Going Back to School: What to Know Before You Go

You are a member of the fire service and are having thoughts about returning to a college or university to further your education. As you begin to gather information on schools and various programs of study, you might find that the literature isn’t tailored to a working adult. Most degree program guides are built for high school students as they prepare to transition to college. However, not every college student is an 18-year-old kid who is fresh out of high school.

As an adult who works for a fire department or works full-time while balancing volunteer/paid-on-call responsibilities, there are things to consider and questions to answer before you commit to adding the element of college-level coursework to your already busy life.

Reasons to go back to school
Reflecting on the reason that you want to go back to school might help you to decide on the right path of study and the level of engagement that you want to have with the program. Common reasons for a member of the fire service obtaining a degree from an institution of higher education include acquiring a deeper understanding of the field, meeting employment advancement or promotion requirements, increasing earning potential, and remaining competitive in the evolving fields of fire, rescue and EMS.

Whatever the reason, you should weigh the effect that heading back to school will have on your life and work responsibilities. Initially, it might make sense to be a part-time student and register for one or two classes, thus allowing you to slowly get a feel for the flow of the program. That said, a more time-driven or completion-
oriented reason might require you to jump in as a full-time student and carry a full slate of classes out of the gate.

Schedule and time commitments. The first thing to take inventory of is whether you truly have the time to return to school. Participating in college-level coursework adds another component of responsibility to your life besides the already existing family, work, community and leisure elements. If courses require in-person attendance, you must consider your work schedule and the availability of obtaining time off for courses.

A major factor is to assess your life situation and identify how many classes that you realistically can take on. Each college-level course might equate to 8–20 hours of work each week. Identify how many hours per week you can afford reasonably to set aside for coursework in consideration of your availability and time-management skills.

Each college and university has its own schedule that it follows for the academic year. Although many follow a two-semester format that consists of 15-week spring and fall semesters, other options include accelerated 7–10-week offerings along with condensed summer and winter sessions. Taking courses continuously year-round during the mix of semesters might allow you to fast-track the expected time of program completion.

Costs. Every degree program will have a financial effect on you. Direct costs that are related to coursework and indirect costs that are related to being a student must be contemplated.

Direct costs include tuition and course material expenses. Most college programs highlight a credit-hour cost. This is a rate for each credit that a course bears. When you receive this information, it might seem that cost per credit isn’t a significant expenditure, but it’s vital to decipher how many credits each course is. It’s typical for a course to be 3–5 credit hours, effectively multiplying that per-credit cost.

Other direct costs are books for the courses and technology and app requirements. To participate in some programs, it might be necessary to upgrade your computer or tablet and to ensure that your house or workplace has adequate high-speed internet.

Indirect costs can include student fees, activity charges, meals and parking.

It’s rare to obtain a full scholarship or to be fully reimbursed for a degree program. It’s important to seek out avenues that might help you with educational expenses. Many public safety organizations have tuition assistance or reimbursement programs. If the organization doesn’t assist, you might find that tuition programs are available through employee groups or as union benefits or that fire service membership entities offer competitive scholarships.

Understand the program requirements. The program that you select likely will have a document that outlines the program’s requirements or the plan of study. The information that’s contained in this will tell you courses that you are required to take, the order in which they must be taken, how many course credits are needed to graduate and other details.

Talk to faculty and advisors
Before you commit, talk to the professors and/or advisors in the program about your situation. Although many college-level programs are constructed with the 18–24-year-old student in mind, some programs are built for, or at least consider, the working adult learner.

Talking to advisors and faculty helps you to decide whether the school and program are a good fit for you. Some schools offer classes on a traditional schedule that follows daytime hours Monday through Friday. This class schedule might not work with a fire department’s work schedule. If those hours prohibit your attendance, seek out schools that offer evening class times or that offer a variety of course modalities, including in-person, online or hybrid course meeting times.

Ask the college contact about the availability of college resources that are geared toward student success. Many institutions of higher education offer a bevy of student resources, such as research/library assistance, tutoring, counseling, fitness and childcare services.

Review course descriptions
Make sure to review all materials and resources that are related to the program that you’re interested in pursuing. Although the general subject matter might sound appealing, make sure that the program fits with your goals as a working adult learner. Look at each of the course descriptions and learning objectives in the path of study to ensure that they align with what you want to learn. Most programs of study allow for a mix of core and elective course selections. Core courses are the classes that must be taken during the path to degree completion; elective courses are course slots that you can fill with subject matter that interests you and are agreed upon with your advisor.

Set realistic academic goals
It’s imperative to decide what your academic achievement goals are. Trying to juggle work and life commitments can cause you to set a different level of personal expectations compared with those of a recent high school graduate who is trying to achieve honor roll and a perfect 4.0 grade point average every semester. As a working adult, you must weigh whether perfect attendance and A+ grades are important to you as a benchmark of student success.

Course modalities
Many options for course attendance are available today that weren’t as accessible even 10 years ago. Many institutions offer programs that comprise courses that are entirely in-person (face to face), entirely online (virtual) or a mix of the two (hybrid). Some even offer HyFlex (hybrid-flexible) courses that include flexible attendance policies that allow you to either take a class in person or online for any given session.

Regarding online learning courses, two words that became part of our vocabulary during the pandemic were synchronous and asynchronous. If online courses are part of a program, explore how they’re offered in your intended coursework.

Synchronous online indicates that a course meets “in person”—although not face to face—through online meeting software at least once per week. This modality requires attendance for the session.

Asynchronous online courses typically are built without a required meeting time, which allows students flexibility to complete the coursework on their schedule. Although some adults might be intimidated by online courses, many firefighters relayed to me anecdotally that the freedom to work on schoolwork around their firehouse schedule is a major benefit of asynchronous online course offerings.

A note about adult participation in online courses: Even as many components of our workplace learning move into the online realm, there’s a large segment of adults who are apprehensive about learning through this manner of course instruction. Research shows that adults tend to do better than they anticipated in online learning courses. In fact, many of these same people do better than students who received traditional face-to-face or
in-person instructor-led learning.

The bottom line
Before you commit to going back to school to complete a college-level degree program, you must arm yourself with the right questions and consider what the return will mean for your life and work balance. The benefits of continuing education and of being an adult learner are numerous, but it’s important to ensure that returning to school makes sense for you at this point in your life.