Keywords: Non-traditional students, graduate school

Introduction 

Getting a PhD is hard. We spend long hours, for an undetermined number of years, defining and solving hard problems that few think are important. There is an abundance of advice for students thinking of pursuing a PhD (see references section below). However, this advice tends to be geared towards students in a Bachelor's program figuring out whether they want to continue with their education. Little has been written about or specifically for students pursuing a PhD at a non-traditional age after taking a long-ish period of time off.
The intent of this blog post (article?) is to present my (our?) perspective(s) as (a) non-traditional-aged graduate student(s) pursuing a science PhD at a large Research 1 institution in the U.S., provide encouragement for students who are interested in or currently pursuing PhDs at non-traditional ages, present information on how the experience might be different and provide suggestions for how the academic community might better accommodate this demographic of students. With human life expectancy increasing, will there be an upward trend of people pursuing graduate degrees at an older age?  Faculty who teach non-traditional-aged students, especially those who were traditional-aged students themselves, might benefit from this perspective.
This is not at all geared towards my (our) own academic community in response to anything negative. In fact, the opposite. I (we?) have had mostly positive experiences as an older student.

Why get a PhD?

Everybody’s experiences and reasons for getting a PhD and being in graduate school are unique. If one is sure that pursuing a PhD in a chosen research field is something they want to do right after a Bachelor’s degree, there are many benefits. However, depending on the career you are interested in after graduation, you don’t always need a PhD degree. If you’re not sure what career you want to pursue, here are some drawbacks to consider with getting a PhD. There is an upward trend of PhD graduates with few academic jobs available (PhD Factory, Nature 2011). There are arguments that getting a PhD can ruin your life, people leave academia because of major flaws in the system, funding to pursue academic research is sparse, and there is the postdocalypse to avoid. The narrow job market for academics leads to many highly-qualified individuals taking low-paying adjunct positions. A professor once wrote me an email suggesting that unless I wanted to go into academia, I shouldn’t bother getting a PhD. I once heard someone with PhD comment that they would not wish their experience on anyone. Many people have negative experiences as a graduate student.
On the other hand, at the end of the day, even if you don’t end up pursuing a career in academia, graduating with a PhD has the potential to open doors that wouldn’t ordinarily be there. Having a PhD doesn’t mean you know everything, but it is a demonstration that you know how to figure something out. If you want a job that values this skill, then a PhD might be right for you. If you feel that you already have these skills, having PhD credentials might mean a higher salary and more open positions to apply for.
What happens if you decide not to get a PhD now, then change your mind and want to go back later?
There are arguments for “taking a breath” before getting a PhD to make sure it is what you want to do. Many people take a year or a few years off. Some take longer. Upon looking back at some of my emails from when I was a younger student, one professor wrote: "Sounds like you need to do some soul searching." Followed by a link to this article, “So long, and thanks for the Ph.D.!” In total, 11 years ended up passing between graduating with my first Master’s and starting graduate school again towards a PhD. A search for “never too late PhD” reveals articles about a career change, the midlife PhD (Nature), taking on a PhD later in life (NY Times), and addressing people’s concerns about why you are doing a PhD at your age surrounded by an ocean of young people. There are forum discussions with people who want to know if it’s too late for them or what are the concerns and considerations in starting grad school at a non-traditional age. Recently, the oldest woman (age 102) was awarded her PhD, who had fled Nazi-occupied Germany just before completing her dissertation: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33048927 
Are there other examples of successful older graduate students?

Application process

I was floored by the encouragement I received after reaching out through email to faculty who I was interested in working with and even more so when visiting universities as a prospective graduate student. I had doubts whether this endeavor was possible at my advanced age. When I visited schools, age was never an issue (although it was obvious, at least to me, that the majority of my co-applicants were in their early 20s). Faculty who didn't even know me made positive judgements about my capability of being a graduate student based on my application and years of working experience. They never once questioned why I was pursuing a PhD in the first place. While talking with a faculty member one-on-one at a social mixer during a graduate school recruitment weekend, I got up the nerve to talk about arguments for not pursuing a PhD. She disagreed with these and revealed that she created a course on non-traditional career exploration for PhD students. She even mentioned, wouldn’t it be wonderful if more people had their PhDs, including congressional representatives?
One of my admissions essays required a statement addressing how I have overcome challenges in the past. It struck me that older students are likely to have had more experience overcoming debilitating challenges. This is not to say younger students have not, but on average, older students have had to overcome a diversity of challenges that can prepare them for the frustrations and ambiguities ahead that are associated with being a successful graduate student and add to the breadth of the academic community they are a part of.
Series by the Molecular Ecologist on advice for prospective graduate student applicants.
"...take your time choosing a program and an advisor that is right for you, and fits into your future goals. In retrospect, I didn’t spend enough time before I started grad school thinking about what field I really wanted to be an expert in—at the time I was just sick of being a technician. It took the first couple years of grad school for me to figure it out. Before you even apply to graduate school, it’s not a bad idea to spend one or even two years visiting different schools and meeting with potential advisors."

Financial considerations

There is a common misconception that it will cost too much money, often deterring people from considering a PhD. This is especially a concern for those who acquired considerable debt from a Bachelor’s degree and work hard to pay off this debt but aren't even coming close after even a decade. Even some Master’s programs require debt. PhD programs at larger institutions, at least in the sciences, waive tuition, offer health coverage, and pay a stipend to cover living expenses through teaching assistantships, government fellowships and research assistantships through professor’s grants. UC Davis has a graduate student union which protects the rights of student workers to receive fair compensation for hours worked. While the stipend is not a full salary compared to a job that one might leave to go back to graduate school, it is enough to live on without having to go into further debt.
Find statistics about % students graduating with a PhD debt-free. (Apparently NSF collects these: https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/search-ncses.cfm)
(What happens to student loans if you decide to go back to school later rather than going straight through?)

Family and life planning

Putting life on hold vs. multi-tasking a family and school at the same time.

Physiology of learning at a later age

(See references section below)
Is there even a point to going back to school at an older age, since we’re old and it’s harder to learn when you’re older? Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
Neuroplasticity.
changing brain chemistry at this stage, learning new things, will hopefully wire my brain for later in life to keep learning. Pedagogy for older students? Literature?

How can the academic community better accommodate non-traditional-aged students?

Do:
Don't
Other evidence-based recommendations (review literature below)