Non-traditional students: Recruitment strategies and their effectiveness

In recent years, there has been considerable change in the student population in postsecondary education. At one time, a college campus consisted primarily of students who were 18 to 22 years of age. A decline in this population has been occurring for several years and is predicted to continue. There will simply be fewer youngsters coming through grade school and high school in the 1990\u27s. They have already been born (Hruby, 1984, p.4). At the same time, the number of older, non-traditional students has been increasing on college campuses. According to Brodzinski (1980), the number of students who were at least 35 years old increased-more than 66% between 1972 and 1978. Haponski (1983)·noted that (a)dults constituted 37.5%of the total college enrollment in 1978 and are expected to constitute 47% by 1990 (p. 1)