I understand what it is, but have a couple questions.

I'm a lvl 13. All my casting is at lvl65. If I understand it correctly, I
can't even specialize until lvl 30, right? By that time ALL my magic skill
levels will be at 150.

So if I specialize (I believe alteration IS the healing/buffing one) at lvl
30, what happens? I'm thinking that my alteration will continue to go up,
but the other 3 or 4 will suddenly take a 100 level dive back to lvl 50?

I'm not bitching, I just haven't decided whether or not I want to do it.
Thank god it'll take me a minimum of 2 more months before I get to lvl 30 &
apparently have to worry about making that decision. :)