Finding Yourself Outside of Harvard

Many students who are older than their classmates say there are advantages to maturity. Antaki says his experience abroad contributed to his personal development, and he was also able to prolong his college career.

"I think of my time off as extending my intellectual Shangri-La," he says.

Mathew A. Mougalian '99, 25, who lives in Dunster, took two leaves of absence during his college career and is now a ninth-semester senior. He says he thinks his time off gave him the opportunity to better identify what he wants to do with his life.

"I think that if I had graduated on time, I would have been a lot more lost than I will be now," he says. "While before I was unsure, at least now I have a notion of what I want to do with myself."

Mougalian was required to withdraw from the school by the Administrative Board and spent his first year as a facilities maintenance worker for the Massachusetts-based Varian Company and his second year and a half working at Waterstone's Booksellers in Boston.

Twenty-three year old Hannah L. Stotland '99, who lives in Leverett House, says her age makes her more appreciative of the college experience.

"When you are only 17, you don't have much experience to compare college life with," she says.

Stotland failed her junior and senior years of high school but still obtained her General Equivalency Diploma (GED). She worked as a museum guide, an Omniplex projectionist and a free-lance caterer before attending Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania for two years, then coming to Harvard as a junior transfer student.

Hornblower says one of the most obvious advantages of his age directly relates to his social life.

"It's going to be pretty nice being 21 for the majority of my college career," he says.

Recognizing the Age Gap

Although there are certainly perks to being older than college classmates, Stotland says there are undeniable disadvantages as well. She says her age made Harvard more appealing than other colleges she wanted to attend.

"I really wanted a college with grad students at it. At Bryn Mawr, it was getting a bit freakish because I was one of the oldest students there," Stotland says.

Mougalian says being older than most other seniors has made certain job opportunities that are popular among Harvard students less appealing to him.