Other College Issues

Question: I have a son entering the 7th grade. There are some students who are starting Algebra I this year. This will put them on a track to take higher level mathematics in high school. We are considering this for our son. Do colleges place a lot of weight on classes beyond calculus? Is it better to push ahead or take Algebra I in the 8th grade, which would probably give the student a better understanding of the subject? Our son is motivated and an A student. We don’t know how important the math track is to top-college admission.

The hardest decision I’ve encountered as a parent is knowing when to push my son and when to step back. Granted, my son is only 11, so nothing has been all that hard so far (no drivers’ license yet!) and the teen years still lie in wait. But, still, I do sometimes struggle when deciding how much to push (or nag!).

Colleges–especially the more competitive ones–are always eager to see that students have challenged themselves, and if your son’s high school transcript shows classes beyond calculus, that should be a plus—assuming, of course, that he also does well in them.

Another plus of being in the “fast track” in math in 7th grade is that, perhaps, this will also put your son in other classes with the same group of bright students who are in algebra with him. (This may not be the case at your son’s school, but often, in order to make schedules work, all of the algebra kids are together for English, social studies, etc., too, even if there aren’t official accelerated classes in those subjects.)

However, there are also down sides to starting algebra so early. Some colleges that give credit for 8th-grade algebra may not offer it for a class taken in grade 7. If your son continues math throughout high school, this will not be a problem. But, should he decide–for whatever reasons–not to continue in math, you may find that starting algebra so early could be a liability.

Also, if your son is an athlete and may play a sport in college, at the moment the NCAA does not recognize any classes taken in 7th or 8th grade. Again, if your son continues with math, then no problem. But should he wish to drop it after a couple years in high school, then he won’t have met the NCAA requirements (assuming that this controversial rule doesn’t change). It’s not likely, of course, that an elite-college prospect will bail on math in grade 10, but do consider yourself warned.

Since most of the stronger college applicants don’t start algebra until 8th grade–or even 9th–there’s no significant college-related reason to push your son ahead. However, if he’s chomping at the bit to get going with algebra, and if you think he can handle this extra challenge, then you just have to go into it with an awareness of the couple potential drawbacks listed above.

Good luck to you as you wrestle with this decision.

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Question: In September, my daughter will be attending a university in Boston, which is about five hours by car from our home. I’m nervous about her leaving home, but I’m obsessing even MORE about how she comes back. She’s already gathering names of other local underclassmen with cars who can drive her home for vacations in exchange for a contribution to their gas costs. This is a concept that I remember well from my own college days, but now I’m having a hard time accepting the idea of my daughter riding with a stranger–even a fellow student–who may be inexperienced driving long distances on major highways and in bad weather. Is this ride-sharing still a common practice?

“The Dean” also recalls being stuffed like a sardine in a dilapidated Dodge Dart, chipping in a couple bucks to cover the cost of gas and tolls from Massachusetts back to Philadelphia. Yet, in recent years, I’ve often noted that the many of my contemporaries who share similar memories nonetheless provide vacation-time chauffeur service for their own offspring. Sure, some kids still ride home with other students, but that seems to be more the exception these days and less the norm.

So, this is a judgment call that you may be forced to make next fall … not unlike others that surely came before it. Remember all those leaps of faith you’ve taken over the years … the first time your little girl walked to school alone? Rode her bike to the store? Went out on her first “real” date? Spent a weekend at the beach with a friend you couldn’t pick out of a line-up? There were probably times when you said “Yes” when other parents were saying, “No,” and other occasions when you put your foot down firmly, although you were told (amidst tears), “Everyone else is doing it, Dad!”

Well, once again, it’s up to you to determine the boundaries of your comfort zone, but it’s probably time for another one of those leaps of faith. After all, you can’t expect to monitor your daughter’s drivers forever. But, on the other hand, it seems reasonable to ask her to use some sort of screening process when accepting a ride from a stranger. For starters, she should confirm that her driver really is a fellow student. She should find someone else she knows who knows this person, too, and can vouch for his or her good character and judgment. You can also talk with your daughter about other options. Are you and/or your spouse willing to make the trip? If so, how would your daughter feel about that? As I said, in today’s college culture it’s not unusual to rely on Mom and Dad for rides. Your daughter might actually be happy to avoid the hassle of finding her own transportation. Alternatively, unlike more remote campuses, every school in Boston has easy access to planes, trains, and buses.

