What is different
You are likely balancing school with a job, a household, and people who depend on you, so time is the scarce resource, not motivation. You may be rusty on formal academic writing, math, or test-taking, and the technology (the learning platform, online submission, library databases) has changed. And you may be the oldest person in the room, which feels strange for about two weeks and then stops mattering.
What is an advantage
Adult learners tend to earn higher grades. You know why you are here, you have real-world context that makes abstract material concrete, you are not distracted by the social churn of an 18-year-old's first year, you manage your time because you have to, and you are not shy about going to office hours. Faculty generally value having you in a class.
Getting credit for what you have done
Prior coursework (even from decades ago — though old courses may not transfer), military training, professional certifications and licenses, and documented workplace learning can all become credit through transfer evaluation, credit-by-exam, or prior learning assessment. This can shorten the degree substantially. Start with the Registrar and the adult-learner adviser before you assume you are starting from zero.
The logistics
Look into: part-time enrollment and how it interacts with financial aid (aid is prorated, and some grants require half-time), evening, weekend, and online sections, the catalog-year and academic-renewal policies if you attended before, childcare options, employer tuition assistance, and scholarships specifically for returning and part-time students. The adult and returning student office keeps this list.
The academic ramp
If it has been a while, take a lighter first term, use the writing center and the math support center early and without embarrassment (they see many returning students), and give yourself one term to rebuild study habits before judging how it is going. A refresher in the one subject you dread is worth doing before the semester, not during.
You belong here
The most common thing returning students say afterward is that they wish they had not waited, and that the story they told themselves about being too old or too far behind was wrong. The adult-learner community, an adviser who specializes in it, and other students in the same position are there to make that concrete.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.