TRADTIONAL VERSUS NONTRADTIONAL IN THE COLLEGE SPACE

by Tracie Jordan

An amazing milestone has just arrived in your life, it’s graduation day! Presented is an opportunity to embark upon becoming an adult and being responsible for your own decisions. When to eat, when not to eat. Where to go, and where not to go. Now deciding your fate has been placed in your hands for the first time since you have left your parents’ home, and furthering your education has been decided. So, off to college you go! Strategizing, planning, and looking forward to the lessons ahead that are going to catapult you right into your future. Having chosen a major of study that will award you a bachelor’s degree of great honor and success. This being described as a Traditional student who attends a college or university straight out of High school. It is like walking out of one door directly into another. You do not stop you just keep going. Therefore, any subjects that you were taught while in High school are still fresh within your memory and more than likely are still there. Depending on your major there would not be required refresher course of any sort. This is because you just graduated from High School.

Then, there are some younger and much older adults who may not choose to apply to college straight out of High School but decides to wait. Adults between the ages of 25 to some well past 50 have and are continuing to decide in furthering his or her education. Depending on where they are in their lives are having to choose between working a full-time job or trade, caring for a loved one as a caregiver, or recovering from a life changing circumstance, etc., or -in some cases –possibly may have quit school and have decided to return to receive an “Adult High School” [GED] education in order that he/she may go further in obtaining a bachelor’s degree. This is what is known as a nontraditional student. At any rate, traditional and nontraditional students can bring a lot to the table. Because they both want to be successful and by doing so decide to further their education. Having lived longer than traditional students, nontraditional students, depending on their level of life’s circumstances, have had to endure more regarding life’s lessons. Yet, choosing to pursue and live on. At the end of the day, both traditional and nontraditional student’s matter.

“However, nontraditional students in some cases may feel out of place or unsure when returning to school. Especially when it has been some years since they last attended. 40 percent of college students within our nation are nontraditional students.” [Education Writers Association] Never should a nontraditional student at any time or for any reason feel less than a traditional student when it comes to his/her level of learning. According to statistics, a varied population of adult students often have responsibilities of work and family or other challenges that may be present within their lives. Also, that are likely to interfere with the completion of successful educational choice objectives such as race, gender, living off campus, being enrolled in an occupational [non – degree] program, or risk of attrition, etc., Less than 2 percent of students who do not graduate or earn a High School diploma or certificate of completion were removed from the analysis because of limited access to a 4-year college or university. Out of that 2 percent, 43 percent delayed enrollment. [National Center for Education Statistics, NCES,IES] Nontraditional students should receive the same opportunities at obtaining a good education as traditional students. However, certain criteria should be taken into consideration when accepting a nontraditional student depending on their course of study from a unique perspective such as:

• Always consider and never assume that all nontraditional students can learn at the same pace as traditional students.

• Many nontraditional students are eager {and some even more eager} to learn but are having to be remotivated within certain subjects. This is of course is where advisors and/or counselors play a major part.

Some nontraditional students who choose to major in certain subjects who feel they are most effective may not remember certain key subjects within their choice of major and may require refresher courses or a beginner’s course. Some may also not have ever been taught the subject at all.

Some suggestive ways in how to address this issue includes:

Colleges and universities who allow the enrollment of nontraditional students should have in place some form of

Acquired Testing specifically for nontraditional students only to see what they may or may not be ready to acquire for development in certain courses for correct placement.

Once it is realized [after being tested] that a nontraditional student cannot complete certain subjects within a major, academically, or other situations beyond their control but, he/she still want to obtain their degree, then it should be decided upon whether the student should be placed within a beginners course or choose another major. It is a frustrating and saddening ordeal to sit within a class where a course is being taught and {even after it is explained} you still have no idea what is being taught or is being taught at a pace that you are having a challenge in keeping up with.

Although nontraditional students are in some cases much older than traditional students, there are many attributes or situations that nontraditional students may have when enrolling or re-enrolling to a college or university such as:

Having just completed an adult High School [GED] education after dropping out of High School prior to college.The nontraditional student was in a degree program but had to stop or delay for various [personal or family] reasons...

• Can only or was attending school part-time.

• Serving as a caregiver for a loved one or family member.

• Being unable to commit to studies within a college or university because of being employed full time.

• Independent monetary assistance with resources and/or finances because of relying on themselves for financial stability or financial assistance being denied or delayed.

Any student, be it traditional or nontraditional who makes a life changing decision to further his/her education in being successful, should be honored in high regard. However, when nontraditional students return, it most certainly should be a mark in history and a celebration like no other. Somehow, it has its own space.