Higher Ed

The number of adult undergraduates (over 25) is projected to grow 21 percent by 2022.[1] Adults going back to college for a master’s degree or to finish degree a bachelor’s degree is becoming increasingly common. With flexible options, including online education and accelerated learning, the opportunities are endless. 

There are many reasons adults return to school. You may be planning a career change or need new skills or credentials to move up in their career. Maybe, you are enrolling for personal development or after there has been a change in your life situation. [2]

Are you ready to begin or go back to school? Going to college is a big decision. No matter what your age, you must be in the right frame of mind to succeed at getting or finishing your degree.

When students continue their education from high school to college, they may need to unlearn some familiar patterns. In high school, students are told what to do and corrected if their behavior is out of line. In college, students are expected to take responsibility for their actions as well as for the consequences of their decisions. High school is a learning environment in which students acquire facts and skills. College is a learning environment in which students take responsibility for thinking through and applying what you have learned. In high school, effort counts. In college, results count.

When transitioning from high school to college, the problem may not be learning how to be a college student: it is unlearning how to be a high school student. Going from high school to college is a good example of how students may be operating with mental models that have grown outdated or obsolete.

Many of the paradigms we learned in school and built our careers on may have become ineffective. It is time to do some unlearning.