Never mind that he has not been in college for 18 years.
Bruce Bodner, 39, is back in school now, taking classes for a graduate degree in history. His goal is to eventually teach in a university.
Bodner and several hundred other prospective college students showed up at Temple University's Center City campus recently to register for spring semester classes.
What was unusual is that these students were all adults, already out in the working world, mostly in their middle to late 20s and 30s. And they represent the fastest-growing segment of American college students: The U.S. Census Bureau says that a majority of college students are over 21, and more than a third are 25 and older.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 12.34 million students enrolled in the nation's colleges and universities in 1983-84. Of those, 6.66 million - or a little more than half - were over 21.
"We still have lots of 18-year-olds going to college," said Julia Erickson, vice provost for academic programs at Temple. "It's just that now, there are many groups going, in addition."
The influx of adults coming back to school "really started 15 years ago when women started coming back in droves," said Meredith Leahy, director of continuing education at Cabrini College. Now, enrollment of adults at Cabrini is fairly evenly split between men and women.
Who is going to college these days?
"The vast majority of our adult students are here for reasons related to their careers," said Thomas Hawke, assistant to the president of Community
College of Philadelphia. "First, because of the technological changes that make it increasingly important for adults to retool and develop new skills," he said.
"And, in Philadelphia, if you look at the demographics, there has been a growth in households headed by single-parent families. A single parent has to work to support the family, and many are turning to education as a way of entering the job market."
Almost every college and university in the Philadelphia region is scrambling to attract adult students.
Widener University has opened a "weekend college" for working adults at its campus on Route 202 in Delaware, and enrollment has grown from 78 students when the program began in 1981 to 380 this year.
