About

My name is Dan and I am 30 something years old.

This is my blog about going back to school.

I enrolled at DeVry University in Austin, TX in October 2006 and am trying to graduate as soon as I can while balancing a full time job, wife, and 3 little kids.

This blog is here for others to check out to see if you want to go back to school and what it takes.

Is it going to be easy?
No way, it is going to be a lot of work.

Why now, why not later?
Because there is no “perfect time” to go back to school, you just have to do it.

Why are you going back to school?
Because I have a family to support and order to make more money then I am right now I need the education. I do not have a degree at all right now and am lucky to have the job that I do. I do not see myself going very much further without a degree.

What degree are you getting and in what?
I am in the undergraduate degree program (Bachelors degree) for Technical Management .

How am I paying for it?
Loans baby. I am going to try and pay for my books with my own money. Believe it or not I would not have to do any out of pocket expenses during my whole time in school. You do not have to start paying on them until 6 months after you graduate.

How much does it cost?
I am not going to lie, it is not cheap, but it is worth it. I figure that my ROI (Return On Investment – time until I get my money back) will be approximately 2 1/2 years. That means that after getting this degree I believe that I will be able to get a job that pays enough to where I would be able to pay the loans off in 2 1/2 years. That is not a bad investment.

One of the reasons that I can get this kind of return is because I am already in the field. I am just at the very bottom of the pay scale right now. I figure 3 year of experience and a degree will get my to the midpoint or higher.

What does your wife think?
She is all for it and I would not be doing it if I did not have her full buy-in. I love her and we both agree that this is a good investment for our future.

What do my kids think?
They are too little to know what is going on so that is good. They will definitely hear about it later though especially if they every try to tell me that they don’t want to go to college ;-) .