Two F’s, two D’s and four W’s marked my first four semesters of college. Granted it was at a community college, so I wasn’t wasting as much money had I been at Sacramento State. Upon graduating from high school in 2000, I was lazy, unmotivated and unambitious and it showed in my academic performance. It wasn’t until four years ago that I got back into school with a renewed sense of purpose and direction. Subsequently, I am a hair older than most college seniors are. It can be frustrating for someone in their mid to late 20s knowing that she or he could have graduated and landed a job or pursued further academic interests in the time it took to get their bachelor’s degree. It is easy to think that one is behind their peers in terms of the relationship between their age and their level of “success” or job/academic status. Looking back, there was really nothing anyone, or I, could have done to motivate me to apply myself to college right out of high school. I wasn’t mature enough to handle adult life, much less an 8 a.m. psychology class, indeed I was too busy beer-bonging and falling down flights of stairs as a result.

According to the Sac State Office of Institutional Research, the average age of Sac State undergraduates in fall 2006 was 23. That average has stayed at 23 since Fall 2003. However, the fall semesters between 2000 and 2002 show that the average age was 24. Surprisingly, the percentage of enrolled undergraduates 25 and older has steadily declined over the past 10 years, with some minor fluctuations year to year. Of course, this data is little more than informative and I don’t believe it reflects any underlying trends that we should worry us.

What, then, is a normal age range of students? Is there any and does it matter? The recent enrollment of 90 year-old history major Estelle Arroyo is obviously an extreme exception to the traditional definition of “college student” as someone 18-22 years-old. I believe Arroyo can serve as an example that all students, however young or old they may be, are connected by one thing: Knowledge and the pursuit of it.

It is easy to be caught in the, get-the-hell-out-of-college-ASAFP-to-land-a-job-as-quick-as-possible, trap. If that equation works out for people, then more power to them. I used to obsess over the notion that I would be older than the average college graduate entering the workforce.

There are benefits to being a college student 24 and older. One is no longer considered a dependant of his or her parents for financial aid purposes and there is far more money available to someone who is considered independent than a dependant. In addition, in theory at least, one has more life experiences and maybe a little more maturity to help he or she navigate and balance academics, work and social life.

At the end of the day, what every college student wants, regardless of age, is a degree. Hopefully, they want something else as well: An education. Everyone is different; people have different needs and have vastly different external and internal variables that shape how they see their role as a student. Furthermore, people may see that proverbial “light at the end of the tunnel” as a degree, then a job, then a family and then life really begins. I prefer to see that light as something I will always see but never obtain because, regardless of one’s circumstances and age, we are connected by the same interest of learning more about our world and ourselves. That journey shouldn’t end on graduation day.

Being a “senior”, even by every definition of the word, doesn’t change why one is at Sac State. Maybe it is for training to get a pay-raise or because of a career change. What is important is colleges and universities are not simply day care centers for 18-22 year-olds who are finding themselves while passing exams and passing out. Everyone from 18 to 90 years-old can appreciate that being a college student isn’t a state of mind where one who falls outside the profile of a typical college student is somehow late for arrival.

Scott Allen can be reached at [email protected]