this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
26 points (96.4% liked)

Asklemmy

51790 readers
298 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://linux.community/post/4052877

don't give me the it's never too late bs. Life happens, people have jobs, debts and rent to pay.

Going back to school when you're employed means debt, earning way less or nothing during your bachelor or master, stress, opportunities you're not aware of because you're simply not at your workplace anymore, unpaid overtime during those 2 to 3 years... the money you lose is more than what the bachelor / accreditation costs.

When does it start being a stupid idea? Is it when you're 30? 40? 50?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] CanadaPlus 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Depends what the goal is, and what your responsibilities are.

If you want to learn, the upper limit is literally just defined by remaining health. I'm pretty sure seniors can audit for free at least some places.

If the goal is to make more money, it depends what you're already making, your chance of successfully graduating, and how much you'd make in your new job. A simple equation that's close enough, but not totally correct would be something like: (new salary - old salary)*working years*probability of success - (tuition + old salary)*expected time in school

If it's to have a job you like more, it's hard to quantify and will be a pure judgement call.

Given that you're still working age it's realistically going to be a mix of all three. I'm also not sure how having kids would factor in, exactly.