Have you ever stopped to think about the twists and turns your life makes? I have been reflecting more on this lately, I think it is because I am getting close to a milestone birthday and my youngest is going to college. When I was in college I had such grand plans to make huge differences in our social service system in my career as a social worker. After twenty five years I fear I have become part of the system and now I am counting the years and months to retirement.

My oldest son is following in his father’s footsteps and has joined the military. My youngest son wants to get a degree in business. Most of the past year he has been preparing for business school admission. Neither my husband nor I have any background in business so we have not been able to help him. My brother-in-law has been very successful in the insurance business and so he has offered to help our son with the business school admission. This is quite a competitive area and we are finding that it is one of those cases that who you know can have a great impact on getting in.

There are several colleges and universities that are within one hundred miles from our home. Two of them are well known for their school of business. Our son feels it is very important in such a competitive field to have his degree from one of the top ranked schools. He was given this information from his guidance counselor and my brother-in-law agrees. The business school admission is a complicated process that I do not completely understand. My son will not be in the business school until he completes his general education classes. The grades he gets in his general education classes along with recommendations from professors will help him get into the business school. A priority is given to those students that receive their general education at the same university. So even though the cost of tuition for the general education classes is greater at this school than the university closest to us, he has decided that he needs to go there. I have heard many stories about credits not transferring from one university to another, so I am in agreement that he should obtain his entire education from one school. My husband and I are just going to have to put off our retirement for a couple more years to help him pay for the cost of his education. Maybe if he is successful enough he will support us in our retirement.