With a teenager under your roof, you’ve undoubtedly learned to pick your battles, so whether this is a fight or flight issue is up to you. But do keep in mind that, as soon as you air your concerns about riding in a car with a total stranger, you’ve opened the door for your daughter to start lobbying for a car of her own.

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Question: How do you begin to reapply to college after your gap year? How do you obtain the old information submitted previously (e.g., counselor/teacher recommendations)?

I can’t tell if you intend to apply to colleges to which you’ve already applied or to other ones, so I’ll answer the question both ways.

First, if you’re planning to take another shot at schools that already said, “No,” then you’ve got an uphill battle ahead. It’s uncommon to be admitted after a gap year to a college that turned you down. Your odds would be much better if you went elsewhere first and then reapplied as a transfer. But if you plan to reapply to colleges that already admitted you, then your chances of getting in are good. In any case, schools to which you applied as a senior should still have much of your old information on file, so your first step is to contact them and ask them what they’ll need. But, as you do, keep in mind that a gap year can be an eye-opening, life-changing experience, so you may find that the colleges you applied to this past year don’t “fit” you quite as well as you thought they did by the time your year-off is over.

If, however, you’re aiming for new colleges, then it’s a good idea to contact your high school guidance counselor right now and ask what materials are on file in the guidance office and how to access them in the fall or early winter, when your applications will probably be due. Your high school file may–or may not–also include the references you solicited from your teachers. If your school file does include these references, then the guidance office can probably send them out for you when your start to apply. If your file does not include references, then it will be up to you to track down your teachers and ask them to please send copies of their letters to additional schools. The smartest time to do this is now. The teachers probably still have copies of the recommendations they wrote for you, but they may not keep them for posterity. So warn the teachers ASAP that you’ll need their help once again. You will also have to order SAT or ACT scores sent to the new colleges, if required.

Finally, whether you’re reapplying to colleges that you applied to before or to brand-new ones, you should also send updated information that explains what you’ve been doing during your gap year, along with another more recent recommendation from someone who taught you or worked with you (etc.) during your time off.

Hope you have a wonderful gap year. “The Dean” wouldn’t mind taking one, too.

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Question: How much consideration do graduate schools give to the prestige of the undergraduate institution that an applicant attended? I am currently a high school senior deciding to attend either UC Berkeley or USC. I am aware that although UC Berkeley is ranked slightly higher and has a “better” name value, it is MUCH more prestigious and competitive than USC. Hence, I am wondering if it is worth the trouble to go through this academic challenge at UC Berkeley. I’m not saying that I won’t be challenged at USC. I’m just saying that UC Berkeley academics are known to be more difficult. I want to major in economics, and I ultimately want to attend graduate school in four years, so is Berkeley the better choice for me?

For starters, you are making too much of the differences between Cal Berkeley and USC. Unless you’re talking about the University of South Carolina (and I suspect that you’re not) then the admission standards at the two colleges you cite are strikingly similar. I urge you to make your choice based on the campus that you feel is the best one for you now, and not that will serve as the most likely springboard to affirmative grad school verdicts down the road.

But let’s pretend for a minute that these standards really are far apart, as you seem to believe. Even so, graduate schools like to admit a diverse swath of applicants, just as undergraduate colleges do. “The Dean” is often asked if private high schools are “better” than public ones, when it comes to Ivy and “elite” admission, and that always spurs a long diatribe that ends up sounding a lot like “it depends.” Both paths will certainly get you where you want to go, so the “it depends” part pertains to what you’re looking for along the way.

Similarly, graduate admission officials endeavor to select a variety of applicants and, in doing so, they draw from a range of undergraduate institutions. They are far more interested in the individual student’s achievement and potential than they are in the name on his or her college sweatshirt. However, they do take into account the rigor and competition of the undergrad school, and they understand that B’s at one college may be closer to A’s at another.

In your case, however, I suggest that you try to decide where you can best see yourself for the next four years rather than attempting to view each option through the lenses of the grad-school admission committees. You have two excellent choices, and I wish you well as you make your final decision.

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Question: I’ve been told that before my son takes a gap year, he has to apply to–and be accepted by–a college, then talk to them about deferring admission for a year. I was under the impression that he could apply for college during his gap year. Which is correct?

Your son can certainly wait until his gap year to apply to colleges. However, this might be a little tricky if he plans to be far away from home or in any sort of situation where he won’t have regular access to the Internet and e-mail. (Yes, it’s still possible to go through the process without technology, but it sure isn’t easy!) Also, before your son graduates, he might want to consider soliciting references from his teachers and guidance counselor, but that isn’t an imperative either, as long as he’ll be in a position to stay in touch with them during his year off.

