In some ways, I've furthered my areas of study and documented them for the world, with a similarity to masters candidates would.

What I've given up on is the "Education System". Classes are too slow - I'll find interesting avenues during learning something, and deep dive and see interconnections with many other areas. I've gotten nothing like this in ANY classroom setting. Traditional class focus only on the grade vs actually learning the material. This might be different in grad school, but never got there. And cost way too much. 2hr/week for 16 weeks at $60/hr is $1920 . Yet, how much is tuition for that class again? Yeah. (Lest to say, the profs themselves get paid less. Whole diff can of worms there too.)

I'm definitely a 'Non-traditional student'. But lets cut the bullshit. It's coded language for "getting a university degree much older than you should have"... Do I get the benefits of 'non-traditional student'? Hah, nope. The base requirement is always some @.edu .