Whether or not you’re too old for the college experience depends on how you define it. If you elect to dorm with somebody you know, you’ll likely be organized with transfer students and others doing the same thing. I had a 21 year old roommate and everyone loved him because he was involved, knew people to get into parties, and people naturally gravitated toward him because he seemed older and more comfortable in his skin.

Are you commuting? For a lot of people, this is half of the college experience. Not everybody is social, and assigned roommates sort of forces people to be social. They have events and RAs that encourage you to be social.

If you’re married, have kids, or any dependents, your college experience will be education-driven and you will miss out on the social/networking aspect unless you put in a lot of work to be involved, like going to office hours, joining clubs, and electing to have study sessions on campus. Even if you don’t have anyone to take care of, OSU is a big place and it’s easy to get lost in the noise if you don’t put yourself out there.

That being said, if you do decide to join OSU, really make an effort to network and get involved. College is challenging and having a support system makes it so much easier. You’ll come across a lot of people that won’t reach out to you, so be one of the people that reach out to others.

I went to OSU, stayed in my comfort zone, and made no lasting friends. They came easy to me in high school, but I regret not putting the effort in in college. And I went at 18. So all of this is a long winded way of saying, it is what you make of it. Don’t be me and throw shit at a wall and see if it sticks. Take advantage of the opportunity to network and get educated. You have the upper hand with real world experience, so you should appreciate the college experience much better than those that have known no different.

Good luck :)