This is the third in a series of articles examining the challenges life at the University of Wisconsin brings for many students.

Adults go to college, too. They may not go to Brats for Flip

Night or sit in the student section at football games, but they are nonetheless UW Badgers.

The label “adult student” is typically reserved for those students over the age of 30. Students 25 to 30 years old can label themselves “adult students” at their own discretion. Students younger than 25 are just “students.”

Many adult students have previously completed some level of higher education. They return to college to either complete the requirements for a particular degree or attain a new one. Other adult students are attending college for the first time.

While you probably do not see them on the weekends, you certainly see adult students in class.

Many students can identify adult students in their classes. Unfortunately, these identifications may have negative connotations.

UW freshman Dan Nussbaum said he does not interact much with adult students.

“I’ve never really spoken to any of the adult students in my classes,” Nussbaum said. “They keep to themselves.”

UW freshman Adam Hirsch remembers his astonishment upon seeing an adult student in his lecture.

“I remember thinking, ‘Why is this guy in an introductory econ course?” he said.

However, adult students say they are here for the same reason regular students are: to earn a degree.

“I’m just another student,” said Sarah Johnston, an adult student at UW.

Johnston graduated from UW in 1989 with a bachelor’s degree in textiles and design. After graduating, she owned a business designing wedding gowns and worked as a court reporter. Years later, she decided to return to UW to study psychology. She is currently in the master’s program for rehabilitation psychology.

“It’s been easier this time than it was when I first went to school,” Johnston said. “I know what I want to do now. I have more of a focus.”

Adult students typically have more of a focus in their studies than younger students. More often than not, adults attend college in pursuit of a specific career.

At UW, the Department of Continuing Studies helps adult students find the right academic program. DCS provides free advising and information to returning and first-time students.

Johnston, who set up her courses with an advisor at DCS, said they were very helpful and informative. Like most adult students, Johnston is fulltime.

Her class schedule — two rehab-psychology courses and a cognitive-psychology elective — is no different than the average student’s schedule. She defines herself not as an adult student, but rather just as a student.

When asked how she gets along with younger students, she replied simply, “I laugh at their jokes; they laugh at mine.”