Who Are Nontraditional Students?: Characteristics, Definitions, and Statistics

Introduction

A common question I have answered when describing my research is, “What is a nontraditional student?” There is a somewhat obvious answer for those in academia, especially for those of us who work on campuses with a high proportion of nontraditional learners, but to broader society, the answer is not apparent. However, upon further investigation of research examining nontraditional learners, it is evident that scholars also have not always agreed on the definition of a nontraditional student. For the purposes of this book, nontraditional students will also be referred to as nontraditional learners, or adult learners, as, although they are indeed college students, they are also independent adults who are often very unique when compared with the rather simplified definition of “student.”

Public universities expanded after WWII, and in the 1970’s, enrollment of women, veterans, and the working class increased (Soares, 2013; Zack, 2020). These students were considered nontraditional, in that they differed from the 18-24 year-old white males who typically made up the college population. Consequently, research regarding nontraditional students from the 1970’s and 1980’s defined nontraditional learners primarily based on age (Brodzinski, 1980; Jones & Watson, 1990; Marlow, 1989). Female and non-white students, especially those over the age of 24, were also considered atypical (Haggerty, 1985; Weidman, 1985). A number of studies focused on how female adult learners were coping with the simultaneous demands of their education and their children (Gerson, 1985; Hooper, 1979; Kirk & Dorfman, 1983).

In an effort to define nontraditional students, Chung et al. (2014) reviewed 45 definitions of the term, used in studies of mental health in nontraditional college students. The authors found 13 different categories of definitions of nontraditional learners, with a wide variation across studies in the definitions of the terms and the methods under which they were examined.

Most modern definitions use some combination of age plus personal and social characteristics of students. The most common classifications in the literature are age and enrollment status (Wyatt, 2011). The typical age criteria for a student to be considered nontraditional is at least 24-25 years or older (Bean & Metzner, 1996; Carney-Crompton, 2002). However, most modern definitions use some combination of age as well as one or more personal or social characteristic of students, such as obligations to family or an employer (Chen, 2017; Choy, 2002). Age and roles such as parent and worker tend to correlate; therefore, many older students possess at least one of the characteristics commonly used to define nontraditional learners.

For the purposes of this book, the definition of nontraditional learners will primarily be based on the United States (U.S.) Department of Education’s characteristics: 25 years of age or older; single parent; dependents other than a spouse; part-time enrollment in college; a GED instead of a high school diploma; delayed college entry; financial independence; and full-time employment (Choy, 2002; Radford et al., 2015). Horn and Carroll (1996) further distinguished nontraditional students from one another by categorizing them based on their number of characteristics. For example, a minimally nontraditional student has only one nontraditional trait, while a moderately nontraditional student has 2-3 nontraditional traits, and a highly nontraditional student has four or more nontraditional traits. It is expected that a student with several nontraditional characteristics would have different needs and a different background when compared with a minimally nontraditional student (Babb et al., 2022; Crone et al., 2020; Macari et al., 2006). Some of these characteristics occur together as well; for example, a single parent would also have dependents.