Auburn senior Amy Looper studies sign language with her lab partner, Franklin junior Shelvia Hickman, in the ASL lab in Tate Page Hall. With the help of her husband, Looper has been able to return to school and pursue degrees in both English writing and communication studies. EMILY FOX/HERALD

Auburn senior Amy Looper yanked on shirt after shirt, skirt after skirt, desperately searching for the correct combination, the code to the perfect first-day-of-school outfit.

She hadn’t worked the puzzle in a while — 13 years in fact. But on that August morning in 2006, Looper, 39, stood in front of her mirror doing the same dance as thousands of 18-year-olds preparing for their first day at Western.

“I didn’t know what to do, because you don’t want to dress like you’re trying to be a teenager, but you don’t want to dress like an old lady,” she said.

Looper is part of Western’s growing population of adult learners, which now stands at about 3,500 students, said Jim Berger, associate professor of education administration and leadership and research.

Along with the economic appeal of larger potential salaries, the mid-life search for significance attracts adults to higher education, Adult Learner Adviser Todd Noffsinger said.

Administrators define adult learners as students who are 25 years old or older and students dealing with “adult” situations, such as parenthood, he said.

A diverse group of people lives under the “adult learner” label.

Noffsinger said he’s worked with 19-year-old mothers and 70-year-old grandfathers, students with 30-year-old GEDs and students with 90 transferable credit hours.

Averages concerning age and length of study before graduation can’t paint comprehensive pictures of the adult learner population, he said.

But the majority of non-traditional students are between 25 and 44, according to the Noel-Levitz Adult Learner Inventory conducted at Western, Berger said.

The majority of students Noffsinger works with are in their 30s and 40s, and that’s no random statistic, he said.

“As people get into their mid-life … they start kind of asking about the meaning of life, so to speak,” Noffsinger said. “People are finding that their career paths aren’t meaningful.”

He said furthering their education is one way middle-aged adults cope with questions about personal significance.

Glasgow sophomore Barrett Wright, 34, dropped out of Lindsey Wilson College during his freshman year in 1996.

Wright said he began taking classes at Western’s Glasgow campus in 2008 after several years of feeling unsatisfied with his professional life.

“I have been bouncing from entry-level job to entry-level job, and I feel that I should be further along than where I am,” he said. “I feel like I’m a more intelligent person than the jobs I’ve been working.”

Wright currently works as an associate pastor and referee for the intramural department, but he plans on graduating no later than 2013 with a degree in religious studies.

He said the enlightenment provided by higher education satisfies his previously unfulfilled desire to learn, and he’s going to use his degree to pursue his long-time dream of preaching.

Noffsinger said that, like Wright, the majority of adult learners he works with express interest in service fields.

The Noel-Levitz inventory shows that 38 percent of adult learners come to Western to pursue education, health care or social services.

Berger said that might be because careers in service fields provide a sense of significance and meaning for adults learners.

“Lots of times you have students who enter college because Mommy or Daddy said ‘You have to go to college,’” he said. “When they come back, they have much more of a purpose, and they see that they want to make a difference.”

Some adult learners mix personal fulfillment with a more material motivation for going back to school — a bigger salary.

Noffsinger said career advancement is one of the largest factors drawing adults to universities.

Berger said that explains the 25 percent of adult learners who are studying business, according to the The Noel-Levitz inventory.

Whether motivated by money or a mid-life crisis, research on adult education, such as Carol Kasworm, Cheryl Polson and Sarah Fishback’s “Responding to Adult Learners in Higher Education,” shows that adult learners perform as well or better academically than traditional students, Berger said.

The Noel-Levitz inventory didn’t include statistics on adult learners’ academic performance, such as their GPAs, but Berger and Noffsinger said their personal experiences support the research.

Students who dropped out of college as teenagers typically improve their grade point averages by at least one point when they return to school as adults, Noffsinger said.

He attributed adult student success to their goal-oriented behavior and understanding of the importance of education.

Wright said his past failures are his biggest motivation, and without them, he couldn’t succeed now.

“Many, many times I have juggled the thought of quitting, but I have a relentless attitude to stay the course,” he said.

Like Wright, Looper entered college right out of high school and dropped out during her freshman year. Later, she took a job with her uncle’s cleaning company instead.

“After I got married and realized I was going to have to clean offices for the rest of my life, I decided to go back to school,” she said.

Looper said working such jobs gave her a greater appreciation for education. She will graduate with an English degree in December.

Despite their successes, adult learners face many challenges, Noffsinger said.

“The majority of (adult) students don’t see themselves first and foremost as a student,” he said. “They see themselves first as a parent or an employee or as a professional, and being a student is a second identity.”

Balancing multiple identities is no easy task, said Wright, who has three children and works two part-time jobs.

But Western administrators have been working to accommodate adult learners by offering an increasing number of online and evening courses, President Gary Ransdell said.

In January of 2009, administrators launched WKU REAL, the Reaching Every Adult Learner office, designed to advise adult learners about registering, applying for financial aid and selecting a major, among other things, Noffsinger said.

He said institutional research predicts that the adult learner population will continue to grow in coming years.

Looper said if she had her way, she’d continue contributing to the adult student culture at Western.

The woman who spent years avoiding school now says she doesn’t want to leave, and preparing for her upcoming graduation has been bittersweet.

“I’m kind of sad about it,” she said. “I don’t want to stop.”