Hello,

For this week I would like to talk about my experience so far doing online schooling as well as the post-bac experience. I feel like many people doing the OSU post-bac program have very similar experiences in that all of us take pretty much the same classes (besides the 3 electives). all are doing it as our 2nd degree, and all wanted an online experience due to work or family complications. I believe most people chose this to change the current trajectory of their careers or just wanted something more interesting or different. I applaud everyone willing to take the risk of doing this program, learning new skills, and/or changing careers.

I personally did not like what I was doing and where it was leading me. I dreaded basically every day of my old job and wanted to get out and work in another field entirely. However, this is not easy. I feel as though many people have changed careers but it’s also very difficult to do so, especially when you don’t have any experience in the field you want to switch to. It’s already difficult enough to get a job where you have education and related experience but whos going to take the risk on someone who doesn’t have any experience and is leaving their job for something new. I researched many ways to break into tech and of course, there’s always the self-learning path, BootCamp path, and getting associates perhaps might help too. People who took the OSU post-bac route, in my opinion, chose the path that was most difficult but also the most rewarding. It allows us to fully immerse ourselves in a new field that most of us were new to and start over with our careers and get a formal degree at a reputable school. To me, it shows that we are not just someone switching careers because they’re bored, but because we are passionate about wanting change and we took serious action to go through the courses and get another degree. Most post-bacs work full-time and balance that with school assignments, kids, families, and personal lives. As this is my last term, I have sacrificed a lot of time away from my family in order to meet due dates at the same time meet deadlines at my full-time work. I believe post-bac students are brave, are willing to commit and take action to improve their lives.

One thing I wish is that OSU post-bac had a better way of having students communicate with each other more. There are great people in this program but we are just a registry number in our courses and I don’t speak with anyone in a lot of classes. It would be great if the program integrated better communications with students but perhaps it’s just the nature of online schooling. OSU post-bac has been a life-changer for me and I appreciate what it’s done. There are definitely improvements they could make but it’s decent and gets the job done for most of us who want to change careers.