Anyone going to college?

I floated around from major to major for years. My life's dream was to work with animals. I didn't want to be a vet though... I wanted to be a zookeeper and deal with the day-to-day care of exotic animals. I was very lucky to get into the Exotic Animal Training and Management (EATM) program at Moorpark College in 2004 and received my A.S. there in 2006. It was great, but in this past year of looking for work I've found that the jobs I can get with this A.S. are great jobs, but the pay is very low and there are usually no benefits and there is little room for advancement. So, I decided to go back to school. I am 27 years old and will by starting as an upper-division transfer to California State University, Northridge next semester. At CSUN I will be a psychology major. Zoos and marine parks love people with a behavioral psych background because of the emphasis on behavior modification, operant conditioning, and husbandry training. There are always a mix of bio and psych people at all major facilities. The bio people know what the animals need to be physically healthy and the psych people know what they need to be mentally/emotionally healthy. I love both subjects, but my not-so-great math skills would make some of the chemistry classes that go along with a bio major difficult so I picked psych... plus, it may be helpful in my understanding of my own issues along the way. I want to get my BA in Behavioral Psychology and then go for an MA in Experimental Psychology, emphasising cognative abilities of animals. I'm so excited!!! I'm also nervous though, because I am going to be in classes with 20, 21, 22 year olds and I'm 27. Right now I'm taking my last required transfer class at a community college and the oldest person other than myself is 20... most of them are 18 and 19. It's weird... I feel so old. Anyone here go back to college at an older age? Did you manage to fit in socially at all? I need some new friends as most of mine no longer live nearby and I'm hoping to make some in school, but I'm worried about the age gap... people might think there is something wrong with me because it took me this long to get there... What do you think?

> Zoos and marine parks love people with a behavioral psych background because of the emphasis on behavior modification, operant conditioning...

Uk. Animals are people too. Do you think they want to be conditioned and operanted? They might think "What is this *&%$#* human after?"

> fit in socially...

Do you WANT to "fit in"?

> people might think there is something wrong with me because it took me this long to get there...

They might. Some might find you more interesting...

Some people at my university are 40+. I am quite friendly with a woman who is probably in her 30s or older. Nobody thinks it is weird. You're all there for the same reason anyway - to study. It doesn't matter that you decided to do it later in life.

I go to a Vo-tech school. Almost all of my classmates are my age (36) or older. There is a couple of ladies that are my parents age. Almost all of the people in my area have gone to work for awhile and want a change. There are a few 18-20 year olds but not many.

I am on disability and want to get off of it so this is the first step for me.

Jbug

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pachyderm said:
> Zoos and marine parks love people with a behavioral psych background because of the emphasis on behavior modification, operant conditioning...

Uk. Animals are people too. Do you think they want to be conditioned and operanted? They might think "What is this *&%$#* human after?"

> fit in socially...

Do you WANT to "fit in"?

> people might think there is something wrong with me because it took me this long to get there...

They might. Some might find you more interesting...

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I came here to talk about my life change, not argue animal behavior. But just so you know what I mean by "conditioning" and "behavior modification" (I wont discuss "operanted" because that isn't a word and I'm not sure what you mean by it) I'm talking about making these animals more comfortable and happier. I worked with a parrot with severe arthritis in her feet. Catching her up, toweling her, subduing her just to trim her nails was cruel. So I used operant conditioning to teach her to allow me to trim her nails voluntarily. I'd ask her to give me her foot and she would and I'd trim those nails and praise her and be gentle with her and give her all kinds of treats and scratches and tell her she was a good girl. A monkey a friend of mine worked with had a congenital blood disorder that required monthly venipuncture and blood panelling. She taught him to give her his arm so she could take his blood and then he got all kinds of reinforcement. You condition your children every day! Good grades are reinforcement for behaving properly and doing their work in school. Its all about making people and animals comfortable in their surroundings and lowering stress. If we are going to keep those animals in captivity (which is a whole different debate and really doesn't belong in this forum) we need to make sure their lives with us are rich and low stress! It is amazing how previously abused, neurotic animals get better with behavioral enrichment, positive reinforcement operant conditioning, and behavior modification practices. I'm not talking jumping through hoops of fire!!!

I'm 57 and in college, just got my second BA in May of this year :-) I was in a multi-national college competition this past Spring semester with co-students (all of us from our school older, our youngest team member was 36 I think) and we whipped the regular colleges even though they'd been to the competition before because of our life "experiences" and ability to think on our feet better because of our work experiences, etc.

I think that's awesome! Congratulations Perna!

You guys are making me feel much better. Still, it seems like everyone who went back at a later age went back much later. Am I going to be surrounded by 21 year olds and 50 year olds? LOL - I'm 27, I hope there are some people in my age group!!!

I cheat and go online so I don't have to "see" anyone and just have to read their bios and see that the 27 year olds are more accompolished than I am at 57 :-)

http://www.umuc.edu

I'm 48 and in school for my 2nd degree. Will graduate again next spring.

I don't think I'd be focusing so much on age. You will find lots of interesting people of all ages.
Good luck to you!
Okie

Yeah, I try not to think about age. It wouldn't be an issue at all if I had a good friend base outside of school, but I don't. I mean, I have a lot of friends, but not local. Most are at least 3 hours away. I just want to make more and I have always been fine with older and younger friends, but I'm worried that they wont be fine with me.

Also, its embarrassing to admit, but I want to find "someone". I want to at some point get married and have kids and my friends mostly found their sig-others in school.