So, don’t worry, it looks like you got some bad info from the grapevine this time. Not only can your son wait until his gap year to make his college choices and complete his applications, but also this may be a sound approach because his gap-year experiences could significantly affect what he wants to do and where he wants to be. Waiting those extra months to apply to colleges should also add a bit of sanity to his senior year.

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Question: My daughter, who is in middle school, is already interested in accelerated medical programs. What colleges do you support?

We support ANY combined medical program that will admit your daughter. It’s a sellers’ market out there!

Seriously, these programs are SO competitive that they typically admit only Ivy-caliber students and can be as selective as the Ivies (or more so!) and also as unpredictable. Even colleges that are not terribly picky when it comes to the rest of their applicant pool will turn away all but the strongest combo-med candidates. For instance, several years ago I visited Drew University in New Jersey. There, the typical admitted freshman has combined SAT scores (Math and Critical Reading only) of just under 1200, but the combo med candidates must have 1400 minimum simply to apply. In fact, an admission official I met during my visit told me that, although 1400 is the cut-off for applications, the accepted students more commonly have SAT’s above 1500. So, just because a college or university seems well within your daughter’s reach, keep in mind that the combo-med candidates are held to a far higher standard. Last year, for instance, I had an advisee who was denied by Boston University’s combined med program, and she is now a student at Yale.

In addition to having near-perfect grades and test scores, your daughter must also demonstrate significant interest in the medical profession and be able to speak convincingly in at least one interview–and sometimes several–about her reasons for choosing this profession at an early age. Admission officials at combo med programs carefully scrutinize all applicants’ reasons for hopping on this fast track as teenagers.

Note also that, although you use the term “Accelerated Medical Program,” I am actually addressing any type of combined bachelors/MD program. All of these typically enable students to be accepted to both undergraduate school and medical school at the same time, when they are still just in the senior year of high school. In fact, some combo programs are 7 (or even 6) years in duration, while others are 8, which is the normal amount of time that most students spend in undergraduate college, then med school. (However, the 8-year combo-program students do not go through a full med school search and application process. So their medical career is also “accelerated” in that way.)

There are obviously pros and cons to combined programs. The pluses are that they enable motivated pre-med students to get a jump start on their medical education and to be able to forge ahead without going through yet another college search in just four years. To me, that’s the best part–the fact that students don’t have to go through this whole application song and dance before they’ve recovered from the first time around! The biggest down side is that students tend to get locked into both an institution and a career path when they are very young and may not be fully prepared to choose either. Just as one college can be markedly different from another, so too can medical schools vary widely. An 18-year-old might be fairly certain that he or she wants to be a doctor but rarely has a sense of whether to choose a research-oriented medical college, a very technical curriculum vs. one that may emphasize alternative medicine, etc.

Also (and very unofficially) I’ve heard directors of medical residency programs admit that they can be suspect of combo-program grads who may lag a couple years behind in maturity than their counterparts who are somewhat older and more seasoned.

I generally recommend that students who are applying to combined programs also apply to colleges or universities without them and then wait until April to make a decision. The combined programs tend to be highly competitive, as I’ve told you, so all applicants should have other, safer options anyway. (If your daughter is a member of an underrepresented minority group, there are a handful of programs that target these populations specifically and may have slightly less stringent admission requirements, especially when it comes to test-score cut-offs.)

When looking for program options, check out the Web site, below. This list is not complete, but pretty close:

http://www.medicalhelpnet.com/content/view/28/46/

As you investigate the combined med programs, contact admission offices and ask these questions:

1. Are the standards of admission to this program far higher than to the university at large? If so, if I am not admitted to the program, might I still be admitted to the university? If there is a minimum SAT score to be admitted, is it at all flexible? Must the score I submit be from a single testing? Will you consider comparable ACT scores if they are better than my SAT? Do most of the admitted applicants actually score well above this minimum?

8. Is an interview required? If so, will ALL applicants be interviewed or just those who pass a preliminary level of screening?

Since your daughter is not yet in high school, you’re wise to look down the road ahead, to make certain that she is selecting the most challenging classes–especially in math and science–that she can handle and also seeking out other medical-field enrichment opportunities (e.g.,. volunteering in a hospital or clinic, taking summer courses in the sciences or related areas). However, because she is so young, she also needs to recognize that she has time to change her mind. If she doesn’t seem 100% certain that a medical career is right for her, then “the Dean” prescribes a broader undergraduate degree. Your daughter can always aim for med school once she is more sure of her goals and has a couple years of college under her belt.

