Bachelor of Arts (BA) degrees don’t generally train a student for a particular career field; instead, the purpose of a BA is to teach students problem solving skills, reasoning, judgment and analytical skills. There are exceptions to this rule, such as the Bachelor of Arts in Education degree which prepares a student for a career in teaching. Bachelor of Arts degrees are mostly humanities based. Graduates of BA programs can enter a wider variety of career fields since the skills they acquire along the way transfer to a number of professions. The BA’s emphasis on reading, writing and analytical skills is valued by many employers.

A Bachelor of Science (BS) degree focuses more on technical aspects of learning. A strong focus on math and science is a core component of the degree. There is an emphasis on quantitative work, research and data analysis. If you’re looking for a career in a research field, the BS degree is  the one for you. The BS degree will also require a number of credit-hours in the humanities in order to produce well-rounded students. Nearly all careers in science, medicine, computing and math start with BS degrees.

Some programs have both options available. A program advisor in the department would be best able to discuss which option is right for you.

In my “About” page, I mentioned a little bit about myself and how was a back-to-school mom, struggling with the same things you are.  I’m going to fill you in a little more about my experience going back to school, so you know I’m sincere about wanting to help you.

I started going to college in 1999, at age 35. My kids were aged 13 and 11 at the time. I was a single mom in a small town with no real job prospects and going to work at one of the local sawmills didn’t really appeal to me. So, I trudged down to the local college and signed up for classes. The school I attended was very small; it was a satellite campus of a college located 75 miles away. In fact, it was so small that it shared it’s campus with a university also located 75 miles away. (Note-I’m Canadian, and two-year schools are usually referred to as colleges, and four-year schools are universities.)

It was plenty weird going into my first class with people ten-to-fifteen years younger than I was. Fortunately, there were a few other “old timers” sprinkled in here and there so I was able to keep my sanity. For two years, I bounced between taking courses at the college downstairs, and  taking classes upstairs at the university. Quite a few of my classes were by teleconference, which made it quite easy to mute rather boring lectures and discuss more interesting things amongst ourselves,  even if they were not quite on topic.

I got tired of this, and ended up pulling up stakes and moving to the States to attend Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA. At the time, Gonzaga had a program for adult students which gave students a 40% reduction in tuition–this being the only reason I could affford it. I also got married for the second time while I attended Gonzaga to a great guy who was and still is, a very supportive person in everything I do. With his help, and the wonderful professors at Gonzaga, I studied my buns off and graduated in 2004 with a 3.70 GPA.

Yeah, it was tough. But I still managed to cook meals, keep a reasonably clean house, go to my kids’ activities and work part-time. If you really want to go back to school, I’m saying you can do the same. You’ll have to be more organized  as a back-to-school mom than you ever have been in your life. You may have to put your social life on the back burner at times. If you have a procrastination habit, you must break it and never put off starting assignments.

At times, you’ll think you’ll never get your degree finished, and get very stressed out at times–but I’m here to say it is do-able .  Just let me know how I can help.

I’m here for you every step of the way if you decide going back to school is the right thing for you. Drop me a line at norma@back2schoolmoms.com , or leave a comment. Let me know what topics you want to hear about.

I was visiting Nate Desmond’s site Debt-free Scholar, and came across a great guest post from Karen Schweitzer who writes for OnlineColleges.net. In the article, Karen lists 20 online classes from traditional colleges and universities that you can take for free. Acording to Karen, most of the courses are non-credit,  but what a great way for us back-to school moms to try out a college course at no risk or cost. There is a wide variety of courses available, from intellectual property and information law to furniture making, and fiction writing, all yours for the taking.