Re: urban and regional essay prize

Judi,

Well said. As somebody who entered graduate school after careers in tile
and marble construction and professional music, with a full awareness
that, whatever experience I gained from those other pursuits, I had to
work extra to get back into the rhythm of learning, age restrictions knife
off a (what I suspect to be growing) body of potential "young" scholars.
It seems that one assumption would be that "non-traditional" students have
developed some wisdom that advantages them in competition with under-35
students. What might this be? Maturity? Well, maturity is relative to
domain, and, in any case, one assumes quite a lot when assuming those over
thirty-five are mature or wise!

Andrew Austin
Knoxville, TN

On Fri, 4 Aug 2000, Judi Kessler wrote:

>It is a shame that FURS opts to penalize those young non-native scholars
>who, for reasons often not of their chosing, happened to pursue graduate
>studies after having reached the age of 35.