For more information on combo med admission and programs, check out the College Confidential discussion forum on this topic. Go to:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/forumdisplay.php?f=476

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Question: We are considering e-school or cyber-school for our middle school child and high school child. They are both very competent students who get A’s and B’s. They are involved in gifted and honors programs, school activities, and extracurricular sports. Unfortunately, our middle school is dismal, and we don’t want to expose our child to it. Will e-schooling them ruin their chances to be admitted to top colleges and universities? How do admissions departments view cyber-schools or e-schools?

Students enrolled in cyber-schools will be evaluated by admission officials much like home-schoolers are, but with the added advantage that many cyber-students will have actual grades to report, which home-schooled students typically don’t (or if they DO have grades, the adjudication is often done by Mom or Dad).

There was a time, not so many years ago, when college admission officials approached such non-traditional applicants with skepticism or at least with surprise. There simply weren’t that many families who chose to educate their children in that way. Now, of course, the number has burgeoned and continues to rise. There are many reasons why parents choose to follow this route, but–whatever they are–there is no reason to fear that it will have a negative impact on their children’s college-admission opportunities.

With so many families asking the same kinds of questions that you are, it’s no wonder that college-related information for home-schoolers now proliferates. In fact, do a Google search, and you’ll find pages and pages of sites to check out—reading them is something of an education in itself.

If you haven’t done so already, your first stop should be our own College Confidential discussion forum at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/home-schooling-college/ .This link will take you to our threads on “Home schooling and college.” There’s a brief thread on cyber-schooling, too … not much info there yet but a good place to connect with like-minded others … and don’t forget that most issues that pertain to home-schooled students will pertain to e-schooled students as well.

Another site to check out is http://learninfreedom.org/colleges_4_hmsc.html While I can’t personally vouch for its accuracy, there seems to be a lot of information there, including a list of home-schooler-friendly colleges and universities along with direct links to their Web sites.

Speaking of Web sites, home-schooled candidates are so common these days that many colleges have separate Web pages just for them. Usually you can link to these from a college’s admissions homepage, but sometimes I feel as if just finding the pages requires a college degree! If you don’t locate the information you need in a reasonable amount of time, cut your losses and telephone admission offices directly.

These guidelines from Stanford University are typical of what you’ll find at many schools. http://www.stanford.edu/dept/uga/applying/extras/1_2a4_homeschooled.html Keep in mind that colleges may have different requirements (or sometimes they’re merely “recommendations”) for home-schooled students than they do for the rest of the applicant pool. For instance, some institutions may ask for extra standardized admission tests (especially SAT Subject Tests) or will insist on a personal interview.

When I first began evaluating admission folders at Smith College in the mid-1980s, home-schoolers were still a fairly rare breed. Not too long thereafter, however, Smith created an application supplement just for home-schooled students. This, too, is a rather common practice. So be sure your children identify themselves as cyber-schooled students when they first begin to request college information so that they will be informed of all specific materials and requirements that pertain to them. You’ll find the Smith supplement at: http://www.smith.edu/admission/pdf/HomeSchooled07.pdf It will give you a good sense of what many colleges expect from home-schoolers.

When admission officials—especially at the more elite and competitive colleges–assess their home-schooled candidates, there are two factors that tend to carry a lot of weight:

The first of these is curriculum. Admission officials will scrutinize evidence that the applicant has followed a program that is roughly comparable to the same recommended classes that other applicants have undertaken. This usually includes four years of English, three or four years of math and social studies, and at least two of foreign language and lab science, preferably more, especially at the most selective institutions.

Elite-college admission officials are eager to identify students who have pursued an academic passion in depth. If this passion is an uncommon one, so much the better. Home-schooled students often have more opportunity to explore unusual areas of interest than typical high school students do. Sometimes home-schooled students pursue their own independent research.

As your children near the end of high school, you also might want to consider enrolling them in a local community college (or any nearby college that will allow this) to take a course or two each semester. When a home-schooled student has taken at least a couple courses in a classroom environment such as a community college and has earned good grades, that tends to help balance out the home-school “transcript” and to work in his or her favor.

