By Caleigh Bartash
Transitioning from high school to university is not easy. Freshmen struggle to navigate across campus. They pack into cramped dorm rooms and reluctantly learn the true meaning of time management. College is a big adjustment.
Yet it might be an even bigger change for students attending the University of Maryland later in life. They do not always receive the same support as younger adults at UMD, students said.
Students ages 25 and above are outliers, making up only about 6% of undergraduates, according to university statistics. Some have already started or finished careers. They come from all kinds of backgrounds, sharing a desire to learn new skills and information.
Donna Hoffmeister, 77, began taking classes at UMD in the spring of 2019 while enrolled in the university’s Golden ID program. Golden ID invites retired Maryland residents older than 60 to take up to three courses, sometimes with waived tuition.
The retiree said she faced challenges, not in engaging with students, but from interacting with UMD faculty, recalling when a dean tried to bar her from enrolling in a course at his college. She ended up in the class anyway.
Hoffmeister said it would be easier if more people knew about the Golden ID program, but she is grateful for the professors who have welcomed her. She has taken classes in African American cinema, news editing and censorship.
“Most of us are just looking for enrichment, intellectual stimulation. The faculty who realize that don’t mind having us,” Hoffmeister said.
A former German literature professor, Hoffmeister is not looking to add on to her two master’s degrees and her doctorate. Rather, she is looking for the fun of learning something new.
For Mary Waller, attending college offers a chance to advance her career.
Waller, 27, returned to UMD in the spring of 2021 to finish the degree she started in 2012. During her break from college, she started working at the American Red Cross, where she is a senior data analyst.
Now a sophomore, Waller said her time away helped her find an appreciation for data sciences and software development. She declared an information science major when she returned, hoping to apply new skills to her job.
“Once you’ve kind of established your life, it’s hard to make room for school. So just reprioritizing it and really trying to just bite the bullet and go back to school, that was a difficult decision,” Waller said.
She may be more mature than the average UMD sophomore, but Waller said most younger students cannot tell she is older than them.
“I’m not trying to be their grandmother,” she said.
Still, the Red Cross analyst said she would like to see a club for students her age to connect with each other and feel less isolated. She posted about it on social media to no avail. Waller said there was not much support from the university.
“I just came back to school and they were like, ‘Cool, register for your classes, best of luck,’” she said.
Unlike Waller, Nicholas Culwell, 25, found a group on campus. Culwell is president of TerpVets, UMD’s student veteran organization. He said joining the group helped him connect with people of similar ages and life experiences.
Culwell came to College Park in spring 2020 after taking classes online at the University of Maryland Global Campus. Before college, the environmental science and technology major spent five years in active duty with the U.S. Coast Guard. He remains in the reserves.
The veteran said one of the biggest challenges of coming to UMD was returning to an academic mindset. He learned that his robust life experiences were not going to replace consistent math practice.
“Just because 17-, 18-, 19-year-old kids straight out of high school can do this doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a breeze for me,” Culwell said.
Culwell said he wanted others to know that he faces the same ups and downs as everybody else.
“I’m just a normal student,” Culwell said.
Featured photo: Photo of Jimenez building taken from McKeldin Mall. Christine Zhu/Stories Beneath the Shell.
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