When most people think of college they think of teenagers, frat parties and young hung over students taking exams, but today most actual college students are over 24, in fact the average online college student is now 36 years old.

As the student body of colleges change, so do the colleges. No longer aimed at edifying naive inexperienced young people, colleges now offer new knowledge, and will assess knowledge the more experienced, career minded adults already know. Most of these people already have extensive life knowledge, have run businesses, and have vast knowledge that can only be acquired on-the-job.

Now that adult college students can be given credit on their transcripts for this knowledge they already have while adding to it, saving time and possibly thousands of dollars, we may expect the typical college student to change even more dramatically.

College Credit for Life Experience: five ways to earn it

1. Academic Portfolios:
A compiled portfolio that can be accepted for college credit. Most colleges that accept these portfolios do require students to first take a class to learn how to create them, before they evaluate and offer credit.

2. Challenge Exams
This is the most common option. For a small fee exams can be given to evaluate the students current knowledge.

3. College Credit for Military Training:
You can convert military training into college credits, even boot camp usually counts!

4. College for Corporate Training:
Many companies actually have whole schools to train their employees how they want. This knowledge can be used as college credit.

5. College Credit for Credentials and Professional Licenses:
Some personal certification programs not offered by colleges are also now being accepted for college credits.

Some cautions:

It’s extremely rare for someone to attain an entire degree from pre-existing experience. College for Life Experience programs are meant to save you time and money, but you’ll likely still have to take some new classes. Many colleges have a limit on how many life experience based credits one can use towards a degree. It should also be noted that earning credits for life experience is not free. Testing and evaluations do require you pay fees, it’s just often far less than tuition would cost. For example one year of life experience earned college credit could cost you anywhere from $500 to $5,000.