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For Middle-Age Students, Is College Worth the Risk?
1. For Middle-Age Students, Is College Worth the Risk?
Just returned from a weeklong vacation in Mexico, Romeo is back at her job as communications
director for a global engineering company.
And since her employer is paying most of her college expenses, Romeo's student debt is minimal.
"It was scary, but it was one of the best decisions of my life," says Romeo, who is now 45.
Monroe, meanwhile, has $45,000 in student loan debt but only $2 in her bank account. "You really
have to consider your age, your expenses, how much money you can expect to make after you
graduate."
[Related Article: How I'm Repaying $120,000 in Student Loans]
. They feel that spending the time and money to improve one's education almost always leads to
more pay, better opportunities and happier lives. But it also can carry significant risks, including
burdensome loan debt, without much prospect for higher earnings.
And since older students have fewer years left in the workforce to pay off their school loans, experts
say it's even more critical that they carefully weigh the potential risks and rewards.
"The advice I give really depends on the individual," says Cristina Briboneria, a financial planner
oXYGen Financial in Alpharetta, Georgia. "But there's definitely been an increase in full-time
education among older students, as more people lose their jobs or go to working part-time."
[Related article: How Student Loan Debt Can (Gasp!) Help Your Credit]
Returning to school often helps older students switch careers, get better-paying jobs, or climb the
corporate ladder within their current company. "I think my education actually hurts me."
[Related article: 7 Serious Tuition Savings Tips]
Many Americans believe that going back to school is a universally good idea. The number of middle-aged
people in college, graduate school or technical school is projected to continue rising to 4.1
million by 2015, the center predicts.
"Older people have always gone to school part-time," says Jane Glickman, spokeswoman for the U.S.
Over 3.9 million people ages 35 and over were enrolled in degree-granting institutions in 2010, the
last year for which data is available, up 20 percent from when the latest recession started in 2006,
according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Unemployed for six months, her best hope
now is to regain the job she had before school, working part-time at a Victoria's Secret store.
"I'm completely indigent," says Monroe, now 54. Pamela Monroe was 42. But their outcomes
couldn't be more different. College graduates earn 84 percent more money over their lifetimes on
average than people with just high school diplomas, according to a study by Georgetown University's
Center on Education and the Workforce.
That belief in education as a universal good holds true for middle-aged people. Department of
2. Education.
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Deidre Romeo was 40 years old when she started college. Believing that more education would lead
inevitably to better-paying jobs and improved lives, both women received bachelor's degrees, and
continued on to graduate school
![For Middle-Age Students, Is College Worth the Risk?
Just returned from a weeklong vacation in Mexico, Romeo is back at her job as communications
director for a global engineering company.
And since her employer is paying most of her college expenses, Romeo's student debt is minimal.
"It was scary, but it was one of the best decisions of my life," says Romeo, who is now 45.
Monroe, meanwhile, has $45,000 in student loan debt but only $2 in her bank account. "You really
have to consider your age, your expenses, how much money you can expect to make after you
graduate."
[Related Article: How I'm Repaying $120,000 in Student Loans]
. They feel that spending the time and money to improve one's education almost always leads to
more pay, better opportunities and happier lives. But it also can carry significant risks, including
burdensome loan debt, without much prospect for higher earnings.
And since older students have fewer years left in the workforce to pay off their school loans, experts
say it's even more critical that they carefully weigh the potential risks and rewards.
"The advice I give really depends on the individual," says Cristina Briboneria, a financial planner
oXYGen Financial in Alpharetta, Georgia. "But there's definitely been an increase in full-time
education among older students, as more people lose their jobs or go to working part-time."
[Related article: How Student Loan Debt Can (Gasp!) Help Your Credit]
Returning to school often helps older students switch careers, get better-paying jobs, or climb the
corporate ladder within their current company. "I think my education actually hurts me."
[Related article: 7 Serious Tuition Savings Tips]
Many Americans believe that going back to school is a universally good idea. The number of middle-aged
people in college, graduate school or technical school is projected to continue rising to 4.1
million by 2015, the center predicts.
"Older people have always gone to school part-time," says Jane Glickman, spokeswoman for the U.S.
Over 3.9 million people ages 35 and over were enrolled in degree-granting institutions in 2010, the
last year for which data is available, up 20 percent from when the latest recession started in 2006,
according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Unemployed for six months, her best hope
now is to regain the job she had before school, working part-time at a Victoria's Secret store.
"I'm completely indigent," says Monroe, now 54. Pamela Monroe was 42. But their outcomes
couldn't be more different. College graduates earn 84 percent more money over their lifetimes on
average than people with just high school diplomas, according to a study by Georgetown University's
Center on Education and the Workforce.
That belief in education as a universal good holds true for middle-aged people. Department of](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/1411174585541cd0b971974-140919195628-phpapp02/85/For-Middle-Age-Students-Is-College-Worth-the-Risk-1-320.jpg?cb=1411156595)
