Here’s Why Going Back to School as an Adult Is a Scam

When you’re wondering if going back to school as an adult is worth it, you’ll find no shortage of people encouraging you to go for it.

University ads, social media posts, and well-meaning friends all share the same feel-good encouragement that it’s “never too late.”

And we believe it… feeling empowered that we’re now wiser, more grounded, and more sure of what we want out of life.

We struggle to make peace with the obvious worries… like the weird feeling of being the oldest person raising your hand in a lecture hall, rearranging our schedules to fit classes in between work and home life, and wondering if our minds will be as sharp as they used to be.

But we typically decide that those worries are a small price to pay for our education and earning potential.

When I decided to go back to school in my 30s, I let my determination overrule those same worries.

However, once I stepped into the classroom, I quickly realized that the experience wouldn’t be awkward because of my age.

It’s awkward because the experience is nowhere near the “higher learning” most of us expect.

Instead of the professional college environment we visualize, the modern-day version feels more like high school 2.0.

Between the hands-off professors, the checked-out students, and the dumbed-down curriculum, I found myself constantly questioning if it’s really worth it.

If you’re weighing the pros and cons of going back to school in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, you deserve the truth the ads leave out.

Today, I’m sharing what I experienced that made me believe modern college is a massive scam for adults with real-world experience… and why you may be better off dedicating your time, money, and drive elsewhere.

Higher Education, Lower Standards

The first things that stood out to me as an older student was how uninspired the curriculum was and how unengaged my fellow students were.

I sat in a classroom with people who struggled with basic reading comprehension or the concept of a deadline.

Instead of being required to adjust or face failure, the material is now designed to handhold the lowest-effort students in the room.

There are no more lectures or deep reading.

Nobody is asking you to wrestle with ideas that actually challenge how you think.

If you try, you’ll quickly realize your effort is rewarded exactly the same as everyone else’s copy-paste minimum.

Everything is delivered in bite-sized pieces… just enough to give a surface-level feel for a subject, pass a quiz, and move you down the assembly line.

For an 18-year-old fresh out of high school, maybe this is OK.

Some may even think this is better than the “read 4 chapters and take a grueling exam” professors of the past.

But when you’re a grown adult with real-world experience, being graded on whether you remembered to put your name in the header feels patronizing.

It isn’t just easier… it’s mind-numbingly dumbed down.

Teachers Aren’t Teaching Anymore

Long gone are the days of the expert instructor standing in front of the classroom, engaging students in complex, in-depth discussions.

Going back to school as an adult, you’ll quickly find that most modern instructors have become glorified babysitters.

They simply announce the assignments, retreat to their desk to browse the internet while students “work amongst themselves,” and monitor the room to ensure nobody sets anything on fire.

Whether you actually learned anything is almost beside the point.

As long as enough students pass to keep enrollment numbers healthy and accreditation boards satisfied, their job is technically done.

Paying Tuition to Google It

When you go back to college at an older age, you quickly realize that paying a premium to a university for things you could have done by yourself for free makes the entire experience feel like a scam.

Even if you sign up for in-person classes, a huge chunk of your work is just independently reading textbook snippets and submitting answers into an AI-powered learning management system.

If you’re confused or need a deeper understanding, your instructors often tell you to find other books or watch YouTube videos on your own time to actually learn the material.

It’s shocking to realize you’re expected to take out loans and rearrange your life just to be told to “Google it”… because the actual instruction is completely non-existent.

In Closing

So, for 2 years, I attended 2 different colleges, hoping to finally stick it out long enough to earn my degree.

But the experience was so painfully dumbed down and hands-off that I couldn’t justify wasting my time or spending another dime on an education I was providing for myself via Google, YouTube, and ChatGPT.

Sure, college is a necessity for specialized fields like medicine, law, or engineering… but for almost everything else, it has become completely worthless.

You can gain far more value being self-taught, taking a targeted online course, or starting a hands-on side hustle in your chosen field.

So, before you rearrange your entire schedule, pay thousands in tuition, or sign your name to predatory loans, stop and weigh the pros and cons of going back to school as an adult.

If your institution already has you doing the work of teaching yourself, you might realize you’re more than capable of completing your “higher education” on your own.

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