Recommendation letters for non traditional students

[Emi-ly]

Hi,

 

So I dug myself into a pit here and not sure how to get out. I'm 28, haven't finished high school due to family issues at the time and couldn't even think about going to college or university because I was working full time to support my mom and little brother. The situation's changed, last month actually, now I have all the freedom in the world to do what I want so I quickly did my GED's. I've always been interested in research (AI) so I want to go to grad school but first I'd need to get into undergrad. A good undergrad.

The problem is that I now live in Japan, have been for the past 4 years, don't speak/read/write the local language anywhere near a level that would be acceptable for school and there is absolutely no way I can leave until next April BUT I don't want to waste a whole year doing nothing when I could be using the time to get the recommendation letters I need.

Anyone have any ideas if I could get those letters by taking courses online at accredited community college's? Or any idea actually, I'm all out of them

 

There's one other option, the only accredited American university I know of here but they only accept GED with the addition of 15 transferable college credits, plus they're crazy expensive.

 

Thanks for reading guys

[velua]

They probably won't want pre-college recs anyway. Can you just focus on gen eds for the next year, then try to transfer somewhere in the US and get a CS degree? Then you could focus more on your major classes there. Then worry about internships, REUs, grad school, etc. It sounds like you have an interesting story, so maybe that could turn into an essay (as long as you have good grades/SAT scores) and get into a good school.

[thissiteispoison]

A lot of schools have programs for adults returning to school late in life. I would hunt hard for them starting now. Might just be financial aid (which is great too obviously) but some schools have staff who are equipped to handle these sorts of questions. They can probably help you get on track to get accepted somewhere decent.