Can you walk a mile in the shoes of a non-traditional college student? Imagine a student whose life is swamped with so many college classes and work commitments that he or she must schedule some time to spend with family and friends. This is the situation that non-traditional college students go through every day of a school semester and still try to maintain a healthy family relationship. According to Jennifer Kohler Giancola and her colleagues, in an article titled “Dealing With the Stress of College: A Model for Adult Students,” Adult Education Quarterly, May 2009, “With an increase in nontraditional students attending college, there is the need to understand how work/school/life stress impacts adult students” (246). Giancola and his colleagues' statement is valid because nontraditional working college students know how chaotic life is when multiple tasks stretch their entire schedule. The article begins with information about the purpose of the study provided to nontraditional college students who have external stressors conflicting with college. Giancola and his colleagues talk about the importance of the study and the need for colleges to understand that stress affects nontraditional college students differently than traditional-aged college students. In this study, Giancola and his colleagues discuss three components of stress to understand how stress affects the nontraditional student. These three components include personal, work and school. The article also talks about comparisons between traditional and non-traditional students. Giancola and his colleagues also talk about the coping skills that nontraditional students practice to deal with and how each student has their own way of dealing with stress. The article concludes by explaining that... halfway through the article... the context of work, personal life and social life can favor or hinder their learning” (247). This statement is true because if these activities continue to impede a student's learning, he or she will become stressed, which may lead to the student dropping out of all college classes. If the student could simply sit down and analyze the situation, life would be easier. For example, the student might reduce the number of classes he or she takes each semester. Reducing the number of lessons could mean spending more time with family rather than doing homework. When you think of a person whose life is filled with frustrating duties and activities, remember the nontraditional schedule of a college student that involves completing school activities, working long hours, completing personal tasks, and trying to spend free time with family and friends all in one day.