Statement Of Purpose: Returning To College

Coming to college as an adult, we have many expectations and preconceptions of what college will or will not be. The expectations we have can influence our college life for the better or the worse. My experience since starting college has been an interesting one. People have misconceptions about college because they do not know what to expect. After doing some research, I have concluded that there are three major factors that are often misunderstood about college life. The first is the financial aspect of college. Second, is the relationship between the professors and students. Third is time management. These three factors play an important role in why people are afraid to go down the path to college.

Adult students applying to college is more common than faculty thinks. Colleges are seeing more adults returning to college to complete a degree that they began when they were younger. The adult student is working longer in life and needs to keep up with their competition which is a younger group and better-qualified. The younger employee is technical savvy and has graduated from college with new ideas to share in the workforce. The research that will be included in this paper will focus on the conceptual framework.

Returning back to school was a very natural decision for me. It seemed to be the next logical step in my personal and career goals. My ultimate goal is to be happy and healthy and be a good provider and role model. With that set aside for now, my next goal is to be financially stable and able to provide for my family in ways that my family was not able to provide for me. I definitely expect to work for what I want and earn every bit of it. The most recent motivator was that my company was willing to contribute a huge chunk of the yearly tuition, therefore removing some financial burden. This makes me feel like they truly care about my future and they really want to see me succeed.

During my senior year in 2012, I decided to applied to universities however; my parents were not able to help me out financially. Since the Dream Act was not available until January 2013, I decided to attend a community college. I decided to enroll at Santa Monica College and then transfer to a university as a Physical Anthropology major. I took enough classes to be a full time student and still be able to help my parents around the house. My plan was to stay at Santa Monica College for 3 years and then apply for transfer; however, two of my most dear and closest family members became ill. My uncle, who has always believed that I could achieve great things in life, who gives the best advises in the world, and who taught me how to play the clarinet

I recently found a list of goals that I had written 20 years ago. Most of the goals were realistic and I was able to achieve them. While I was checking the items off my list that I accomplished, there was one that I have debated about for many years—returning to school to earn a degree. Returning to school has always been achievable; however, as each year of my life sped by and I got older, I always came up with more and more excuses as to why I should not return to school. One day I received a course catalog in the mail showing online classes at the college. I decide that an online class would be the first step to my future. I am so grateful for the first day of that class. All the excuses and delays regarding returning to school

I am the daughter of immigrant, and I myself, am an immigrant. We emigrated Africa when I was seven for various reasons, two of them being political instability and the lack of an effective education system. I am the second oldest of five siblings, meaning I am a first generation college student. With neither of my parents going beyond a high school education, they were unable to fully support my siblings or I financially or in terms of education. Because of that, they put it upon themselves to teach us the importance of education, independence and hard work from a young age. Throughout high school, I worked 2 jobs in order to support myself, and still managed to be in the top half of my class. Through hard work, I ended up getting a full ride to UNL. At the end of senior year I even ended up landing an internship with the UNL Chemistry department for a summer, which I continued working on throughout freshmen year of college.

Pursuing college has always been one of my biggest goals to achieve in life. After high school, I will higher my education by attending college. My ultimate goal will be to one day become a veterinarian. The love and compassion I have for animals plays a big role in choosing this course of study. Growing up on a ranch, I am exposed to animals such as horses, cows, dogs, chickens, and rabbits. Tending to the animals and keeping them in good health gives me the experience I need to see if the veterinarian study is fitting for myself. Furthermore, I plan to attend BYU-Idaho which offers a pre vet course that gives students who are seeking to become veterinarians the opportunity to intern at a vet

Many things come to mind when thinking about what are my motivations for returning to school. My top three motivations would have to be: Being the best role model for my nephew, doing something that I am passionate about and proving to myself that I can finish what I started many years ago. Growing up I looked up to my parents and coaches as role models; but, now I see my nephew look to me as a role model and him to be proud. He is a very smart kid that will be able to achieve all his goals. I just want to be able to show him the way. Being financially satiable has always being a priority but I have come to learn that unless you love what you do no amount of money will be enough. My current job pays well but I find myself bored at times. I

While in high school, I took advantage of office hours and after school programs that were offered on campus. When I transition to community college, I got involve with programs including but not limited to; EOP, Dream Weavers, the writing and math center, the library, and tutors who provided help via the EOP office. My college grades are a merely reflect my academic achievements. They also synonymous with challenges I faced while being a student at the community college level. As I began my first few years in college, it was absolutely tedious and at time confusing because I was unaware of career counselor guidance, financial aid opportunities, and even lacked the social support to continue my studies. I did not let these challenges affect

Due to the continuing increase of living it’s nearly impossible to be able to live alone. Since the demand of a higher education for better paying jobs is at an all time high trying to juggle a full-time job and returning to college is more than difficult at times. Frank, a full-time employee decided that he’d better himself by returning to college. Never considering that times have changed, he still continued to work and go to school. He stretched himself to the max; he worked late hours and then stayed up doing homework until the early morning only to have to get up and return to class to repeat the long days over. Several weeks passed, he realized that he was never going to be able to get ahead to matter how hard to tried. He was very aware that if he stopped taking classes his chances of being something in the world were even slimmer than if he continued and somehow managed to do both. Frank decided that no matter how tough these next few months were going to be he wasn’t going to let it stop him from meeting his goals.

I have always wanted to get an advanced degree. I was late in getting my undergraduate degree due to working while in high school. Once I started making money, I found it difficult to quit work to go back to school. Then, several years later after becoming a single parent, I had the chance to move back in with my parents.

When going into the 5th grade, I would drive by kipp every single day. Every time I would drive by, I would constantly tell my mom that I wanted to attend kipp my 5th grade year. When I got accepted into kipp, I was so excited. At the age of 10, I was being introduced to college. My very first homeroom was Brown University. Kipp pushed students to want to attend college to better their futures. I stayed in kipp from 5th-12th grade. Those years in kipp, we went on plenty of college tours so that the students could get a feeling of how college is. In high school when preparing for college, kipp offered so much help when it came down to ACT prep and also preparing for college interviews. Kipp offers plenty of support, they want to see their students shine. For instance, in my 12th

There are many reasons why I decided to go back to school. Upon graduating from high school in 2007 I decided to attend trade school due to my passion for cutting hair. After I obtained my certified barber license in 2009, I began my self-employed journey into entrepreneurship along with starting community college in 2011. As a few months went by I found myself incarcerated leaving my wife and 10-month son behind. Four years slowly passed and I return home with a totally different mind state of cherishing life and taking advantage of opportunities. Therefore, in April of 2015, working as a welder, I enrolled into Bethel University as a full-time online student seeking a degree in Organization Leadership. Right after incarceration I joined a

I am applying for college admission, educational opportunity programs, and special opportunities following high school graduation. I would appreciate your recommendation to include in my applications.

Returning to college has been both exhilarating and frustrating. I knew it would be a long, hard road and it was going to take more than just making time to study to earn my degree. Being an older student has given me a different perspective on what I must do to succeed, and a more profound respect for the process and people involved. There were many reasons that drove me to apply to college and adhere to that decision.