Enormously larger? Michael, you are telling us that there are more full time 18 to 22 years old students than there are part time 18 to 65 years old students? Maybe in your school, but out there?

Daniel, you are right; I was talking out of my ass there. (It’s really quite fun, everyone should try it some time.) However, if you consider the number of “full time equivalent” (FTE) students, I would still submit (which here means, “I’m still talking out of my ass, but would prefer that you believe me anyway” [you might guess that my kids are reading A Series of Unfortunate Events]) that the traditional students greatly outnumber the nontraditional ones. Yes, there are more 22-65 year olds, but then you need to take the fraction who are interested in getting a degree, and from that the number who are able to pursue the degree (financially and logistically), and from that group account for the fewer courses taken (hence the FTE label). I think it’s great to provide access to non-traditional students (my institution does), but they are not going to solve the issue of gender balance in our field, nor does the problem lie there.