In the Summer of 1944, as it was becoming apparent that the Allies would prevail in World War II, Congress passed and President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law the Serviceman Readjustment Act. Better known as the G.I. Bill, it was a show of gratitude to the eleven million veterans who would soon be coming home. It was also by far the largest social welfare program the nation had ever established.
Boasting broad bi-partisan support from the start, the G.I. Bill offered vets a host of financial benefits, ranging from small business loans and home mortgage subsides to enhanced unemployment benefits during their transition back to civilian life. Among its many programs was money for college tuition, fees, and expenses.
Prior to the war, college had mostly been the domain of the privileged few. Historically, the vast majority of Americans had gone to work after finishing school, and relatively few even graduated high school. The nation’s colleges were mostly private institutions that catered to the elite, wealthy families who could afford the pricey tuition, whereas most families desperately needed the income that their healthy, able-bodied children could provide by working. There were also state colleges dating back to the nineteenth century, but they were not nearly as numerous or large as they are today, and mostly served specific purposes, such as training K-12 teachers or offering extension services to farmers.
Helping WWII vets gain access to college was a revolutionary step, and millions took advantage of the opportunity. The program turned out to be one of America’s great post-war success stories, but at the time there was no shortage of skeptics.
Many critics wondered if these war-hardened men could function properly in the esoteric world of ideas. Could they make the transition from digging 
latrines and fighting the Axis to reading books and sitting through lectures? Could grunts really do college?
In retrospect of course, such concerns now seem asinine. The vets not only did as well as typical 18-22 year olds, but on the whole they did better. It turns out reading books and sitting through lectures is, in many ways, easier than digging ditches and facing down enemy soldiers, not harder.
But there was more to it than that. While wartime service played a role in the vets’ collegiate success, the larger overarching factor was maturity. Those who attended college on the G.I. Bill were not “kids.” They were men (few women were able to take advantage of the program). It wasn’t just a matter of being hardened by the war. They were also older.
Many G.I. students had wives and even children by the time they showed up on campus. They were there for a purpose. For them, the college campus wasn’t a playground or a genteel environment for “growing up.” They were already grown up and looking to find good paying and satisfying careers. This was serious business. On the whole, they attended classes, they paid attention, they studied, and they succeeded.
The first incarnation of the G.I. Bill ended in 1956. But in the nearly seventy years since it began, one thing has not changed: older college students at four-year institutions often do better than their more “traditional” 18-22 year old peers. Even without a war to make them grow up faster than most, older students often still excel at a higher rate.
As someone who has taught college courses since 1999, I’ve had ample opportunity to observe and teach what administrators now call “non-traditional students.” Of course they don’t always do better than the typical 18-22 year old, but 
they frequently do, and I think several factors explain it.
First, they’re just plain smarter. Every child gets smarter as he or she gets older, regardless of circumstances. Everyone is smarter when they’re fourteen than they are when they’re four. That rate of natural and inevitable intellectual growth slows down as we age, but it does continue into the mid-twenties. Most every person is smarter at age twenty-five than they were at eighteen. So being a bit older is just one innate advantage that “non-traditional” students bring with them to campus. They’re bound to be a bit smarter than they were five, ten, or twenty years before.
Second, older students are usually very determined. It’s likely they’ve decided to attend college after serious deliberation, as opposed to many 18 year olds who go because it’s what their parents told them to do. It’s also probable that older students are spending a lot of hard earned money for the opportunity to be there.
That’s not to say every older student comes to college with a profound appreciation for the intellectual journey they are about to undertake. Some do, some don’t. But whether or an older student authentically enjoys the collegiate experience, they’re much more likely to give it the old “college try.” It’s a good bet they’ll do the work, show up, and be engaged. Most of them know that’s what it takes to do well, and they really want to do well, otherwise they wouldn’t bother.
Finally, “non-traditional” students are usually more mature than “traditional” students. They are likely to have supported themselves by holding a real job, experienced substantial interpersonal relationships, and endured many of inevitable highs and lows in life that help a person grow. And the maturity that age and experience bring help older students in many ways, because attending college is largely a self-directed activity. Not only is it quite a bit harder than high school, but no one is there to hold your hand or force you through. And so maturity helps in everything from time-management to course selection.
Of course not every older student succeeds at college. For starters, th
eir level of academic preparation, which is an important ingredient for success, is more likely to be determined by social and economic class than by age. Beyond that real life experience can also translate into real life problems; sometimes balancing course work with a full time job and/or a family is just too much. Life has a way interrupting the best laid schemes o’ mice and men.
However, getting a bachelor’s degree is an adult endeavor. And in an era when to many college kids really are “kids,” actual grown-up students have numerous built-in advantages.
Note: An edited version of this article first appeared at the online mag 20SomethingMagazine.