<p>I'm 42 years old, graduated high school in 1988, and hoping to get into college for September. I am a little concerned about whether I will be "accepted" by my fellow students who are younger, or whether they're going to look at me like I'm crazy or try to make me feel uncomfortable. If you are going to college in your teens or early 20s, how would you respond to having a classmate my age? I will be a full time, daytime student</p>
<p>I currently go to a school with a large non-traditional student population. In my experience, non-traditional students understand the worth of their education and take it more seriously. I know of several in my science/math classes, and I talk with them like I do everybody else. In part, it might also be because older students aren’t at all uncommon in our button-directional’s classrooms.</p>
<p>Are you going to a university or to a community college? If it’s a CC, don’t worry too much, there are plenty of older students, especially in later classes. Around 5pm classes start being more adults and less college kids. Makes it pretty normal to see older students in class, and I’d imagine most people won’t care about ages too much.</p>
<p>At University, honestly there’s not a whole lot of older students here, so it’s a bit weirder to see them around. Not weird in a “stare and avoid them” sort of way, just a bit more unusual.</p>
<p>^^ I would differentiate between university-types as well. I attend a regional-comprehensive/directional university with fairly open admission standards. We are also the only four-year institution around in something like a good eighty-mile radius, so we do get a lot of non-trads here. I would imagine that at a private college or a larger flagship, it would be unusual, but not prohibitive.</p>
<p>I am interested in attending either George Mason University or Virginia Commonwealth University. I would be a full time day student. </p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies!</p>
<p>One of my classmates in my residential college (within one of the largest universities in America) is in her 40s. She has a kid the age of most of the people in the RC (currently serving overseas). </p>
<p>She is well-liked by everyone and has no issues fitting in :). That said, it does throw off people once in a while. They assume she’s a prof or something.</p>
<p>In classes, it’s all well and good so long as you don’t spend your entire time talking about what you did before college (one mature student did this in one of my classes. It gets old pretty fast).</p>
<p>If you are available, be on the lookout for cougar hunters.</p>
<p>I go to Mason. There are certainly older students in my major courses. I never really have thought much about it, and I have noticed many of the older students in my major seem to integrate well with others (even younger students). The school is diverse, and I don’t think people have much of a problem with older students.</p>