Photo by Ben Ostrowsky

I recently did a search on Twitter for “non-traditional students” and was a little surprised at what came up. It seems a lot of college students harbor a real dislike for non-traditional students. I read comments such as these gems:

• “I h8 non-traditional students”

• ” Dear non traditional students put your hand down and shut the f**k up. I don’t care”

• “YES i do have those non-traditional, over-achieving soccer mom students that think they have to comment on everything. whew.”

Wow!

These comments are pretty harsh, but is there some truth in them? I would have to say that, yes, there is–at least from the perspective of a traditional-aged college student.

We non-trads forget that these students have just arrived at college fresh out of high school, a world where overachievement isn’t smiled upon by your peers. I’m not saying that kids fresh out of high school aren’t good students, just that many of them don’t put in the all-out effort of the non-trads. They haven’t had to, especially in a school system that rewards mediocrity. When you can coast without a lot of effort and still manage to get a “B” or even an “A” in high-school,  why on earth would you kill yourself to come up with a paper that would make your instructor weep with joy over all the extra effort you put in to it? When your peers are sometimes wearing ankle-monitor bracelets and stating that “The only reason I’m going to school is that my probation officer makes me,” you wouldn’t have to stretch yourself too far to get good grades, would you?

Before everyone comes unglued at me for the above ankle-monitor scenario, I realize that this is NOT the norm for high-school students. But when I was doing a field-experience at a high-school, I did hear a student make this comment, so I’m not making things up. But what I’m really getting at is that there is not a lot of incentive for a teenager to go all out to make grades. As long as they can ace the SAT or ACT, they’ll make it into college.

Ok–back to us non-trads. Most of us have come not out of the classroom, but out of the working world, where theoretically at least, hard work is rewarded. You do whatever it takes to get noticed and promoted. When we go back to the classroom, our work experience turns us into “keeners.” You know the type: answer for everything, challenges the instructor on every minutia, first to raise their hand, last to ever SHUT UP. I distinctly remember a non-trad from one of my literature classes: she was a psych major and psychoanalyzed every single nuance in a poem or other piece of literature. The day there was a short-story being taught and she stated that the plums mentioned in the piece were symbolic of the male reproductive organs was too much for me! As the quotation attributed to Sigmund Freud states, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”

Us non-trads need to remember this axiom. We are in the classroom to learn just like any other student is. We don’t have to dominate every discussion; we don’t have to engage in total over-kill over every assignment. Relax a little, will you? Enjoy your college experience–you don’t have to be totally stressed out and over-prepared every day. Yes, by all means, study hard enough to get those good grades, but there is no requirement that you MUST graduate with a 4.0 GPA.

Ease back a little. Maybe the “trads” won’t hate on you quite as much for showing them up then.

What is your bigger challenge–getting yourself ready to go back to school, or getting your kids ready for the upcoming school year? What is your bigger stressor–navigating the your college’s bookstore, or fighting through the crowds at Walmart or Target to pick up your kids’ school supplies? I know from experience that going back to classes is a big adjustment for everyone in the family. New routines for both the kids and yourselves, more expenses, adjustments to make to work schedules are just a few of the items adult students need to think about right now.

This is a very stressful time of year for many of us–how can we at Back 2 School Moms make things a little easier for you? What do you need information about most? Scholarships? Financial Aid? Study skills? We really want to know how we can destress your life just a little bit! Just drop by with a new comment about how we can help, and we’ll “get on it” right away!

Photo by D Sharon Pruitt

This post is from Alexis–Hope you enjoy it; I sure did!

When you start your college career you will come across many interesting people in your classes. You will meet many people that will help you and become great study partners, even friends. Then there are the others…These people will drive you crazy, to the point of wanting to scream, “Just shut up already!” You will probably have at least one of these people in at least one of your classes at one point in your schooling. Here are a few of my experiences with these people.

The “Don’t Care,” student: This student is the one student that is so obviously “bored,” that you can barely pay attention to what the prof is saying because he or she has to make a point of rolling their eyes, doodling masterpieces in their notebook, texting on their phone all class period, etc, etc. I’ve had classes where all I can do is just stare at this particular person in disbelief. “How can they even show up at class if they obviously don’t care at all for what is going on here?” “How can they ignore everything that is being said and still make it through the class?” And most often, “Are they not paying for this?” These people amaze me every time, and they ALWAYS seem to distract me, perhaps its because I’m so disgusted with their lack of concern for their future, or maybe because I may be thinking “I’m paying for this class and I BET mommy and daddy are paying for theirs!” This irks me to no end! One thing I’ve learned from these students is that you have to TRY to ignore them, and just keep in mind that motivation that YOU are actually earning your education while this person is, for lack of a better term, peeing their money and time away.

The “Talker,” student: This student cannot seem to close their mouths for 1 minute out of the class period, even if its a 3 or 4 hour class, they just NEED to talk to whoever is around them! I once had a girl in my biology class that could NEVER keep her mouth shut, no whispers here either (which are annoying enough) but that excited hushed voice that is never really hushed at all and you can hear every exact word they are flapping on about. This girl made me want to turn into a psycho maniac and take her out back and glue her mouth shut. She especially loved to yap in the middle of some film about the anatomy of some nematoad or some such thing or in the middle one of an extremely important lecture about the chemistry behind photosynthesis or sugar to glucose conversion in the body, but you could never really hear what was being said because all you could hear beside you was “yap yap yap.” I would try desperately to try and block this girl out but I would just get more and more mad and by the time the class ended at 9:30 every night I was FURIOUS! I would find myselkf staring at her so hard that I believed that I could make her shut her mouth with my mind, no such luck…I’ve learned something very important from her though, I should have went to the prof after or before class and just told him that I could never concentrate on his lectures because of chatty chiauau over there but I never did, stupid me. If this EVER happens to you, don’t be afraid to tell the prof, he will take care of it and if it keeps happening they will eventually get themselves kicked out of class.

The “Opinion” student: For some reason, this particular type of student irks me the most. This student can come in a few varities. They can be the one student that has a random story to tell in the middle of class, one that has nothing to do with anything that goes on in the class. Or they can be the elaborator, meaning they need to elaborate more on what the prof is saying everytime they tell you something. For example, my art history class, whenever some historical fact was gone over, it wasn’t enough for this particular student and the famous “Well actually..,” would be brought up, saying some extra random tidbit about that particular cultural group or that particular time in history. Note that these tidbits were completely uneeded and usually led the class on an extra 15 minutes, which, especially if you are taking night classes you know that an extra 15 minutes can seem like FOREVER when you’ve been at work all day and you go to class and it’s already 9:30 at night and you’ve only been home for 30 minutes all day, or perhaps, not at all. Then there is my personal “favourite,” the arguer. This student needs to oppose EVERYTHING the prof is saying, they feel it is their great and honoured duty to disagree with whatever the prof is saying even though its not going to help them or anyone else pass or understand the class any better, but they feel like they need to feel more superior and smarter than everyone else in the class including the prof. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to express your opinion in class if you really feel the need and if its relevant to the class, but I’m just talking about the ones that can’t seem to keep thier opinion to themselves no matter what the subject matter is!

These are just a few of my experiences with these students from hell, but please don’t be discouraged from my anecdotes. Have patience and get through it and don’t be afraid to tell the prof if its that much of a distraction. These are simply just tales I can look back on to laugh at as I progress through my college years. You will also have the satisfation of knowing you’ve left all these crazy people behind when you are graduating.