There is a lot of excitement about going to college when you leave high school. Your whole life is ahead of you. You're getting autonomy for the first time in your life and are set to learn all about the world. When you're older, studying does not have quite the same glow.

That doesn't mean it’s not exciting. There is still so much to learn. However, there are also more responsibilities to balance, along with the skepticism you might face from well-meaning loved ones.

Nonetheless, there are actually many advantages to studying when you're older. Here are some of the most significant.

Live your own life

You're living in your own apartment now. While this means you have to pay rent – as well as taking care of things like finding an affordable renters insurance policy and managing your utilities use – it also means you get to live your own life. This is important when assimilating what you are learning into the real world.

A major issue college graduates have is that they don’t know how to use what they’ve learnt. They may know a lot more than they once did, but they still have no experience of getting a job or paying taxes. This is why a degree can suddenly feel a lot less useful after graduation.

Since you're living your own life and have experience in the ‘real’ world, you are seeing what you're learning in context. It’s not just abstract ideas but rather useful skills.

You know what you're looking for

In theory, everyone who goes to college wants to learn something. It is unlike school, which is mandatory. But most high-school leavers feel pressured to go to college. This leads them to choose a degree that sounds most useful to them rather than choosing something they specifically are interested in.

Older students, on the other hand, have made the decision to go to college out of a desire to learn. This is a huge advantage, because the ability to pay attention is what makes learning easier and more enjoyable. Think about how when you were in high school, you could recite the plot of a book you enjoyed reading once while struggling to remember basic facts from a textbook you’d pored over.

You know who you are

Young college students are in an exciting part of their life, during which they're figuring out who they are outside of their home and school. While this is crucial in terms of development, it does make it a lot harder to focus on studying. College classes cannot compare to the fascination of learning about yourself through new experiences and relationships.

But when you go to college as an older student, you already know who you are. You may be nostalgic for that time in your life when you were still figuring it out, but it does not distract you from the task at hand. Instead of constantly thinking about where you could be if you didn’t have to go to class, you are totally focused on where you are right now.

You have clear goals

This also means that you know what you want from your life and how studying will help you get there. Instead of some vague idea that you will get a job after college, you know where you want your life to go. There is still plenty that you're figuring out, and plans do change, but the fact that you have goals makes all of this feel worth it.

Going to college when you're older is not easy. However, it can be incredibly rewarding and you have advantages over the younger college students.