How to go about getting a college degree part-time as a hobby

A couple notes: a) A typical class will have 3 hours of lecture per week, and you should expect to spend a fair amount of time outside of lecture. A starting estimate would probably be 9 hours per week (3 per credit hour) reading, studying, and working on assignments. An easier class may take less, a very quick student may take less, but that's the usual amount recommended. So that's roughly 12 hours per week you should budget for just one class. b) Pretty much nobody expects an adult to get a geology degree while working full time, so many classes that you need for the full degree may only be offered during usual daytime hours. Is your job flexible on which hours you work, as long as you get the work done, or do you need to be at work 9-5 or whatever? If you can't be available during daytime hours, you may be out of luck. Most evening/weekend degree programs are geared toward degrees with much better job prospects. If you just want the learning experience and don't care so much about the actual degree, I think most schools will be happy to take your money as a non-degree student. Then you just squeeze in whatever interesting classes fit with your schedule.

Hello! I am a graduate student who works for my college as a "transition success coach." What this means is that I help students take their existing credits (from out of state, community college, and/or international colleges) and help get them into a 4 year university. The basic structure of a 4 year degree is in two parts: the first are the liberal studies, which are the English, math, science, humanities, and other courses that round you out as a person and show that you've met minimum requirements. These courses typically are separate from the second set of courses, which are the courses you would take specifically for your degree focus, in your case Geology. Many students take both types at the same time, and finish in 4 years (this is a brief example of the typical 4 year degree here in the US) As an older student you will usually be given much more time to finish and whichever school you choose will tell you their maximum time frame. An online program would be best, considering your work and location. When deciding which school to attend, consider the different levels of accreditation and whether you will start and finish with that school, or potentially transfer to another school. For example: The University of Phoenix (UP) is accredited and a degree from them has helped many students find a job. If, however, you start at UP and decide to transfer to a brick and mortar 4 year university you may find that UP's accreditation is not at the same level as the 4 year university. At the college I work for I can not accept any Math course taken at UP's online campus because those tests are not proctored. Imagine working hard to pass a tough math class (as well as paying for it) just to find out that no school will accept it for credit. Another example is DeVry. A degree from them will certainly be beneficial, however if you start with them, you may find that no 4 year university will accept their credits. This is not to say that DeVry isn't a good school, it just means that their accreditation is not at the same level and, thus, you will find yourself starting completely over. It will be important to have an idea as to whether or not you will stay with the online school you start with, because these types of hurdles most definitely exist. I only bring these examples up because the accreditation issue was brought up in a post earlier and I thought it best to explain that a school's accreditation is mostly a factor when a student is trying to get someone to accept that school's coursework for credit, during a transfer. It is important that the school has accreditation, but less important which accreditation. All that being said, here is what I'd say to you, specifically: Please get your international transcripts verified and translated. This does two things: 1) It makes your international transcripts "official" 2) The service not only translates your courses, it tells me what the US equivalent is for each class and whether or not you earned a degree. If indeed you got something between an Associates and a Bachelor's then the paperwork the service produces would tell me "associates earned" or "Bachelor's earned." If you earned either of those then I would be able to wipe out the liberal studies requirements altogether which would just leave the classes specific to the geology degree. In a sense, it would mean that 2 of the 4 years would be considered as having been completed. This significantly reduces the amount of time required before you graduate, as well as the amount of money you would have spent pursuing both the liberal studies and degree specific requirements of a 4 year degree. There are only a few companies that do this, they all cost about $75, and the one I like the best is http://www.aacrao.org/. I'm not sure what the turnaround time is, but having your transcripts from Ireland processed could potentially mean starting you off much further along the degree track which, again, means saving you both time and money. My college does not offer a Geology degree online, but I am still willing to take a look at your transcripts (once processed) and give you an explanation of what it means for you. Just MeMail me.

