Josh Brewer has had a busy week. There were midterms. He attended a Bloomington Board of Housing Quality Appeals meeting as a board member. He also had to try to figure out where his family is going to live after his Bloomington landlord announced plans to sell their home in the next few weeks.
Brewer is 43 years old, a husband and a father of two middle schoolers.
He’s also a sophomore at the Kelley School of Business at IU Bloomington.
He has his associate degree from Brigham Young University of Idaho. Brewer said he tried a few times to pursue his bachelor's degree, but life got in the way. He was a plaintiff in a lawsuit regarding a car accident for a decade. He has chronic pain. His wife, Bekah, wanted to pursue her bachelor’s, so she did that after he got his associate degree while he worked in sales.
He started studying at IU in the fall 2024 semester after learning about the business school while Bekah studied for her master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania.
He suspects he is the oldest undergraduate in the business school but doesn’t know for sure. IU spokesperson Mark Bode wrote in an email that 18 of IU’s students aged 25 or older are in Kelley.
It’s not easy being a non-traditional student at IU, Brewer said.
He got waitlisted for two classes this semester even though he has almost 100 credit hours from other schools he attended. He also said he doesn’t have any friends at school.
“People don’t want to hang out with their dad,” Brewer said.
IU Bloomington enrolled almost 50,000 students last fall. Bode wrote 441 IUB undergraduates enrolled in spring 2026 are 25 or older, a common benchmark for non-traditional status.
“At IU Bloomington, we serve all students and are working to improve our services to support student success, including advising, financial support, and student engagement, as outlined in the IUB 2030 Strategic Plan,” Bode wrote.
Brewer and Meranda Cree Prince, a 33-year-old English major and president of IU’s Organization for Non-Traditional Students, both said the university largely acts like non-traditional students don't exist.
"I would say I feel zero percent supported," Prince said. "I would say it’s more accurate, like, negative percent."
Prince said non-traditional students aren’t defined by age alone. Students who work full-time, have dependents or are financially independent often have non-traditional experiences even if they're under 25. When graduate students are included, roughly 19% of IU's total enrollment is 25 or older.
Prince grew up in Bloomington and first enrolled at IU at 18 though she was financially independent due to her family’s situation. She first attended IU from 2010 until 2016.
She said she was placed on academic probation several times before being dismissed and required to wait at least five years before returning,
Prince then made her way to a California community college and came back to IU to study film in 2024. She's since switched to English with a creative writing minor.
She has over 100 credit hours and no degree. Prince is in the process of applying to transfer to Yale University because, unlike IUB, Yale has an established program and cohort for non-traditional students. IU only has the organization that Prince is part of, but she said only she and undergraduate advisor Shauna Melvin, the club’s faculty advisor, regularly attend meetings. The next club event is Feb. 27.
Bode wrote that other campuses have varying support programs for non-traditional students, including IU Indianapolis’ Center for Transfer and Adult Students.
Prince said she’s tried to make her voice heard. She wrote a policy proposal last year requesting further institutional and financial support for non-traditional students. She said she printed and hand-delivered to the offices of the president and provost and attended Board of Trustees meetings.
She said the campus police escorted her out of Bryan Hall. Nobody responded to her emails.
"I realized there's nothing more I can do," Prince said. "I can’t make this work, and it’s not my fault."
Brewer has attended recruitment events at Kelley only to be told the companies aren't hiring people with past work experience or aren't hiring older applicants. He pledged a business fraternity and wasn't selected. He ran for Kelley Student Government and said he wasn’t taken seriously because of his age. He invites classmates to study, either at the library or at his house, but they don't come.
"I have never been invited to a party," Brewer said. "I know that sounds crazy. You don't get invited to parties."
Prince described a similar feeling of isolation. She is older than most graduate students on campus. The English undergrads are sweet, she said, but they're not going to be close friends.
"We’re not going to be best friends because we can get along in class," Prince said, "It's just not going to happen."
It's a feeling both said extends beyond classrooms.
"We often just feel like islands," Brewer said. "Islands walking by ourselves."
The problems run deeper than loneliness. Full-time enrollment, which is often required for need-based financial aid, is difficult for students with jobs or children.
The state’s Adult Student Grant and federal student loans require enrollment in at least six credit hours, Bode wrote. The Frank O’Bannon grant requires full time enrollment.
The Dean's List excludes part-time students, even those with a 4.0 GPA. Most merit scholarships assume a traditional academic timeline.
Bode said IUB offers scholarships for nontraditional students like the Cox Access Scholarship. All full-time Indiana-native students are eligible to be considered for the Crimson Commitment and Hoosier Crossroads Grants.
“We value our adult learners as a critical part of the IU student body and support their goal of obtaining an IU degree,” Bode wrote.
IUB also allows all incoming students to earn credit through placement exams, Bode wrote, assisting in the transfer process. He also wrote that returning students who previously attended IU are able to seek guidance at Advising and Major Exploration Services.
Prince said one of the only benefits she’s received at IU as a non-traditional student is access to the Indiana Memorial Union because it is open 24 hours with heat, water and access to Wi-Fi. The community college that Prince attended didn’t have a place like it, so she had to drive an hour to Stanford University for Wi-Fi access.
Both students have tried to change things from within.
Brewer was elected to IU Student Government as an off-campus housing representative and is now the chair of the City of Bloomington's Board of Housing Quality Appeals. Prince created the non-traditional student seat within IUSG's multicultural representation structure.
They have some of the same desires for non-traditional policy at IU: a dedicated office, financial aid that accounts for adult learners and advisors trained to work with students whose needs extend beyond school, Brewer said. They would also like some acknowledgment that non-traditional students bring something to campus rather than act as a nuisance to manage.
Prince plans to leave. She hopes Yale works out because the program she's applying to intentionally recruits adult learners, houses them on campus and builds cohorts around shared experiences.
“We're just not a part of IU's business model and there's just, like, nothing for us here,” Prince said. “I hope, I really hope that it does get better.”
