Adults at College: 8 Great Story Ideas
-
Financial aid: Many states and colleges have
rules (such as age limits, early application deadlines or
minimum credit requirements) that reduce the amount of grants
available to adults. Are your community’s or college’s rules
friendly to adults? Check them by asking financial aid
departments at local schools what their age-related policies
are.
-
Accelerated credit opportunities: Many adults
want a chance to earn credit for skills gained in the military
or job training through “prior learning assessments” (PLA) or
competency-based credit programs. Find out whether such
opportunities are available in your community by checking with
community colleges, public universities and private
institutions to determine what their policies are.
-
Red tape: As many as 6.6 million
potential students can’t get access to their transcripts to
re-enroll because of debts owed to their prior colleges —
sometimes for matters as trivial as unpaid parking tickets. A
few colleges have started using pandemic bailout funds to clear
those debts, and some states have passed or are considering
laws prohibiting transcript holds. Check with the registrar
departments of local colleges to see if they have similar
policies, and check your state/municipality’s laws to determine
whether these issues apply to students in your area.
-
Inconvenient class schedules or formats:
Working adults often prefer more compressed and hybrid classes
than the typical two- or three- in-person classes per week for
16-weeks schedule found at traditional colleges. You can find
out what the schedules are like at the schools in your area by
checking course listings, which are usually available online.
In addition, review the extension programs that schools offer
to see if there are more neighborhood-friendly programs
available, or at unique hours.
-
Lack of relevant services: Colleges focused on
18-to-24-year olds often fail to provide services adults need,
such as career counseling for those already in the workforce,
child care, (about 30 percent of the community-college
population are parents). Check with the career services
departments of the colleges in your area, as well as at the
student services offices to find out which resources are
available.
-
Marketing: Are the colleges in your community
aggressively recruiting adult students? If so, what are their
marketing messages and where are they advertising? Do the web
sites and admissions materials show images of older students?
The first place to look is on the admissions page of the
colleges in your area so you can see how these schools are
marketing themselves. And be sure to look at the drop-down
menus on the pages where students might inquire about
information: Do the age categories even allow for older
students to sign up?
-
State policies: Does your state’s
public-college funding formula explicitly or implicitly reward
or punish institutions for enrolling more adult students? Do
state policies encourage colleges to collaborate with employers
or industry groups to develop degree programs or onramps that
connect adults to in-demand jobs? Do state “free college” or
“College Promise” programs specifically include older students?
Does the state run outreach programs that encourage older
adults to return to college, (if so, do those messages and
offerings resonate?)
- Stackable options: To get adults back in the learning game, many states and colleges are launching non-degree programs, such as Virginia’s Fast Forward program, that offer short-term credentials that could eventually “stack” into a degree, an approach now increasingly being described as “credentialing as you go.” Find out if your area has any similar programs
READ MORE ON ADULT LEARNERS: