5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Going Back To School At 25 & It Was Not What I Expected
It's going to be expensive!
A student with a backpack on. Right: Cardiff University.
The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
When I decided to go back to school at 25, I was pretty excited about the prospect of getting back into the swing of university life.
I'd spent a few years working full-time at a PR agency but I always knew journalism was what I really wanted to do, so I decided to take the plunge and do a master's.
While I definitely have no regrets, going back to school in my 20s was a real learning curve in so many ways. There were several things to consider from how I'd adjust to student life again and manage to budget for a year on basically zero money.
These are the things I wish I knew before I went back to school:
It's expensive AF
We all know going to university is expensive, but I wasn't quite prepared for how much of a toll it would take when I went back after working full-time for a few years.
Despite saving up enough money to cover my rent and bills for a year and taking out student loans to cover course fees, it was still a struggle to adjust to not earning a full-time salary anymore.
I took on a part-time job at a local restaurant to help make ends meet, but it wasn't ideal. If I had one piece of advice, it would be to save way, way more than you'd initially budgeted for.
Getting back into student life is weird
After a few years away from education, it took a while to adjust to student life again. I lived near my campus in a house with six other roommates, and getting used to a constant stream of people (and the mess) wasn't easy.
Heading out to classes, doing assignments, and studying were all things I had to get used to again, and it was so much harder than I expected.
Sometimes I do miss being back at university, but then I remember working in the library well into the early hours of the morning on assignments and decide that I much prefer a full-time job.
It's harder than actually going to work
This will fully depend on which courses you're taking, but if you're thinking going back to school will mean minimal classes, you might be in for a shock.
My master's was a pretty full-on program with classes and study time every day from 8:15 a.m. to 3 or 4 p.m., alongside a lot of practical work on assignments outside of hours, on top of work and internships. I barely had a minute to myself for the entire year!
While it was pretty brutal at the time, it also made entering the working world again so much easier as I felt super prepared and could multi-task like a pro.
I was way more focused
When I did university the first time around, I definitely went just because I wasn't sure what I actually wanted to do with my life, and I think a lot of people are in the same boat. I came out with a degree that was perfectly fine, but I now know I didn't really work very hard.
But when I went to study for my master's, I did it because I actually wanted to be there, and that mindset change was so important. I really appreciated that it was a big investment of time and money, so I was determined to make it worth it, and I wanted to work hard.
It doesn't always make job prospects more promising
One of the biggest misconceptions I probably had was that doing another degree would make securing a job way easier. In reality, it was a bit more complex than that.
I was applying for journalism jobs in London and the competition is notoriously fierce already. I left university a second time, hoping to have a job lined up straight away but realistically, it ended up taking countless interviews and several post-interview ghostings by potential employers to even get a job offer.
Yes, having my master's really helped give me the skills to land that job, but you also need to prepare yourself for some hard work even after the degree is over.