I did a masters and then a juris doctorate in my 20s. I am now in my early 40s, and I am doing another masters with the goal of doing a PhD when I am done. Bef

I did a masters and then a juris doctorate in my 20s. I am now in my early 40s, and I am doing another masters with the goal of doing a PhD when I am done. Before I started, I was pretty concerned about whether I would be able to do this even. Most of my peers are in their 20s and 30s, though it was surprising to me when I started this program that I am not the oldest candidate and there are a couple of us in the higher age ranges. Anyway, I had wondered if I would be able to keep up with the youngsters. In fact, I don't think it has been an issue at all. I think that I am performing at least at as high of or possibly a higher level today than during my first run at graduate education. I think there are certain factors that I, as an older, more settled, less let's-start-living-life(!) person have as an advantage over my young peers. Many of them still focus a lot of time on socializing, whereas I have my spouse and kids and old friends whom I don't have to see every weekend (the old friends--I see my spouse and kids every day). My younger colleagues do a lot of dumb things still, ones that I sure did also when I was that age and have gotten out of my system. I would say that there were certain advantages to doing graduate work when I was young, and certain advantages now. I find it impossible to say which is better, but it is at least no worse now than then.