According to the National Center for Education Statistics, a non-traditional student can be defined by:
Most often age (especially being over the age of 24) has been the defining characteristic for this population. Age acts as a surrogate variable that captures a large, heterogeneous population of adult students who often have family and work responsibilities as well as other life circumstances that can interfere with successful completion of educational objectives.
Basically: People who aren't straight out of high school, but people who took a few years off to work, start a family, or couldn't get back to school for other reasons.
It's daunting going back to school. Especially if it has been a few years, it can be an intimidating process. What if you don't remember how to do homework, write an essay, do math that you used to do easily, etcetera. I know I felt that way. There's also the element of being an outsider in undergraduate classes where 90% of the people there are significantly younger and at very different points in their lives than you are. I live on campus and can speak abundantly do how it feels to be around people who are your peers in class but lack a lot of the life experience you have. And that is actually the biggest thing that works to a nontraditional student's advantage: Life experience.
Nontraditinal students bring a lot into the school experience that the traditional undergrad can't, all because of the very reasons we're nontraditional.
Better self-control
Did you know the brain isn't fully mature until around age 25? Until about that point, the frontal lobes (responsible for executive functions) are still developing. What that means is that self-control doesn't fully develop until around age 25. So if you're a nontraditional student, chances are you have much better self-control which means you're less likely to: drink too much, neglect your homework until it's too late, eat foods you probably shouldn't, etcetera. That self-control, especially if you've been in the workforce, is a huge boon in keeping up in classes even if you haven't been in school in several years.
Motivation
As a non-traditional student, you probably have a plan. If you didn't, you probably wouldn't be back in school. But even if you don't have a detailed plan, you had enough motivation to get back into academics. Whatever brought you back is going to give you a drive to push through the college experience despite all of its obstacles. Obstacles that often wear out students with insufficient motivation.
A work mentality
I know when I came back to school as a non-traditional student, I approached it like a job. I take my education super seriously, definitely at least 40 hours a week to get the most out of everything. Other students just let assignments go or don't give their all, but when you treat school like a job, that doesn't happen. You give 100%, and nontraditional students have experience to help them do that.
I know that coming back as a nontraditional student, school has been very different than when I wasn't. It's easier to get things done and, if anything, I've found myself looking for more to do. Granted, I'm just a full-time student (my friends probably laugh at the word "just" there because of how much I do). Some non-traditional students work full time, or have families to take care of, or even more bills to pay than me. I hope, for those of you struggling with being back in school or with the decision to come back, I have helped give you the confidence necessary to take the step. I am so glad for the time I took off and wouldn't change it at all, and I hope other non-traditional students feel the same. Our paths may vary, but from those paths we derive a set of key skills for our own success.
