It depends on if you’re going back to school for career reasons or personal enrichment. For the latter it really is never too late. For your career, though, too late will depend on when you’re hoping to retire, when you’ll complete the extra schooling, how much the school will cost, and how much more money you’ll expect to make with your new degree.

Without any info, assuming you want to retire around 65, I would think it would be normal to want to use your new degree for at least ten years, so whatever schooling you’d want to do you would want to be finishing by the time you’re 55. But those other variables come into play. If you’re borrowing $100,000 to pay for med school, your cutoff date will probably be earlier because it will take a longer time to pay off the student loans. On the flip side, if you’re paying $5-10,000 for a 6-month programming boot camp that will boost your income by $10-20,000/year then you might even consider doing that at age 60, especially if you’re already bringing a computer science background where your experience and new skills will keep you in high demand.

There’s not really a one-size-fits-all answer to this question.

The only time going to school isn’t worth it is if you’re already burnt out in your job, genuinely have no time to do it, and make so much money that adding university classes on top of that isn’t worth the effort or time investment. Having said that, if you need the degree to increase your earning potential, even in your 30s or 40s or whatever, then it’s worthwhile despite all the challenges. My mom got her degree in her 30s and massively increased her earning potential and that has paid off over the decades, and I’m currently getting my degree in my 30s to increase my earning potential as well.

There are remote school options where you don’t need to attend classes so those are much easier to fit into your schedule, and much cheaper, places like Western Governors University.

My Mother got her Bachelor’s degree at 55. She graduated with some rare honours.

NEVER stop learning!

At what age is it stupid to start exercising?

Schooling is always a sacrifice of your time, energy, and money; it’s only “stupid” if the reward isn’t worth the risk. Age isn’t a part of that equation.

If you really want to answer this question for yourself, pick a goal and figure out a way to get it. Make a plan. How much money do you need? Can you save up before? Pick up extra shifts, get a second job.

If you decide it’s worth it, do everything you can to make it happen. Otherwise you’re just making excuses for yourself.

Depends on your situation and objective. If you’re currently employed and want to increase potential earnings in the same track, then probably around 30/35 from my personal judgement. You should really have enough professional experience and context at that point to make up for a degree, especially if you’re engaging in continuing education, staying up to date on professional articles, watching conference talks, etc.

If you’re looking to get an MBA to move into a management track, it’s probably worth it later in life until like your 40s and 50s earnings wise.

If your current industry is tanking and you need to pivot to a new one, then you don’t really have any other options than to reskill no matter how old you are.

If you just want to learn philosophy or history independent of your work, then there’s not really a point where it’s too late, just how many classes you have time for which is wholly dependent on your life circumstances and doesn’t depend on age.

I went back to school in my 40s and changed careers.

In theory never, in practice, after you have kids. Many people do it after having kids but they have amazing time management skills like my ex.

I last took classes at 36. Never got a degree though. I’d feel silly with where I am career-wise taking classes now, 11 years later.

I’ve known even elderly people to go back and complete advanced degrees.

I think this question greatly depends on where you live. Is uni free where you live? I’m guessing not from you mentioning the cost of a degree and debt. Then how does the debt work? In some countries, the government issues student loans that are repaid much less stringently than most loans, and it’s not a big deal.

Depending on how the system works where you are, I’d weigh up the financial cost of going back to school vs what you would gain from it. What are you looking to get? Education for the sake of education? A better job, such that the financial cost of the degree will repay itself? The uni experience you missed out on? Something else? How much do you value that thing compared to how much it will cost you?

Good/bad doesn’t have to do with age. Are you going to Harvard or a local college with subsidized night school classes? Are you wanting to learn a specific skill, get a degree, upskill for a career path, retrain for new work?

I had a grandfather who ended up deployed in the army when he was planning to go off to college. When he got back, he took the jobs he could and continually took night school classes.

My father got his masters degree when he was 46, which resulted in 20 years of increased pay at work.

Me? I’m constantly learning, using free online courses. I don’t care about the degrees or certifications; anyone who knows me knows what I’m capable of.

I knew a woman who got her PhD in Law at the age of 97.

My workplace pays for appropriate certifications for its employees.

There’s all sorts of ways to go to school.

community college is flexible

Going back to school when you’re employed means debt, earning way less or nothing during your bachelor or master, stress, opportunities you’re not aware of because you’re simply not at your workplace anymore

Don’t quit your day job. Do school in your non-work hours. This is how I did it. I stayed professionally employed and I went back at 30 years old. I did school for about 3 years part-time to get a 2-year Associates degree. Because I went with Community College and did only 1 or 2 classes per term, I never had to take on debt.

I used that Associates degree and got a better paying job that also came with a tuition reimbursement program. It paid 75% of books and tuition up to a certain dollar figure per year (IRS limit). Again, because I was going to school part-time in my off-hours, I simply never exceeded that IRS limit to extra the maximum reimbursement. I finished by Bachelors degree before turning 40. Again, I graduated with zero debt because I kept my professional employment and used the tuition reimbursement benefit. With that Bachelors degree I was able to get an even better job which lead to significant pay raises in the years that passed.

So, I disagree with your original premise that going back to school as a working adult has to means unemployment, debt, and loss of income. I’m not going to say what I did was easy, but what I did a little while ago is also still possible today. I have a close friend that is a year older than me that got his Associates around the same time I did using the same “keep your day job, do school partime” method, but he didn’t start his Bachelors when I did. However, he did so later. He graduates, getting his Bachelors, in two months from now!

Too late according to which criteria? Money? Definitely in the biological age when you can reasonably expect to not finish the school alive. And probable a bit earlier age.

Other quotation is for what to use school? If you definitely need a diplom to do what you want to do, that school makes sense.

Of you just want to learn something that is somehow useful, eg. for job promotion, than there are tons of great books, online video courses, many even free or cheap.

One my friend asked me about how to get to university in my country. When I dig deeper, it showed up she even don’t need university for that topic of education and probable would do better without university at all.

depends why you are attending school. If it’s to get a piece of paper, likely will not affect you later in life. if it’s just to learn, walk in and audit a class. I have never said no to people auditing my lectures.