When the Dog Won't Eat Your Homework: Survival Tips for Back-to-School Adults

Let's face it; you're not a kid anymore. In going back to school as an adult, you'll face unique challenges that don't apply to younger students. Here are some adult learning tips to help you along as you earn your online degree or attend a brick-and-mortar institution:

1. Time management: When you were younger, it seemed like you had all the time in the world. You could hang out with your friends for hours and still be able to bang out that paper for class the next day. As an adult, with many more responsibilities (and less stamina), you're going to have to develop some time management strategies. Reserve some daylight hours when you have the energy for school projects, perhaps before work or on weekend afternoons. But schedule in some downtime, too. Many adults end up leaving school because of burnout.
2. Consider an online degree: As a young student, much of the college experience was being on campus, surrounded by your peers--talking, learning, socializing. As an adult, however, much of your time and energy has likely shifted to your family. An online degree lets you work at home, close to those most important to you. Facetime with your kids is probably worth losing facetime with your classmates.
3. Nurture the adult mind: As an adult, you're in the advantageous position of knowing more about the world and about your chosen profession, which will help with going back to school. But the adult mind takes longer to learn new things than it did when you were younger. Allow yourself extra time to absorb new knowledge and skills. Depth, not speed, is your gift now.
4. Take advantage of resources: Colleges have many resources open to students, such as tutoring centers and writing and computer labs. As a young student, you may have been too embarrassed or headstrong to take advantage of this help. Now, you can acknowledge that everyone has their strengths and their weaknesses, and that asking for help when you need it is the adult thing to do.