<p>I'm a nontraditional transfer student at a top school (HYPSM). I just graduated.</p>
<p>I'd like to ask everyone in a similar situation a question:</p>
<p>I'm wondering if you conceive of your opportunities, for grad school, etc. differently than traditional students. For example, do you want to go straight through for fear of age discrimination in admissions later? Do you make different choices for internships because you want to make more money rather than pursue a passion?</p>
<p>I'm struggling with these issues and would love to hear your experiences. Traditional students don't seem to have the same concerns.</p>
<p>“I’m a nontraditional transfer student at a top school (HYPSM)”</p>
<p>I HATE when people do this. Just TELL US what school you go to, for Christsake. The name dropping + anonymity sounds so superficially humble.</p>
<p>“I’m struggling with these issues…”</p>
<p>Really?? If you went to such a “baller” school, why would you care? I’m non-trad and just got in to Duke, UVa and Dartmouth from a community college to finish undergrad, and I couldn’t care less about my age now, or in the future for law/business/med schools.</p>
<p>Hey, that’s a lot of rancor for an innocent question. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to be fake humble – I’m just trying not to make my identity completely searchable on the internet. It’s not terribly hard to figure out who a person is if you know their (unusual) situation, and exactly what school they go to. “Hate” is an extremely strong word to use for a personal preference about revealing information on an open forum.</p>
<p>Why could you not care less about your age? If you don’t have these issues, more power to you! But some of us do, and that’s why I’m asking for help on this forum. Since you are so issue-free, perhaps you can help me understand your perspective. What are your career goals, and why are they not at all affected by your age?</p>
<p>There’s no rancor.* People come on here to talk about schools. So talk about schools. </p>
<p>And who cares if someone can figure out who you are on the internet? Are you a criminal on the run? Do you have something to hide? Unless the answers to these questions are ‘yes’, then you probably don’t need a wall of ambiguity- it’s not like you’re posting up your credit card numbers here.</p>
<p>As far as the age thing goes, most people don’t finish grad school until they are around 30, plus or minus a few years. So in all honesty, unless you’re 52 and you want to be a doctor, it hardly matters. Really. </p>
<ul>
<li>If you lack the social skills inherently required to understand when someone is using a figure of speech, allow me to explain that I was doing so when I used the word ‘hate’.</li>
</ul>
<p>I really think age is not important when it comes to most grad school admissions. The exception may be medical school. I only say that because I know a guy in his early 40s who was told off the record by an admissions councilor at a low tier medical school that he wouldn’t get into any medical schools because of his age. Law school is another place where age may make a difference, but I’m not sure. I used to work in the registrar’s office of a top tier law school and there were older students there.</p>
<p>Most grad schools won’t care about your age. For me personally, I would like to go right after I finish undergrad. I’m 33 now, so I will probably be going into grad school around 37/38. I don’t want to wait because I might get distracted by life and never make it. Since I am in a field where women are very unlikely to get advanced degrees, it feels more important to me to make that effort to get one myself. So I don’t want wait and then end up not getting back to it.</p>
<p>Don’t know if that answers your questions, but that’s what I have to offer.</p>
<p>My GF’s college adviser used to work in grad admissions at BC. She told my GF that grad schools looked down upon older students in the past but that things have changed to were the older student is now preferred. Basically, it is because older students generally have had the time to think about why they want to go to grad school and what they want to gain from it and a good amount of traditionally-aged college kids are staying in school to stave off repayment of student loans. </p>
<p>Posh–people of all ages get into medical school. The reason why older people may get denied has more to do with the fact that older people generally have more (and other) commitments going in their lives and may not have the time to take full advantage of med school like a younger person might. A generalization, yes, but you have to keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of colleges in this country are not-for-profit. They don’t want your money, they want the student who is going to best represent the school and program both during and after graduation.</p>