This interpretive study examined the experiences of ten adults returning to college in a liberal‐education degree program. Six themes emerged from the interviews: having experienced a lack of academic success earlier in life, having had the sense that something was missing in one's life, feeling confident that one is a smart person, believing that the degree does not carry as much weight as is commonly believed, wanting to be practical in one's academic work, and feeling that one has changed throughout the process. Further, personal transformation and contradictory feelings about academics were common elements of the experience.
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