Ilissa McClelland said she stays sane by watching cartoons, like Dexter’s Laboratory on Cartoon Network.

“I’m a cartoon TV junkie,” she said.

McClelland, a sophomore in computer science and psychology, is a prime example of many non-traditional students at Iowa State. She is a 30-year-old woman who has been married for 10 years, and has two kids. Ilissa is also the vice president of the Adult Student Scholarship Fund.

On top of her family responsibilities, McClelland is a full-time student this semester with 16 credit hours. Unlike other students, McClelland has to revolve her class schedule around her kids, the availability of her car and the time it takes her to commute.

“As long as I’m not speeding, it takes me 20 minutes to drive my kids one way to school at Ballard-West, located in Slater,” she said. “I have to wake up at 6 a.m. and leave the house at 8 a.m. to get them to school on time.”

According to the Registrar’s Office, adult students (classified as students 25 years of age or older) constitute 13 percent of the undergraduate population and 25 percent of the graduate community.

There isn’t one collective situation that describes these non-traditional students. They’re all unique.

Many different factors contribute to the one thing they do have in common — added stress and responsibilities.

For parents, stress includes the costs and availability of babysitters.

“It’s difficult to find babysitters when you have evening or weekend classes,” McClelland said.

If the kids are let out of school early or don’t have classes, many student parents must take their children with them to class. This is a disruption to the class, an annoyance for the professor and a huge distraction to parents, who are trying to make their children sit still.

Sometimes this situation forces parents to skip class, which isn’t a favorable alternative either.

Commuters must deal with finding a place to relax and study in-between classes.

They’re also forced to carry all of their text books with them everywhere. There is no dorm room for an easy book exchange, and there aren’t any lockers on campus.

Commuters also face the obvious hassles — the time it takes to commute and the hazards of driving in bad weather.

“I have a test on Monday night, but one of our cars is having the fan-belt fixed, so we’re down to one car,” McClelland said. “My husband has a night job, so he needs the car and I have no way to get to the test. Besides that, I need to find a babysitter for my kids … luckily I have a very understanding professor.”

Non-traditional students often work full time. Trying to get classes at times which fit their schedule is a difficult task, and these students usually have less time to pay off loans.

Bret Posegate, a single, 30-year-old graduate student, is finishing his master’s. He currently is a behavioral disorders teacher at Ames Middle School.

Adding to his responsibilities as a teacher, Posegate is a football and girls’ basketball coach at the middle school. During the winter he also is the head varsity baseball coach at Ames High School.

Posegate said he had to drop a class this semester because he was going to miss nine hours of class and because he has to coach football on the night his class meets. “I only hope that I don’t lose my financial aid now that I’m only taking three credits,” he said.

Bret balances classwork and studying with coaching commitments, lesson plans and line-ups.

Many non-traditional students are cut out of university activities because of other commitments. Many don’t feel they know what is happening on campus. “It’s more tempting for these students to go from their car to class to their car and then home,” Stephanie Chervinko of the Adult Learner and Student Commuter Center said.

Chervinko said some non-traditional students live in Buchanan Hall, a residence designated for students that are 22 years and older. Others stay in Ames during the week but go home on the weekend.

On the upside, of all of these challenges non-traditional students face, there are a couple of advantages they seem to have, Chervinko said. She said professors seem to be sensitive to older students.

Chervinko said evidence suggests that students who have left school and come back are more motivated than traditional students. She said they come back with a different attitude and are more eager to learn. “They also tend to be very successful,” she said.