The Non-Traditional Student Blog (BA): nontraditional students and college

Who doesn't want to go to an Ivy League school?

A beautiful scene, complete with ivy.

Well, I guess some of us. :-)

For one thing, these schools can be a lot more expensive than most other schools. But there is that magic cachet to the name "Ivy League". And today, more people than ever can go to these schools via online courses. Plus, some Ivy League schools are actively trying to get nontraditional students to attend.

Do you live by an Ivy League school? Or would you like to attend one? Now is a good time to apply. There are some great names in the Ivy League school list. Some are Yale, Harvard, Cornell, and Princeton. Usually, these schools have wonderful professors and classes. You can make awesome lifelong friends and contacts there too.

So why are some Ivy League schools wanting nontraditional students to attend? Marcella Bombardieri, a reporter from the Boston Globe, says that some Ivy League schools have programs especially for nontraditional students. These programs and classes meet on an Extension School basis, and others go at night or even during the day with "regular", younger students.

This article goes on to feature several different nontraditional students and their stories of going to Ivy League schools.

While finding links for the bottom of this posting, I quickly realized that not all Ivy League schools want to publicize their nontraditional student population, or even have dedicated web pages to help them with. This is also true with other colleges and schools in the country. Not all of them really want to advertise their growing population of older students. But I think that may change in the future.

So... in some Ivy League schools, an older nontraditional student is still very much a pioneer. But this is a good thing in some ways. It means that you are helping future nontraditional students whenever you take a class, especially a face-to-face one, complete with much younger students. It's a win-win for both ages, I feel.

I also have the feeling that classes at all schools will eventually open up even more to all nontraditional students, as teachers and other students find that diversity can be interesting!

Find out more:

From the Boston Globe: Ivy League Schools recruit nontraditional students too by Marcella Bombardieri.
The Ivy League schools - from Wikipedia
Yale's Eli Whitney nontraditional student program
Harvard University Extension School
The Cornell page for students with children
Cornell's School of Continuing Education