Thinking About Finishing Your Degree? Start with These 7 Steps

As parents are preparing their kids for a new school year, many are caught up in the familiar back-to-school routine. Some might even find themselves thinking about their own education in the middle of it all, including a college degree they once put on hold.

It’s a thought that’s shared by many adults. Across the country, an estimated 43.1 million Americans have some college experience but no formal credential.

If you're thinking about going back, it can feel like a big leap, but it rarely means starting from scratch. Where you are now is probably very different from where you were. The best place to start is with what you've already done and how it fits the life you're living.

Here are seven steps to take as you think about the best way to finish your degree.

1. Gather Your Old Transcripts

Before you figure out a schedule or guess how long it'll take to graduate, pull together your academic records. It's the step that turns an uncertain "maybe someday" into a realistic starting point.

Start with transcripts from every college or university you've attended. Even if your last semester was years ago, there’s a good chance your records still exist in the system. Those records show the courses you finished and the credits you earned.

Once you have your transcripts in hand, you’ll have a clear idea of just where you left off and where to go from there.

2. Check Which Credits Still Count

Here's some good news. Credits you earned years ago don't just disappear, and many students find more of their old work counts than they expected. General education and foundational courses especially tend to hold their value, since most degrees require them in some form.

Exactly how much carries over depends on where you're headed. Transfer policies differ from school to school and from program to program. The same course can count in full toward one degree and land as an elective in another. Fortunately, that’s not something you need to figure out on your own.

A formal transfer-credit evaluation does that work for you. It shows how your coursework lines up with a specific program, so instead of guessing whether your credits still count, you can see how they apply before you choose.

3. Earn Credit for Real-World Experience

Your old transcripts aren't the only thing that can count. The years you've spent on the job or serving in the military may be worth credit toward your degree, too.

Colleges call this prior learning assessment, or PLA. It's how you turn real-world learning and experience into potential credit hours. A professional certification you already hold, for instance, might satisfy a course requirement on its own. For veteran students, especially, returning to college can mean a bigger head start, even while getting used to a very different environment.

Living through the experience isn't quite enough on its own, however. A school looks for learning it can actually assess, and every school sets that bar differently.

An admissions advisor can walk through this with you. They can review your transcripts and prior experience and tell you exactly what counts toward the program you have in mind.

4. Decide Where You Want Your Life to Go

With your background sorted out, the next thing you should consider is the path ahead of you. When you go back, you might pick up right where you left off, or you might head in a new direction. It depends on what your goals are now.

For a lot of people, the original plan still holds up. Life got in the way somehow, but what you wanted never really changed. Going back feels less like a new decision and more like finishing something you put on pause.

Other times, the years away might have changed what you want. A career can move in a direction you didn't expect, or the work you're drawn to now is something entirely different. When that happens, it could be a sign to explore a program that makes more sense now.

Either path is completely valid. And coming back with more years of life behind you means the choice tends to be a clearer one than it was the first time.

5. Map Out Your Timeline

How long the path to the degree will take is usually the next thing on people's minds. Some of it can feel like a puzzle.

Course sequencing can be an especially frustrating piece. Classes have to be taken in a certain order, and working out what to take each term trips up a lot of students, whether current or returning. Some schools take that off your plate entirely, mapping out the full path to graduation from day one.

Scheduling makes a difference, too. A program that runs courses year-round gives you a way to keep making progress. Over the length of a degree, that can be what separates a steady pace from a series of stops and starts.

Before you circle a graduation date on the calendar, look at how a specific program is designed to get you there.

6. Pick a Format That Fits Your Schedule

As a parent, your life probably looks quite different from the last time you were in school. There's a lot going on, from a job to a household to kids with schedules of their own. But this is a challenge that many people face. In fact, around a fifth of undergraduates are raising children.

Given everything already competing for your day, a program’s flexibility can be the deciding factor. Classes at traditional schools tend to meet during the day, right when you're at work or picking up kids. An online or evening option is one way to fit college into your daily schedule, so long as you don’t compromise on quality.

There's no single right answer here. The best format is the one that works for you week to week. That kind of consistency is what leads to a program you're far more likely to finish, even as unexpected changes come up.

7. Know What Support You'll Have

While it may be a bit further down the road, it's good to look ahead of time at the support a school has for someone in your position. Student parents are twice as likely to leave without finishing, and the ones who cross the line are rarely doing it by themselves.

Most semesters get derailed by life rather than coursework, whether that's childcare falling through or a kid who’s home sick the week a project is due. Some schools plan for that and work with you when things get complicated.

The people around you help, too. Smaller classes and instructors who recognize you make it easier to address any problems early, before a hard week becomes a reason to walk away. And a good Career Services team can help you plan your post-graduation steps throughout your program.

Take Your Degree Off Pause

Going to college the first time is a big decision. Going back can be just as big, but you're not making it from the same place you were before. You know more about what you want and about what you're capable of.

Plenty of people have gone back later than they planned and have been glad they did. Wherever your life has taken you, it hasn't taken you further from the finish line. If anything, you're closer than you think.