In general, when it comes to college admission, the most successful home-schooled applicants are those who stand out in the crowd not only because they didn’t go to Rydell High but also because they’ve taken full advantage of their outside-the-box education and will bring the best of what such an education can offer to their college campus and share it with others.

The second area of importance is test scores. It’s almost ironic that home-schooled or cyber-schooled students, who have often be brought up outside the confines of traditional education, typically have to score especially well on SAT or ACT exams in order to stay in the running at top colleges. Since admission folks don’t have the more usual measures of a candidate’s success available to them (e.g., class rank), they need some way to compare these students to the rest of the pool. Because home-schooled children don’t always encounter multiple-choice tests, timed tests, or any formal tests at all as part of their home-school curriculum, it is important that you keep in mind that they will most likely encounter these very important college admission tests and prepare accordingly. Depending on what e-schooling program you pursue, your children may encounter a lot of testing, but–even so–testing at home is a very different experience that staggering into the local high school with cast of thousands at 8 or a Saturday morning to take the SAT’s.

Home-schooled students are also eligible to take College Board Advanced Placement exams. A good score on these tests is an excellent way to prove that a non-traditional education is at least on the same footing with a more commonplace one.

Some home-schooled students are permitted (and eager) to take part in extracurricular activities at their local public high school. However, in most cases, admission officials don’t expect to see “Student Government,” “Pep Club,” or “Debate Society” on a home-schooled student’s transcript. However, your children should develop outside interests (and holding a job counts, too) to supplement their academic ones. Sometimes home-schoolers, who lack the chance to take part in the usual student clubs, can come up with pretty creative alternatives that wow admission committees more than a Spanish Club membership or spot on the high school cheering squad ever will. If your children are playing community or club sports, they may be able to continue with those activities, too. Admission officials also like to see students who take part in community endeavors that involve participants of many ages. When students aren’t bound by a typical school schedule, this may make it easier to participate in local events at any hour of the day.

So, as you can see, there are lots of options for home-schooled and cyber-schooled students with college goals–even lofty ones.

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Question: Why do admission committees want to know what you did between the time of your high school graduation and the time you are applying to their college?

Colleges are interested in your post-high-school undertakings for a couple reasons. Primarily, they want this information much in the same vein that they want to know not only about your classes, grades, and test scores, but also about your extracurricular activities, hobbies, and work experience. In other words, they’re interested in seeing the “whole person” behind an application, and the way that you spend your non-academic time can provide helpful insight into who you really are.

Most applicants, of course, apply to college straight from high school, so if you’re not still in high school, admission officials are curious about the choices you’ve made since graduation. This knowledge will contribute to their “holistic” view of you as a candidate, and it may also help them determine how your matriculation might impact their campus (e.g., Have you been in rehab? In jail? Were you volunteering in a Third World Country? Manning the fry-o-lator in a fast-food restaurant to save money for your schooling?) Whatever your response, it may enable admission committees to better evaluate how you will fit in at their institution. Moreover, a particularly interesting, challenging, or unusual “gap year” can sometimes help borderline applicants get into a first-choice college.

Secondly, colleges want to know if you have matriculated elsewhere. Sometimes students who have attended another college but have done poorly there will try to apply to a new school and “pretend” that the first college experience never happened. However, it is imperative that applicants are truthful about all post-secondary academic experiences. Although it is tempting to want to make a bad beginning at another college simply vaporize so you can start over with a clean slate, this is unethical. Some students do try it and get away with it, but I’ve heard stories about those who get caught–even several YEARS after enrolling at the new school–and are promptly dismissed. Many admission officials are forgiving when an applicant confesses to bad grades as a freshman elsewhere, but they are not so sympathetic if they discover that the applicant has tried to lie about a previous college experience.

So, if you are applying to college after already graduating from high school, you should be candid about what you’ve done in the intervening time. If you’re proud of what you’ve accomplished (even if it’s doing menial labor), be sure to say so. And if you’re NOT proud, try to explain your regrets to admission officials, put mistakes you’ve made in perspective, note what you’ve learned from the experience, and express your desire to contribute to their campus community in the future.

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Question: Is it possible for a student finishing his freshman year in college to obtain a summer internship (paid or unpaid)? My son is majoring in chemistry. Aside from speaking with personnel at the college, what is another good source for this information?

If your son is resourceful, he should be able to land something satisfying this summer. The fact that he’s willing to work without pay will be a big plus, too.

