When New Jersey native Matthew Daiter enrolled within the College of Colorado Boulder’s online MS in Electrical Engineering program, he already had almost a decade of real-world expertise behind him. No undergraduate diploma. No conventional educational trajectory. Only a “funky academic path,” a can-do perspective, and a profession spent constructing and breaking boundaries in {hardware} startups.

Now primarily based in Hong Kong, Matt’s story is something however standard—however an inspirational one to learn.

Skipping School, Becoming a member of the Workforce

“I didn’t go to undergrad for school,” Matt says. “I began working proper after highschool.” That call kicked off a whirlwind four-year journey: two startups, a number of hands-on studying, and seemingly no actual want for a path again into training. Then, upon attempting to return to an undergrad program for a semester in his early-mid 20s, he shortly realized it wasn’t the best match.

“Most undergrad applications are inflexible, structured four-year experiences,” he explains. “I needed to see—is there a path that displays my previous expertise, with the flexibility to begin going to high school once more, with out it being repeat materials or time churning?”

Enter: CU Boulder’s Efficiency-Primarily based Admissions

Matt discovered his reply in Boulder’s on-line MSEE, which provides performance-based admissions (PBA)—a system that lets learners show their readiness by way of preliminary coursework, not prior transcripts.

“It helps to have a program that means that you can show your self to get in,” he says. “The pliability Boulder provided—permitting you to skip by way of primarily based on efficiency or advantage—actually helped out.”

For somebody like Matt, who had already been consulting, contracting, and constructing actual merchandise, the standard gatekeeping of academia simply didn’t make sense. He wanted one thing constructed for doers.

Why Go Again to College at All?

“You’ll be able to self-teach as much as a sure level,” Matt says. “However I used to be hitting boundaries. I needed to lean into product improvement and bodily product improvement—and I used to be capping out at what I might independently produce.”

Regardless of talking at conferences and advising startups, he discovered that not having a proper diploma held him again, particularly internationally. “Visa issues. Not being taken severely by the federal government. If you happen to solely have a highschool diploma, they anticipate you to provide at a sure (decrease) stage.”

Incomes his grasp’s was about gaining validity, increasing his choices, and eventually diving into subjects he’d been itching to discover, like microelectronics, sign methods, and energy methods—he semi-jokes, “the flexibility to plug in any gadget to the wall and never blow a fuse.”

What On-line Studying Is Actually Like

Matt doesn’t sugarcoat his expertise: Boulder’s on-line program isn’t for everybody.

“This shouldn’t be for everybody,” he says. “If you wish to discover ways to swim, you’ll be able to both discover a pool, take on-line programs and train your self. Or you’ll be able to pay to indicate up at a pool and have an teacher maintain your hand. Each are legitimate—however they’re totally different persona sorts.” For Matt, Boulder’s on-line studying expertise was extra like the previous, having him actually keep a deep curiosity and a self-starter mentality.

In being part of the primary cohort for this program, he recollects irritating moments—finals with incorrect solutions, the isolation of by no means bodily assembly classmates, and the occasional “Reddit-plus” chaos of dialogue boards and Slack threads. However the tradeoff was price it: complete flexibility.

“With Boulder, if you wish to speedrun, you’ll be able to. Attending to the top of those course markers nearly felt like a recreation.”

He accomplished the diploma between October 2019 and December 2020, and feels happy with lastly making the agency choice to leap again into education. “I wasn’t nice at taking break day to spherical myself out, and faculty was an important guise for this. Regardless that I wasn’t working, I nonetheless felt like I used to be progressing.”

Recommendation for Future Learners: Simply Begin

Matt’s largest recommendation? Don’t anticipate the proper time.

“Simply begin,” he says. “It’s method more durable to let it bubble over and discover the best second to dip in. I keep in mind feeling that method for 2 years earlier than truly going again.”

“Optionality” was a lure, he provides: “Conserving a door open shuts different doorways down the highway. Simply make the decision and resolve whether or not you need to do that factor or not.”

Rewriting What Schooling Means

Now, with a proper grasp’s diploma in hand and years of startup expertise behind him, Matt is continuous to do contract and advisory work for startups throughout the globe—and eyeing his subsequent transfer.

“I used to be so labored up over the right way to conceptualize an training and what that was purported to imply,” he says. “However you simply have to leap in and begin swimming.”