thinking outside the box

[mellowtigger]

I am applying for tech support jobs that seem to me like really good fits, but I decided I should also be more creative and try to imagine a life-changing alternative. What if I went back to school and got a degree, so I could become an astronomer? That has always been an interest of mine. I "did" the computer world in this first career already, so now I should try something else entirely different for the next stage.

I called the realtor who helped get me into this house in 2015. He says (without having seen the place yet) that I should probably list this house at $110K and see if bidding pushes the price upwards from there. The house doesn't even need to be perfect in this hot market, because buyers will accept the small problems just to get the property. That incoming light rail project is really affecting the interest here.

I think it's conceivable that this house could be my scholarship for going back to college in the fall season. :)

I checked my mortgage online. It says I owe just under $39K on it now. I wonder if I could actually pocket a difference close to $70K, or how much in taxes/fees would disappear?

• That amount alone would be sufficient to pay for several years of studio apartment rent and tuition in Moorhead MN without needing to work-and-study at the same time. I tried that dual life long ago, and it was very bad for my mental health. I should focus just on studies.
   
• If a bidding war provides a little more money, it would be enough to buy a condo in a nearby town (4.7km / 2.9mi) and afford a few years of association fees there.  It would keep some of that wealth intact, to help when it's time to graduate.
   
• If a bidding war provides a lot more money, it would be worthwhile to investigate buying a lot near-ish (3.9km / 2.4mi) to campus and build a new "tiny house" on it. Hard to imagine that much money for this century old house, though. I'll try to remain a little more reasonable in my expectations during this brainstorm.

It sounds reasonable, though, doesn't it?  Start a second life?  I haven't flitted off into escapist fantasies, have I?

Comments

[zipperbear]

Mankato has a 2-year masters-degree program for Physics and Astronomy, which I think might be a better stepping stone than a bachelor's degree for an astronomy career.
https://grad.mnsu.edu/all-graduate-programs/physics-ms/

I don't recognize any of the Physics faculty at Mankato or Moorhead. Interestingly, one name seemed familiar, but I think it might be his father, Michael Rutkowski, Sr., who apparently died at age 70 in 2014, and worked at NASA until 2013 -- he started his career at NASA in 1967, then got a Stanford PhD in 1976, which is a somewhat-delayed education milestone. I don't recognize his picture, but I wouldn't know much beyond the names of NASA people who collaborated with Stanford physics projects.
https://vertipedia.vtol.org/biographies/getBiography/biographyID/89
https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/heritage/obituary.aspx?n=michael-rutkowski&pid=173043463

[zipperbear]

University of Minnesota Twin Cities supports Physics PhD students (covering tuition and stipend in exchange for research and teaching duties) for 4-5 years (but starting with a BS/BA in Physics).
https://cse.umn.edu/physics/graduate-studies
Astrophysics is similar:
https://cse.umn.edu/mifa/grad/program

Univ of Minnesota Duluth has an MS in Physics (including Astrophysics), which seems to be a 2-year program, with "most" students supported by competitive assistantships:
https://academics.d.umn.edu/academics/majors-and-minors/physics-ms
(As the folk-singer said: "Duluth is out there!")

I don't recognize anyone at Duluth, but Twin Cities has Martin Greven (who was faculty in the Applied Physics department at Stanford, so I barely knew him), and Patrick Kelly (who was technically a Physics grad student but did his research at SLAC and KIPAC, so I recognize his photo but don't really know him).

[mellowtigger]

Thank you. Your links and history are helpful. :) I don't remember the math, unfortunately. I never needed any of it for business programming or tech support. I'll need to start those classes yet again to make it fresh before I get into the physics. And that still requires a self-made scholarship, so it's all moot until I talk to the realtor on Wednesday evening.

I just downloaded my unofficial transcript from the 1st round of college back in 1986+. I got up to a few semi-serious classes in my first calendar year...
Math 152 Engineering Math II (B)
Math 253 Engineering Math III (C)
Phys 208 Electricity And Optics (B)

... before the very clear and very dramatic terribleness begins. Bad times ensue for years of painful decline. I wish my psych evals went on that transcript too, so it has a proper context. No more simultaneous working and schooling for me. It was a combination of that and not having my autism diagnosis until years later. Those symptoms just weren't in the DSM III at the time. I'm much better prepared, knowing what I know now about me and humanity. I backed off work-and-school at Normandale long before I reached anything like that previous level of stress. Still dipped my toes into it, though, so... no simultaneous working and schooling. That's the rule now.

[zipperbear]

I'm just not sure that schooling will be worth the cost (in money, time, and disruption). Undergrad degrees aren't very valuable in astronomy, which is also a very small job market. Graduate degrees are significant, especially for academia (which is a big chunk of the astronomy jobs), but there are technicians, programmers, and tech support staff with work experience rather than degrees, who are making valuable contributions. Conversely, there are glass ceilings between faculty, tenured faculty, and everyone else, which complicates the budgeting and funding for collaborations (mostly under research grants).

In every field, it's hard to find good workers who are productive, pleasant to work with, enthusiastic, etc., but those are hard traits to measure. Instead, a college degree shows that you're smart enough to pass exams and navigate some bureaucracy.

If you can get a start somewhere that's a good fit for your talents, then (unless it's a toxic or dysfunctional workplace) you'd be valued and encouraged to grow into more advanced roles. Getting your foot in the door somewhere to get on-the-job experience is often better than book-learning. In some sense, that's also the whole point of grad school assistantships, to get practice with teaching, research, and paperwork, which are all skills useful in academia, industry, or government.

In an interview, maybe emphasize that you want out of a dull job with no advancement room, and that you want something productive, interesting, and good for humanity. They say you should focus on the positive, not bad-mouthing a job you hate. (Disclaimer: I've never actually gotten a job that I've interviewed for. As a temp, I got several offers to stay on. The one where I agreed to try it, for at least a year, turned into 28 years.)