The best–and most obvious–place to start is at his college career center. As a freshman, he may not have even found it yet, but he shouldn’t hesitate to drop in and check out what’s available. He should also make an appointment to meet with a staff member who can help direct his search.

His professors may (or may not) have suggestions as well. Typically, notices on science-center bulletin boards can provide leads, too.

Peterson’s internship mega-tome might be another place to look. There will be a lot of irrelevant information in it for sure, but–since the book is already more than a year old–a used copy from Amazon for under five bucks is worth the investment. See:
http://www.amazon.com/Internships-2005-Petersons-Jennifer-Fishberg/dp/0768914981/sr=1-1/qid=1162436614/ref=sr_1_1/102-9334887-8904943?ie=UTF8&s=books

Something that you, the mom, can contribute to the search, is an hour or so on Google. For instance, if you start with “Summer Internships+Chemistry,” you’ll get some interesting hits. You’ll have to weed through those that are for older students or for students affiliated with a particular college or university, but note that just because a position is advertised on a school’s Web site–or may actually be based at the school itself–it doesn’t necessarily mean that outsiders are automatically excluded.

Finally, since your son is willing to work without pay, he may also be able to create his own internship by deciding where he wants to be or what he wants to do and then offering his services gratis. If no formal internship program exists, he may be able to convince a prospective employer that he would be handy to have around for six or eight weeks. Keep in mind, too, that even when an internship is unpaid, your son MIGHT be able to wangle credit from his college if he can pass it off as an independent summer study project. Different schools have very different policies in this regard, but in almost every situation, the student needs to clear this well in advance of the internship and not after the fact.

In any case, while some of the juicier internship opportunities may go to older undergrads or graduate students, your son should be able to find his niche as well. If he gets some search assistance and clerical support on the homefront, that will improve his odds, too.

Happy hunting!

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Question: My four sons are all attending college. I have decided to finish my undergrad education after 30 years. Presently I am a junior at the local branch of my state university and plan to transfer to the flagship campus in 2007. I have been nominated for the Truman Scholarship. I am aware that, as an older student with four kids in college, I might be setting myself up for failure. Financially it is difficult to justify my educational goals. I have roughly 40 hours to go before I graduate. How do I pull all of this together?

I’m not sure if you’re looking for specific suggestions on how to proceed with your education or just for moral support. If it’s the latter, you’ve definitely come to the right place. We at College Confidential feel that, as difficult as the road may sometimes seem, pursuing a college dream at ANY age is worthwhile. Even though it may seem a bit nuts to you right now–with four children still in college themselves–chances are, there will ALWAYS be SOMETHING going on in your life that may make you feel as if the timing isn’t quite right.

One of my all-time favorite “Dear Abby” columns was published quite a while ago. A woman wrote to “Abby” and said something like this:

“I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but I’m 45 years old now and it will take about ten years for me to complete college and get my medical degree. By then I’ll be 55. What should I do?”

And Abby responded, “In 10 years you’ll still be 55, so you might as well be a 55-year-old doctor!”

I’m paraphrasing shamelessly here, but you get the idea. Take the risk. If you find that you’ve bitten off too much, slow down. The Truman Scholarship would certainly provide a great incentive to reach your goals, but there are many paths that can lead you there as well.

Smith College, where I used to work, has an excellent program for non-traditional students, The Ada Comstock Scholars Program. These are all women–from age 24 up to more than 80 (!)–who began college late in life or who began it at a more typical time but never finished. The program provides terrific support for these “Adas,” as they’re nicknamed. When I was at Smith, I observed that some Adas wanted to rush toward their degree as fast as possible while others took full advantage of the college’s flexible policies that allowed them to take far lighter course loads than the traditional-aged students, if they wished.

What I also noticed is that some Adas arrived on campus with very clear-cut plans but found that, when reality hit them between the eyes, they had to adjust those plans. Sometimes they found it difficult to abandon their preconceived “timetables” and/or academic goals, but one of the pluses of the program was that the advisors helped the students to realize that each must move at her own pace—one that took a range of factors (finances, family demands, etc.) into consideration.

Many universities have a center for non-traditional students. I suggest that you take full advantage of these services. Get to know other older students, especially those who are juggling some of the same demands that you are. You can provide a lot of support for one another.

Finally, keep in mind that older students tend to be academic perfectionists. You need to figure out what you have to do–and what you don’t–to get the grades you want, but have realistic expectations. Don’t be too hard on yourself.

It sounds like you’re really on a roll, so I urge you to keep rolling and wish you all the best as you proceed.

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