be no other choice for nontraditional students but to borrow to go back to school. So hopefully students will get a degree or certification in a "good" area, one that makes it possible to be hired.

And there is another complication for some students who have too much debt and want to declare bankruptcy and start over. Courts may not let them get out of paying their student loans.

As many of my readers know, there was a law passed recently that made it much harder to declare bankruptcy and eliminate your student loan debt.

So what can students do? Here are some suggestions:

1. Keep loans public - use government loans and try not to use private loans, which can charge a much greater interest rate.
2. Take as many courses as you can and stretch your semester dollars,
3. Consider tech or trade school (with transferrable credits) because the cost is lower, and
4.  Do your research and make sure what you are training for is actually in high demand.
5. Consider a 2-year degree, pay off debt, then get another degree, if needed. This allows you to only pay for 2 years instead of 4 or more.

Have another good suggestions? List it below as a comment.

Here are some interesting articles about student debt and student loan debt:
Student loan forgiveness ideas leave Americans split
Actual student loan forgiveness exists (for teachers, more)
Law Grads go to Court for Bankruptcy Protection

Betsyanne

Some Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog Join Nontrads on Facebook Nontrads on Yahoo Nontrads on Twitter

Good luck on finals, nontraditional students!

Finals - here is wishing good luck to everyone taking finals right now!

I want to wish everyone good luck on finals. WKU, where I was a nontraditional student, has finals this week. Some other schools do, too.

Break a pencil! In other words, the best of luck to you.

Share your Finals experiences here at the end of this blog, as a comment.

I would love to hear how it is going, or how Finals went, AND how school went this semester.

I look forward to your comments.

Betsyanne
Former Nontraditional Student

And here are some of my other Nontrad links:
The Nontrad site and blog
Join Nontrads on Facebook
Nontrads on Yahoo, and Nontrads on Twitter 

And just what is a nontraditional student? A nontraditional student is a student going back to school after a break. Remember: you CAN do it! :-)

Looking back, and some things I learned by being a nontraditional student (revised and corrected)

#1: I learned that my attitude mattered... (version 2)

Okay. I'll admit it. At first when I went back to school, my attitude was that of "Uh-oh. Will I fit in? Will this work out for me? Am I making the wrong choices in what I am taking?"

The last question was the biggest one I had. Was I making a wrong choice? Like many nontraditional students, I had more than one choice in what I could take in school. I did know one thing: I didn't want to take 4 more years of school and not have much (at least on paper) to show for it.

My decision had been whether to concentrate on my English skills OR go for Art education instead. Once I made up my mind, I went for it.

But I can imagine that waffling longer... maybe taking one class at a time, taking both interests at the same time, and always worrying about my decision would have bogged me down, and taken time away from where it belonged: on my studies.

As it turned out, deciding once and for all about this question was a good decision for me. If I had not, I would have had to take MUCH longer to find out what teaching could really be like (at least, at the school I taught at, which I think was a pretty typical school).

Another good benefit of having a plan was that I did not have to re-take any classes or drop any. This is a very good thing, and saved me a lot of money. Plus, I found out some important lessons. The most important lesson I learned was that you just have to TRY something sometimes and find out if you like it.

#2 Some other things I learned by being a nontraditional student...

A. All the positive attitude, smiles, and good intentions in the world won't help you if you don't jump in with both feet and actually TRY something. Once I decided to go for more education, and actually signed up and did my FAFSA, everything else just started to fall in place.

B. Deciding what I was going to do with my second chance at another type of job was up to me, but I was NOT locked into that choice, as I learned later on. I learned that I could branch out into something else after I earned my certification.

Learning a new skill helped me in my personal life - - I was able to speak better in front of lots of people, make presentations, and do research faster. I was able to finish projects in a timely way. Now I can divide projects and my writing up into smaller sections and delegate my time.

C. Going back to school was not only a chance for me to learn something academic, but was a chance to learn something about MYSELF. I found out that I could overcome some big challenges, and I was not a quitter. (I pretty much knew this already, but I confirmed it.) I also learned that if I tried my best, sometimes that was more than enough.

D. When I was in school, I needed to pull out all the stops in order to do well and get good grades. Learning what I needed to learn did not come easy. It was a lot of hard work. That meant studying as much as possible, never missing class, and connecting with other students. But you know what? All the hard work was really worth it, and helped build up my self-esteem.

E. Graduating or finishing my classes did NOT mean that I was stuck in a rut or couldn't change my mind later. It turned out I DID change my mind later, and that was OK.

I know that I can always go back to school again as a nontraditional student for something entirely different, OR I can learn another subject in school or by myself. The sky is indeed the limit now, because I proved to myself that I could knuckle down and succeed at learning something I wanted to learn, and my age didn't matter.

F. I learned that my success isn't always what other people tell me it is. My personal success and how I feel about myself is up to me.

I learned that what other people tell me is the "truth" is not always all of what is really going on in a situation. (Duh!) I learned that it is not enough to just have an opinion or look at things from "my" point of view. I learned that looking at others' points of view can be refreshing, even if those people do not agree with me, and/or have their own agendas.

I learned a lot about really looking around and evaluating things. This is a life skill that is really important.

Because I went back to school, I learned a lot about teaching, a lot about people, and a lot about lessons and life - - because when I tried teaching for the very first time, I learned so much. The biggest lesson of all was learning that it is OK to make a mistake. Everyone does it. In fact, it is human to make a mistake. I am the kind of person who used to go over and over the causes of every mistake when it happened.

I have changed. I no longer do this. Nowadays I stop when I have pretty much understood it, and focus a lot more on the learning I have because of each one. Going back to school has changed me as a person and changed the way I think in a very basic and healthy way.

Are you going back to school right now? What are some things you are concerned about OR what have you learned so far? Share your thoughts below as a comment.

Later!

E. Sheppard

Some of my other Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog Join Nontrads on Facebook Nontrads on Yahoo Nontrads on Twitter