Need some help convincing my friend...

Puscifer

...that it's not a bad thing to be an older student going to college. My buddy just turned 27 and he's going to college to get his engineering degree. He's spent the time between high school and now actually travelling and working some crazy jobs (he worked up in Alaska as a crab fishermen, fought fires in Rocky Mountains, working on a cruise line, etc). He's been sort of down right now thinking about the experience of going to college and he's feeling like he's going to be out of place with all the young students, etc.

If some of you could share your opinions on this and I'll show it to him. I just want to convince him not to feel like he's going to be some ancient relice walking around campus.

embrik

It's very common, but here's a very nice site with some stats to throw around (like this one):

In 1970, 28 percent of all college students were 25 years of age or older. In 1998 the number of adult learners had increased to 41 percent.

Puscifer

Awesome. Thank you very much.

Scooter

For serious degrees it's not at all uncommon.


Now, going back to get a degree in Art History or Philosophy, maybe you'd need to rethink the time investment.

cmsamo

When I was at University in the UK, there were 5 of us fresh-faced 18 year olds right out of school, and a 28 year old rugby league player who we called 'Big Jim'

Even though he was 10 years older than us he had no problems with the whole college experience at all and actually because he was older and wiser we all looked up to him. He ran our house and basically kept things ticking and had a great time with the rest of us...

Ruckus

Additional Bonus: College girls tend to be automatically attracted to the older guys.

Serphimera

In my experience the older students were the coolest ones to hang around with. All that extra life experience makes them that much more interesting as a person.

Weretaco

As an older student he will probably also take it more seriously. I know if I went back to school now I'd do a hell of a lot better.

Bionic Monkey

My neighbor in the dorms, and one of my best friends in college was a guy just shy of 30. He'd started, and flunked out of college as a kid, joined the navy for a few years, and eventually found himself back in college. Definately nothing to be ashamed of.

Feral

I'm turning 29 tomorrow and I'm currently taking classes in pre-med.
There's nothing wrong with it, though I feel a little out of place sometimes.
A lot of people have no fucking clue what they want to do with their lives until they've been working for a few years. I know I had a couple of false starts.

supertall

Especially in engineering, you'll find that 27 isn't out of place. At all. I'm finishing up my own degree, and many of the people in the program here are in their late twenties and up.