The UCF campus may seem to be filled with early 20-somethings, but last semester, there were nearly 1,000 registered students ages 50 and older.

According to the UCF Office of Institutional Research, in the fall of 2013, there were 481 registered students 50 and older in the undergraduate program, and 454 in the graduate program.

Richard Tucker, UCF professor emeritus of psychology and aging studies, said he was surprised by the number of nontraditionally aged students when he first began teaching in 1972, but thinks their presence is an important aspect of education.

“Obviously as a person who is interested in aging, particularly what I call successful aging, I think it’s wonderful,” he said. “I think that the one thing we need, is to remain mentally active when we retire. We don’t want to retire our brains, so lifelong learning in particular is good.”

Tucker, who introduced the Psychology of Aging course to UCF, said through his years teaching, he noticed a difference between younger students and older students beyond their age.

“[Non-traditionally aged students] definitely were more focused. They were in school because they wanted to be, they asked great questions and while they were concerned about grades, they weren’t obsessed,” he said. “I often found that the traditional-aged students sought them out for their study groups.”

Richard Estefan, 54, is currently in the graduate program for systems engineering after spending a lifetime of service in the military.

“I retired from the military, and I’m looking to see going into teaching or something along those lines,” Estefan said. “So that’s why I wanted to do my graduate work and possibly start a second career.”

Estefan graduated from UCF in 2002 with a bachelor’s in engineering science and said coming back to UCF for his master’s was an easy choice, although the school has undergone many changes in the last decade.

“The school has definitely changed since I graduated. I have a great deal of praise for Dr. Hitt. He has taken the university to the next level with all the infrastructure that he has done for the school,” Estefan said. “I’ve seen a lot of money that’s been put into the school since I graduated.”

Estefan said he hopes to get a job in the academic field after graduating and recommends pursuing education regardless of age.

“It all depends on your goals. Just where everybody is in life,” he said. “It’s a good endeavor to come back and further your education, but it’s also important to know why you’re coming back and what you’re gonna do with your schooling.”

The education options for non-traditionally aged students at UCF are not restricted to degree-seekers only. The university also offers a senior-citizen audit for Florida residents who are 60 years of age or older.

In this program, a senior citizen who has been living in Florida for one year or longer can apply to be enrolled in UCF as a non-degree-seeking undergraduate student. The courses are tuition-free and do not count toward a degree.

Kent Woodford, program assistant at the Registrar’s Office and head of the senior citizen audit program, said he estimates an average of 60 students who participate in the senior citizen audit every semester.

“Many times, the reason that a senior citizen wants to participate in the program is that they want to keep their mind engaged and continue with the learning process,” Woodford said. “It keeps them engaged intellectually and socially, and physically it gets them out of the house, so it’s very, very good.”

A student in the senior citizen audit, William Lanier, 77, applied for the program seven years ago after retiring full-time.

Lanier said he was an uninterested student in his childhood, but developed a thirst for learning while in the Navy.

“It was two weeks in, and after the first week we had an exam, and I was the only one in the class that passed the test. That encouraged me. It was the first time I’d ever gotten encouraged with something concerning education,” he said. “Ever since then, whenever somebody says school, I stuck up my hand, ‘I want to go, I want to go,’ and I’ve been doing it ever since. A lot of people call me a late bloomer.”

Lanier retired from the Navy in 1980 after 25 years of service, and went on to receive his bachelor’s in business management from UCF in 1987.

Lanier said the campus has changed dramatically over the past 30 years.

“I’m impressed with the way it’s grown over the years,” he said. “When I first started here in the early 1980s, it was very small and most of my classes were in a trailer.”

Through the senior citizen audit program, Lanier has taken classes in astronomy, psychology, history and anthropology. He is currently enrolled in two international relations courses.

Lanier said he plans on continuing his education at UCF for many more years.

“As long as I can still drive the car,” he said