From student to staff

 

By spending the majority of my time around prospective students and having been an adult learner myself, I’ve developed a pretty good idea about the often tortuous decision-making process involved in returning to college. There always seem to be so many things to consider, so many factors involved in the decision. Let’s face it: our lives are complicated; when balancing work and family obligations, it’s hard to imagine fitting college into the picture. Many prospective students postpone making the choice, waiting for what I like to call ‘celestial alignment’: having one’s personal stars, moons and planets reach a perfect state in which returning to school becomes as simple as going for Chinese take-out. These individuals wait, and wait, and wait, hoping that one day everything will sort itself out and the decision will be easy. Sadly for most of us, celestial alignment rarely just happens. Fitting college into a working adult’s busy life take intentionality and some effort, but it is do-able and not nearly as hard as one would imagine.

At Granite State College we have become experts at helping our students overcome the obstacles that non-traditional learners face when starting their adult college program. Our Academic Advisors really listen, and help develop manageable plans of study that are based on the student’s needs and life schedule. Our Financial Aid counselors assist students in navigating the Federal Financial Aid process and figuring out the big question: How am I going to pay for this?  And our faculty understands our student body and is flexible in helping students meet course requirements when ‘life happens’.

I often tell prospective students that the hardest part about returning to school at Granite State College is ‘pulling the trigger’; making the decision to go forward and take their first adult college course.  Over the last three years I’ve lost count of the number of students and graduates that I’ve run into who have told me that I was right!