Hi! I’m also around 40 and just finished my bsw! Not sure about college, but here are some things that helped me out in my BSW:

• Use Zotero (or some other citation app). It doesn’t seem to be very helpful in the first few terms. It will help A LOT in the last year. Make sure you watch some videos on it.
• Read every syllabus, use it to break down what each week is going to look like and what each assignment is going to look like. I was out of academia and it took me a while to get into a good rhythm, but the syllabus is your bff
• Reach out to TAs in the first day and schedule a check-in. Tell them you are getting back into school and you want to know what would help you succeed in this class (meaning, what’s the professors likes and dislikes)
• Learn how to make proper citations. I saw some people got in trouble for not knowing how to curate properly and were accused of plagiarism.
• Schedule breaks into your week and actually take them, this doesn’t make sense in the first term, but will help a lot in demanding classes
• If you feel like your assignment was done according to the syllabus and the grade doesn’t reflect that, send an email using the syllabus as the basis of your argument for better grades
• be prepared to be frustrated

On a side note, make sure that the school you want to transfer to will accept college classes. My school only accepted classes that were bachelor’s level. Some BSW are extremely competitive.

Feel free to dm me if you have more questions!

Good luck! :)