Adult college students?

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I am an adult Aspie, who, as a result of his recent diagnosis, has started to attend college--at the age of 36!! ! It's "only" community college, and just a couple of classes to start, but it's something I guess. It's a really odd experience to realize that most of my classmates were still in diapers when I graduated High School, and it's also rather odd to see how detatched and disinterested most of my classmates are toward things like assignments and tests, etc. They all seem shallow and prematurely jaded. One student even told an instructor that he planned on "doing the least amount of work possible." It seems so weird! Or am I just looking at the situation through the eyes of "experience?" Are there any other adults here like me who have returned to school and noticed the same things?

I am an adult who has been going back to school since realizing that retirement isn't my thing. I take the classes, lessons, and assignments seriously, as I did the courses I took to get my unlamented job in the first place. And I'm enjoying these a lot more!

Exceptions: the prof I can't respect. I don't think this is the case here.

IF your classmates are acting as if they were there under court order, maybe they are, or something similar. This is why middle schools and high schools are so full of that kind of attitude. The kids are prisoners and do they know it!

[Story in today's Albuquerque Journal: most dropouts say they're bored. One kid quit high school and a week later aced his G.E.D. Another complained his English class read only one book all semester. (He couldn't have brought in his favorites to read behind the One Book?)]

Anyway, good luck in college and hang in there. You'll find as you go on that unless it's trade school stuff you don't really like, the 300-level and 400-level courses are a whole lot better - and you'll do a whole lot better in them! [Case in point: I got an A in a philosophical class in Religious Studies and am dropping back in the 100-level World Religions course I took to fill in the holes in my databank.]

Best of luck.

I was 22 when I started university, I am technically a mature aged student, although first year university students of my age, would have already worked a fair bit and have their drivers licenses by now.

Sounds to me like just a bunch of punk kids who are being forced to go to college by their parents

Welcome to community college!

Students at the local community college want to do the least amount of work possible. My local community college has a strict attendance policy---if you miss more than 2 classes, the instructor may drop you from the class. Some teachers will allow absences in excess of this with a doctor's note---some will make no exceptions whatsoever. Of course the instructors have to enforce this policy, or else nobody would show up. Of course, some courses are entirely online, in which no attendance is required. Cheating is common at my local community college, even though the college has a strict academic dishonesty policy. Students have other students write their papers, and students find ways to cheat on tests. Some instructors are easy, and in some classes, if you have perfect attendance, you get extra credit. Some instructors give all multiple choice tests and test entirely from their lecture notes----there is no point in even buying the expensive textbook. Where I live, most students also have a part-time or full-time job and work many hours per work, so their academic work is not a priority. The rate of dropped classes is extremely high, and the administration does not understand why. In the classes at my local community colleges, it is super easy to get a C, fairly easy to get a B, and hard to get an A. There are no minus or plus grades given. Even the instructors at the community college don't always want to do the work. I had a music appreciation teacher at the community college. In his class, I missed a third of the classes and didn't buy the textbook or the CD's that I was supposed to. I didn't get the notes from a classmate, either. I just took the tests (all multiple choice, including listening comprehension) and did the work in the learning lab. I hated the subject. I still got a B. The teacher told the class that he loved music and that he didn't care for teaching and was only there for his paycheck.

You shouldn't disparage a community college. It is, a springboard to a four year school.

Kind regards,
Chris

I'm 51, and a senior in anthropology-I returned after I was diagnosed.
Its true, regular students often seem less focussed and determined than us "Non-trads".

I'll be 27 and I am planning on going back. I see some of you are optimistic and feel it is never too late. I heard the average age of some college students at some campuses are like 30 years old anyways. I'll start slow and progress and try things again.

I had started college in 1998 at age 18, and got an Associate of Applied Science degree (in Geographic Information Systems) in Dec. 2002, just days after my 23rd birthday.

I returned to college in August 2004 at age 24, starting on my Bachelor's degree in geology. I am 26 years old now, and I will very likely be relocating to another part of the U.S. (after living in the Houston, Texas area all my life). There are two reasons for moving: (1) I figure that colleges in other parts of the country will offer geology program that offer more hands-on opportunities, and (2) the experience with Hurricane Rita in September 2005 (a 19-hour evacuation, and chronic fuel shortages) makes me not want to live in Houston anymore.

I have already been accepted to the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and I am applying to Boise State University in Idaho.

Tim

In an episode of "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy", Billy wanted to be a chicken juggler. He did a song about his goals:

I'm chasing my dream,
Oh, I'm chasing my dream,
I've got gas (farts),
But I'm chasing my dream.

This song also applies to me wanting to be a geologist, except unlike Billy, I'm not dressed as a chicken.

Tim

I am 29 and I have been in community college for 11 years. It doesn't really matter your age, as long as you still go. I don't think I have ever had a class where I was the oldest or youngest. Good luck in the classrooms! (The part I hate!)
- datamachine

Actually, that student might be the brightest student of all the class.

An academic advisor told me that the best students know instinctively that education is a game. Apparently it is a sign of niavete to kill yourself trying to get the top grades in college. There is no point killing yourself to get the grades. You can do the minimum work to get the adequate grades that you need to do in order to come out with a degree. When you do graduate with a degree no one, not even an employer, wants to know what your gpa was. So in those terms it really is not important whether you have adequate or high grades in college.

Of course, there are circumstances where your college gpa IS important. In an undergraduate degree your gpa is only important IF you plan to go to graduate school. To get into graduate school you usually have to have graduated with a college degree with a gpa of at least a "B" average or higher and maintain that grade through the program. And after you've graduated from graduate school then, once again, no one ever asks what your gpa was ever.

The only context where it is important that you have a high gpa is if you plan to go onto a higher level of learning. Otherwise high gpa is not all that important really....

I started back at age 43! Last time I was in school, these kids' parents had not met! I started at a community college and started with one class, then 3 then 4. That way, I didn't get hit with so much at once. I also got registered with the disabilities center so that I could take any essay tests on a computer rather than by handwriting, and I also got extra time.

I treated the teachers like I was their peer, and that we were exploring these kewl things to learn together - while acknowledging that they had more knowledge about the topic from the formal academic standpoint (so they wouldn't feel threatened). I brought up interesting things I had learned over the years about the topic (I made sure it was on topic). I made sure to ask the teacher for clarification on anything I didn't understand, or any time there was a vague instruction, and I would thank them for helping me do my best. I worked hard and always got As (except for the psycho Algebra teacher - where I switched pretty quickly to credit/no credit which doesn't count againt my GPA.)

I ended up with a 4.0 GPA and was able to get accepted as a transfer student at Stanford University so I can study what I really want to.

Yeah - a lot of the other students were just there because that was the thing to do, but some of them worked hard too. So, it varied a lot by class. The older the student, the more likely they were to take it seriously.