"Non-degree status" is one thing you're asking about. That is, can you take regular Stanford undergraduate courses, without being enrolled as part of obtaining a degree there? It looks like the answer is https://studentaffairs.stanford.edu/registrar/students/nondegree-ug. But you'll want to check on the policies at each place you're considering. As noted above, "continuing education" courses are offered by many schools, including Stanford. These are usually separate programs, offering a shorter list of courses ala carte to retirees or other people not enrolled as an undergrad or grad student. They don't count toward a degree and I think usually can't be transferred as credits toward a degree if you ended up enrolling somewhere else. The offerings of programs will vary widely, so check into the specifics at whatever places you're considering to see if they offer what you're looking for. "Community colleges" are a US institution that typically offers introductory courses cheaply, either on an ala carte basis, or leading to a 2-year degree ("Associate's") rather than a 4-year college/university degree ("Bachelor's"). Their programs are structured around students who typically have jobs and families and often can't be full-time students. So they have night courses, they're more variable in how many courses you need to be taking to count as enrolled, etc. I don't know what the relevant ones would be where you are, but they're often at the city/county level. Definitely would be a good place to start in getting your feet wet. If you're looking at geology specifically, you'll want to look closely at the course offerings of either a community college or continuing education program - they will offer some low-level courses, but may not offer geology, and won't offer upper-level undergrad courses that require specialized lab equipment etc. To get the full range of geology courses, you'd need to be a degree-seeking undergraduate student at a 4-year school that has a geology department (not all do!). To do that, you'd be looking at what their admissions requirements are for "nontraditional" (older) students, and what the requirements are for how many courses (actually, how many credit-hours, where a single course might be worth 3 or 4 credit-hours) you need to take each semester to maintain your enrolled status. This will tell you if they'll let you be a half-time student taking only 2 courses a semester, for example. I think schools usually require at least 2 courses a semester, but that may not be the case - check each school. Courses at a community college will be cheaper than anywhere else (probably) so one approach is to start there, take your low-level requirements, and then transfer to a 4-year school. You would coordinate this by talking to people at the two schools to be sure your credits will transfer, for example that the community college math course will count for your prerequisite for an upper-level geology course at the 4-year college. LarryC is right too.

If you already have a degree from somewhere else, and you're not taking financial aid, many colleges will allow you to work at your own pace. Depending on the school's opinion of your previous degree, you may be counted as a transfer student and go in to your program with a sophomore standing and be exempt from some basic classes. Or you may not-- my stepfather went back to school literally 50 years after his only previous year of college, and had to repeat freshman writing/composition! You may also be able to argue that your career qualifies you for academic credit-- some schools offer an equivalency that may shorten your time to a degree. My experience with online classes is that they're significantly easier time-wise as a working adult, and I could take more units via online instruction than in a classroom, and that might also make it easier. In any case, it really, really depends on the school and program. You should find an admissions or transfer counselor and ask them.

Thanks everybody for some great and lengthy answers. I've sent away for my old transcripts from Ireland and I'll see if they're worth any credits. Thanks for the MeMail offers , I'm sure I'll have some follow-up questions. Good boots and rock hammer are already onboard!

IME, Continuing Education departments offer a grab-bag of courses - sometimes they're offered for credit and applicable towards a degree, sometimes they're industry-back qualifications, sometimes they're interest courses not offered with degree credit (but may have some other kind of credit scheme) like Painting 101. You will need to speak to an admissions counsellor to work it out. Some universities are very friendly to mature students, and offer a good selection of courses during the evening, weekends, or in a shorter, intensive block. Usually, the degrees offered in this way are popular, more general, or applied subjects - e.g., psychology, business administration, accounting. I would have to imagine that geology, because it's sort of more of a niche subject (and a sciencey one) might be more typically offered during the day, and that at least some of your courses might be at inconvenient times. But that can be easily cleared up by talking to an admissions person, as LarryC said. Going part-time for ages as a working adult can be fun for the first year or so, but after a while, studying in dribs and drabs gets to be exhausting -- while your peers (and/or SO) are going on holidays, you're cramming for exams. It's a real adjustment to lifestyle, and can get old, even if you love the subject. A lot of mature students try to get at least one or two full-time semesters in to shorten the overall duration. As LarryC said, admissions staff will assess your transcript and may give you credit for at least some courses you've already completed. You might have to provide information about those courses (e.g. a syllabus, or a description of the courses from the course calendar of the years you attended). If you're granted transfer credit, those courses could, e.g., count towards the elective requirements for the degree -- so you might get away with only doing the core curriculum of your subject, which might take 2-3 calendar years (if you take courses continuously and get at least a few summer intensives in there).

Don't do a geology degree online. You need good boots and a solid rock hammer for a geology program that's worth a damn.

As a practical matter, it's a relatively common, but not universal, policy for universities to limit how long you have to get a degree. For instance, my current institution requires degree completion in twice the "normal" time for the degree. If you really only have a few hours a week to complete an undergraduate degree, you may very well find out that you are only able to complete a single course a quarter/semester, in which case your degree plans may be longer than a decade to complete. The term to look for is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-traditional_student. However, you shouldn't really be looking for permission to do what you want - rather, you should see if you aren't explicitly prohibited. Universities don't really care what you do outside of class (and actually, generally don't care what you do at all), so long as you pay your tuition and do your coursework.

In the past, it was possible to audit college courses without enrolling in a degree program, though I wouldn't be surprised if some have closed this loophole in this age of revenue generation education. Nonetheless, you can simply informally sit in on lectures for many courses, and complete your own readings and essays outside of the formal system, if you don't especially need the piece of paper at the end.