Going back to college in your forties can sound scary to some people. After retiring from a media career in the Coast Guard, Eric Chandler adopted four teenagers.
In his mid-forties, he went back to college to study Communications — partly to update his skills, partly to be a role model for his kids. In this episode of My Better Half, he explains how adapting to college as a 40-something was much easier than he feared.
To those who might be reluctant to finish a degree as a non-traditional student, he says combining your work experience with higher education can make you a “humongous asset in the work world.”
![Eric Chandler](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/3d793da/2147483647/strip/true/crop/3648x2736+0+0/resize/880x660!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ffc%2F31%2F3eb9b0084cd69248d33108feb70b%2Feric-chandler.jpg)