On a typical weekday, Jim Boyd, a junior, wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to work on homework, drives 40 minutes to Tufts from his home in Needham and arrives just in time for his sociology course. He grabs a quick lunch at the Mayer Campus Center before his Spanish class at noon and then works in the library for a few hours before heading back home for dinner.
Although his midday schedule is not too different from that of other Tufts students, one thing sets Boyd apart — he is a 68−year old father of three daughters and is just two years shy of completing his bachelor's degree.
Boyd, who worked as a morning news anchor for WCVB−TV, a local ABC affiliate, for nearly four decades, is enrolled in Tufts' Resumed Education for Adult Learners (REAL) program, a 40−year old program that falls under the umbrella of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.
According to the program's director, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education Jean Herbert, REAL is targeted toward adults who are over the age of 24 and are parents, married or currently serving in the military.
"It is meant for people who have maybe come from families or people who haven't gone to college. Or they started college and realized it wasn't the right time for that," Herbert said. "Most went off and had careers until they realize they need their undergraduate degrees so they come back."
Although REAL caters to a smaller crowd, Herbert stressed that the application process is no different from the traditional one and that admission is selective. Applicants must complete the Transfer Application Packet and part of the Common Application, in addition to submitting supplemental essays, transcripts and standardized tests scores. An interview is typically conducted afterward.
Because of the competitive nature of Tufts' program, many older applicants in the area choose to attend the University of Massachusetts, Boston or community colleges that offer similar programs, Herbert said.
"Students have to prove to us that they can do well on the college level," Herbert said. "They can go to UMass, but students who are really bright and want to be challenged come here."
Boyd enrolled in a few courses at UMass, Boston following his retirement in 2008 but found that he was not getting the kind of education he wanted there.
"I at first thought UMASS was a better fit, so I did a semester there. A good friend there involved in the [Tufts] dental school suggested that I look into coming to Tufts," Boyd said. "So I had a meeting with a couple administrators here, and they explained what the REAL program is about."
Of course, the reason for returning to a life of academia varies among REAL students. For Boyd, coming back to college was a matter of finally completing unfinished business that was not possible during his hectic career as a news anchor.
"I did graduate from high school a million years ago back in 1958, and I went to college relatively unsuccessfully for three years, but I flunked out," Boyd said. "My main job is to finally get an undergraduate degree, but I don't intend to do anything after Tufts."
Full−time REAL student and mother Jodi Waddell, 34, unlike Boyd, decided to enroll at Tufts in order to further her career — something she could not do without a deeper understanding of her work, she said.
"I was working in the social services field, and I loved what I was doing, but I knew that I needed to finish a degree to move forward as well as learn the theory behind the process," Waddell, who will graduate this spring with a degree in child development, said.
REAL student Paul Nevin decided to return to school after taking a post−high school gap−year that turned into a multiple−year break.
Nevin, who is now 26, left college in 2003 to tend to his girlfriend, who was diagnosed with cancer. Nevin later engaged in volunteer work as he travelled to Costa Rica, helping adults with disabilities, and then to Ethiopia for nine months, working as a construction site manager. After deciding he no longer wanted to devote his life to volunteer work, he enrolled at Tufts to complete his undergraduate education.
Virginia Swasey enrolled at Tufts when she was 18 but struggled through her freshman year due to bouts of homesickness. She decided to leave Tufts but eventually returned to complete what she had started.
"I took a semester off in order to figure things out. Then life happened, and I found it hard to come back," Swasey said. "Afterward, I got married and divorced, I moved around a lot, did a lot of travelling and had a relatively successful career in specialty pharmacy."
Swasey explained that moving up the career ladder became increasingly difficult without a college degree, though. So, after 16 years away from the Hill, Swasey returned to Tufts to study anthropology.
"I called Tufts and spoke with Dean Herbert and realized that I would be able to come back here and pick up right where I had left off," Swasey said.
Though elated to be back on a college campus, several REAL students admitted that there are difficulties that accompany a return to campus — particularly in interacting with younger students.
"Since we have a lot of graduate students, [REAL students] don't stand out among themselves walking around campus," Herbert said. "In the classroom it can be disconcerting for them, but they adjust. They know what to expect."
Waddell said that the awkwardness of the first couple weeks of the semester was sometimes even a source of entertainment.
"I'm commonly mistaken for a TA in class or even a faculty member. Sometimes faculty will forget that I'm an undergrad and expect more from me," Waddell said. "When I use JumboCash at the Campus Center, it takes everybody aback because they'd expect me to use cash."
Nevin acknowledges the predicament but usually tries to establish normalcy as often as possible, he said.
"It's a fine line," Nevin said. "You don't ... want to be the creeper older dude; you want to be the cool older dude."
Boyd is not too bothered by incidents like the time he was mistaken for the professor of one of his sociology classes, he said, and now has close−to−normal interactions with his peers. "They ask me about classes, work and all other normal things," Boyd said. "Once, on the way to the library, one of the students in my Spanish class asked me, ‘Have you done your oral exam yet? Do you know anything about it? What's it like?'"
Though many REAL students plan to end their academic careers with their bachelor's degrees, for some, like Nevin and Waddell, a bachelor's degree is just the stepping stone to a higher educational degree.
"I have connected with both undergraduate and graduate students, and some of my good friends went on to get their Ph.D.s," Waddell said. "Eventually, I want to do the same."
Boyd echoed a similar sentiment about the exhilaration of education.
"Tufts is such an exciting place to be," he said. "I feel like a kid in a candy store again."
