I’m from the UK, so I just wanna make sure we’re talking the same language. An undergraduate is someone who enters University (in the US this is probably called “college”) generally at the age of 18 after having completed the pre-requisite studies.
At most universities you will find mature students – that is to say, students that are above the age of 21 when they begin their undergraduate studies. But I wonder if this is true for institutions like Harvard or MIT, where the cream of the crop enter.
Are there ever any mature students that enter these kinds of Universities (e.g. Ivy League) at the undergraduate level?
This could happen for various reasons of course. One could be that they couldn’t afford to go to school or they were forced to enter work earlier. I dunno, I’m just making up reasons – you could probably think of better than that.
Anyway, does it ever happen? Have there ever been any recorded cases?
And if so, were any of the mature students successful in their academic careers thereafter?
I know that there are some at Harvard but I can’t find anything on it right now. Those types of students certainly are not typical (they are usually called non-traditional students) but they are certainly not prohibited and may even be encouraged to enroll if the person is right. Many universities have special non-traditional student programs to help very qualified people without their degree earn one.
I know you didn’t ask but I always point this out because it is such a big misconception. The Ivy League is only an association of 8 very old schools in the northeast. MIT is not in the Ivy League nor are many other schools that are as good or better than those within.
Brown University has the Resumed Undergraduate Education program for undergraduate students older than “college age”. They’re only about 0.1% of the total undergraduate population, though, so they’re not that noticeable. But I’ve had some good students who were RUEsters.
After WWII some ridiculously high percent of Harvard’s Freshman Class was war vets, all well older than 18, on the GI Bill. In “The Greatest Generation” by Tom Brokaw he tells a story of how the dean of Harvard was appalled at first about these men going to school there, but 4 years later gave a public apology when all of the deans list was monopolized by the veterans.
In more recent news, my brother got into Columbia when he was 25 or so and graduated in 4 years. He went on to Fordham Law School almost 2 years after he graduated Columbia and is doing quite well with a huge corporate law firm in Manhattan.
When I was at Cornell in the mid-90’s, one of women in my major had started college at a traditional age but left when the war broke out – WWII. She returned 50 years later and graduated in her '70’s.
Columbia has a separate college for mature students, but all students in that college can register for Columbia College courses. Not too long ago, an older student sued to be allowed into Columbia College, and won, so the distinction is dissapearing. It mostly affects your housing eligibility, anyways.
Wellesley has a program for older students as well. They call those students Davis Scholars and usually have over 100 of them at any one time. I would expect that most of the other Seven Sisters schools (the female Ivy League -Wellesley, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Barnard, Radcliffe, Vassar and Brn Mawr) have similar programs.