If I had a nickle for every time...

"I'm too old to go back to school."  If I had a nickle for every time I have heard that in the past 10 years or so...

You see, for almost 10 years I have been working in admissions at Piedmont College, a small private college in Northeast Georgia, almost nine years in graduate admissions and now almost a year in undergraduate admissions.  In my current role I am in charge of recruiting and the admissions process for "adult learners" at the undergraduate level, which for Piedmont means age 25 and older.

Many I talk to are in one of two categories.  The first is those who haven't even considered the possibility of returning to school.  The other group is those who are beginning the process of gathering information, or perhaps have even made application, but they are very nervous and apprehensive about the whole thing.

I would like to give you just a few bits of insight that may help calm your fears as it relates to returning to school.  This is certainly not a comprehensive list of reasons to attend but will give you some food for thought.

1) You aren't the only one.

I can sense in so many of my prospective students that inside they are feeling like they are the only person on the planet that would possibly consider going to school at their age.  When that becomes evident I will just come out and say to them, "You're not the only one!"  There are a significant number of students enrolled all over the US who are working professionals, or perhaps have recently become unemployed after a 20 year career in manufacturing.  In fact, the average age at Athens Technical College is 26 years old.  That means the average student is an "adult learner."  Did you know that only 15% of currently enrolled college students are "traditional," meaning attend a four year school out of high school and live on campus?  Guess who the other 85% are...

2) It's more affordable than you think.

It is undeniably true that tuition prices across the country have increased significantly and continue to do so.  However, many colleges so value the life experience the adult learner brings to the classroom that they are willing to provide deep discounts.  As an example, Piedmont College offers the Neighborhood Grant Program, which provides a 50% tuition discount for those students who live in the Northeast Georgia area.  If you attend a technical school in Georgia often times the Hope Grant covers most or all of the tuition cost.  Add to that the Pell Grant and other types of funding and the financial aspect of completing a bachelor's degree is often a non-issue.

3) Folks are living longer these days.

So you're going to retire at 62 or even 65, you say?  Maybe you will be in a financial position where you can do that, and that would be wonderful!  But get this...in 1960 the average life expectancy in the US was 69.77.  The average life expectancy as of 2010?  78.24!  Because of the great advancement of medicine and medical training, we are living almost 10 years longer on average than we were 50 years ago.  For that person who is 60 years old and needs maybe two more years to complete a degree, they may still have 18-20 years left of living.  What a great opportunity to make an impact on your community late in life with the knowledge and training you receive from a college degree.

In summary, maybe you or someone you know has thought about the possibility of returning to school but discounted the thought because you felt like you were too old.  Whether it would be a bachelor's or master's degree, I hope what you have read makes you think a little more seriously about what the possibilities could be.



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Great Expectations

I have been reading the book of Mark before I go to bed each night. Last night, I read the following:

"And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.

⁴And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.

⁵When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

⁶But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,

⁷Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?

⁸And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

⁹Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?

¹⁰But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)

¹¹I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.

¹²And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion."

As I read the passage, the order of events struck me as odd. Here is a man who desperately needs to be physically HEALED. His friends go through all this effort to drop him through the roof to be HEALED by Jesus. The most obvious thing that needs to be done is the HEALING of this man's body. (Did I drive home my point enough?) What happens when he finally is set before Jesus? Jesus sees faith and forgives the man's sin.

Maybe you are on a holier plain than I, but my first thought was, "Forgiving his sins? What about the poor guy's body?" Forgiveness was not what I expected. I have heard the story hundreds of times, but I never realized the order of the events--or the significance. I had to put myself in the place of this man. Here I am, finally getting my chance after years of suffering to be healed. There is all this build up as my friends rip up the roof to lower me through. I am laying at the feet of Jesus and He says, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." I don't know if that is what the man expected, but it wouldn't be what I expected. I would have expected Him to tell me to get up and run a few laps around the synagogue. I wish I knew what was going through that guy's mind when Jesus forgave him of his sins first. Was that what he expected??

As I read on into the chapter, I realized that in a way, I was having an attitude like that of the scribes. I wasn't questioning Jesus' ability to forgive sins, but I was questioning his judgment. Who was I to decide what needed to happen first? Who were these scribes to question Him? Who was I to say the order of how the Son of God does things?

As I thought more about it, the order of events made more sense. What was more important--the forgiveness of this man's sins or the healing of his body? Obviously, the forgiveness of his sins should have been the first thing on his mind when coming before the Son of God. Hopefully, this man was nothing like me--I would have expected to be healed. Yet, God did something much greater for this man than healing his physical body.

I wrote all this to say this--how often do we expect God to work in a certain way and it doesn't turn out how we think it should? I know I am so guilty of thinking I know how things should work out. Admit it! We all have these grand ideas and then we realize that our Heavenly Father has something even greater for us, beyond what we have expected. For instance, the man in the book of Mark probably never expected to be healed. He probably never expected to have the Son of God ever come near enough to him to be healed. When he saw the crowd he probably never expected to get close enough to have a chance encounter. The list could go on and on.

Recently, my expectations have not been great by any means. In fact, I would say I have been expecting the worst. The truth is, we should expect great things. We have a mighty God who thought enough of us to die for us. Does this mean that everything will be great and perfect? No. Does that mean that God's plan always include only hilltops and no valleys? No way. Should we always expect our will to be the best way? You have got to be kidding! What we do have is hope. We should also expect our God to do great things. You will find that He exceeds even our greatest hopes.