The Night Shift

Even with the expansion of such programs in the past decade, the Washington market still has fewer part-time adult education providers than other large metropolitan areas, says Peter J. Stokes, executive vice president of Eduventures Inc., an education research firm in Boston. "There's demand in D.C. that's probably not being met," he says. "What makes D.C. special is the government. Everybody wants to serve the government, so there will be always a steady stream of students and new programs aimed at that singular purpose."

Indeed, while master's degrees in education and business remain the most popular choices for part-time adults nationwide, in Washington they are joined by programs in politics, international affairs, law and, especially after 9/11, national security. And in a sign of the area's diversifying economy, colleges also report booming enrollments in biotechnology programs and informatics, the study of collecting and manipulating data using computers.

Unlike high school students, who factor in everything from a university's academic reputation to its football team's national ranking when searching for a college, adult students look for one thing above all else: convenience. While price and quality count as well, "adults are really pragmatic," says Stokes. "They want to know there is parking and the courses are scheduled at times they can take them."

Convenience was a factor for Brian J. Feldman when he enrolled in the part-time evening program in government at Johns Hopkins in the late 1990s. Feldman was a lawyer at the Justice Department, not too far from Johns Hopkins's Dupont Circle campus. Going back to school for another advanced degree, he says, was a way of focusing on his goal of making a

career switch into elective politics.

"I certainly could have done it without another degree, but getting back into an academic setting and learning a little more about politics and government in a more formal way was a catalyst," says Feldman. In 2002, two years after he graduated, he was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates. And this summer, he plans to go back to Hopkins's part-time program to teach a class on state politics.

Like other adult students, Feldman juggled a career, classes and, in his case, a family. Given those time pressures, adult students concede that they often give short shrift to something in their life during the course of a semester, whether it's a work project, reading for a class or family time. "The first thing that goes is seeing friends," says Neil Porter Shull, a part-time student at GWU's law school who works full time as a clerk for the Blank Rome law firm. When faced with a pressing choice between school and work, he says, school takes the back seat. "I try to keep it balanced," says Shull, who is married. "I want to do well at both, but I really enjoy my job."

WITH TWO COURSES THIS SEMESTER, Michele Krumm is taking what amounts to a full load for a part-time student. Every Monday and Tuesday evening, just after 6, she hurries from her office in the Longworth House Office Building to catch the Metro to Foggy Bottom. On this Tuesday night, she has timed it right. With a few minutes left before the start of her 7:10 class, she grabs a coffee and a bite to eat at the Starbucks near GWU's media and public affairs building.

Coffee in hand, Krumm slides into the last row of seats in the lecture hall as students trickle in for the 2 1/2-hour class. One asks Krumm about her Monday night class. Two other students talk about their day at work. For many in the class, these side conversations may turn out to be as important as any lesson they will learn tonight. One reason adults say they enroll in part-time graduate programs is to network, both with fellow students and alumni. "You make these incredible connections that you couldn't otherwise have," says Krumm.

It used to be that when people like Krumm were ready for the next stage in their careers their employers would provide guidance and training. Now workers view themselves as managers of their own careers. Call it a "free-agent world," where each credential "is a step on a ladder" to the top, says Stokes, the Eduventures consultant, who recently testified about adult learners before a federal commission studying the future of higher education in the United States.

Take Shull, the part-time law student at GWU. At 30, he has a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Rochester. In his final year of graduate school, he interned in the university's technology transfer office, where he became interested in patent law. To pursue that career, though, he needed a law degree. He believes the science background will eventually serve him well as a patent attorney. "I didn't want to work in a lab for the rest of my life," he says, "so it's another way to use my PhD."

In Krumm's class, Fundamentals of Political Management, the two dozen students have finally arrived, and the professor, Dennis Johnson, begins a lecture on the conservative political movement in the United States. As Johnson moves quickly through his PowerPoint presentation, he peppers the students with questions. Like any class, there are lulls, and, at one point, Johnson wonders aloud if anyone did the assigned reading. There are a few nods and raised hands.