<p>I am 21 and have two years left in college. I'm thinking about adding on another year so that I could study abroad, so by the time I graduate I'll be 24 and then will head straight to graduate school for another 2 years. Is 24 old for a college graduate? I will be working part time while in grad school in a field related to my major so I will have a job then.</p>
<p>No; I believe 24 is the average age for college graduates. For example, I plan on going into vet school, and a lot of students who make it into vet school (well, the UCD vet school, that is) after they graduate from college tend to be 24 years old.</p>
<p>Maybe one or two years older than the stereotypical college student, but no not at all.</p>
<p>Nah man there’s people in their 30s, 40s, and even a few 50s in my classes. And there was one 86 year old too.</p>
<p>Plenty of students are older than that when they graduate.</p>
<p>You might find more of them at state universities and community colleges where “non-traditional” students are more common (e.g. those returning after working or military service, or who took some years off of school). BYU probably has many somewhat older graduates (at least for men) due to the frequency of LDS members taking time off school to be missionaries.</p>
<p>How “out of place” you’ll feel depends on whether you are an undergrad or grad student and what type of college you go to. I go to a huge state school and am an undergrad so most students are 8-10 years younger than me (I’m 29), but at the CC I was at before I was the average age. Now <em>grad</em> students are a whole other thing, nobody thinks a 35-year-old grad student is strange at all.</p>
<p>I’m currently 27 in my third year at my University. I started off at a CC at 24 due to life sidetracking me. Even though I’m much older, I still feel like I fit in.</p>
<p>Graduate schools will actually look favorably on older students - they have more life experience and therefore might be more serious about their studies, and have better insights into what they want to do in life. So it certainly will not hurt you. I’m 24 and have a bachelors degree but I’m taking some courses at my local CC (I don’t think anyone even realizes I’m older than them), and plan to return to a full-time program in the next year or two. In a few years you’ll think 24 is still quite young :)</p>
<p>I got my undergrad degree at 31. Got to work at various interesting jobs and start a few companies along the way.</p>
<p>College is about getting your degree not a being with the norm. No one cares in all. </p>
<p>A great instructor I once had just published a book memoiring her 20 years of teaching community college and cited: “I’ve had party animals, people who I never heard a peep out of, war vets, active duty servicemen and woman, young mothers, young farthers, grandmas, grandpas, mothers of 6, ones I would read about them later in the media (both good and bad), and middle aged people who just seemed bored with their everyday life, all in my classroom.”</p>
<p>Thanks everybody. @Tonio, just like you life kinda sidetracked me too but that just resulted in me being in community college for 3 years and I was very unhappy about that. I was just worried about what people would possibly think about me being older than a “traditional” college grad. I’m actually quite short so I look younger than what I am. :)</p>
<p>Chances are, unless someone comes right out and asks you your age, they won’t know how old you are. And once you start making friends and they do find out your age, they won’t care at that point. A lot of people like having older friends. </p>
<p>I had a man in my psych class who was about mid-40’s. He had been a paid firefighter and just retired with a nice pension, so he decided to go back to school. He was even talking about going to graduate school. And we were at a pricey private LAC and I doubt with his income that he was getting any aid. But he strutted around campus with his backpack like he was 20 again. A lot of the younger guys found him interesting and would chat with him a lot. </p>
<p>I also had a 70-something year old woman in one of my art classes. She had some interesting stories to tell.</p>