Since World War II, earning a college degree has gone from an elite privilege limited to fewer than 5 percent of the population to a broadly distributed achievement open to all. More than 25 percent of people over the age of twenty-five now have four-year degrees or higher. Our society values the credential highly as a sign of mastery and sustained performance. Dissent from this view arises occasionally, but no decline of eagerness to earn degrees is in sight. A major change during the same period has been the large number of adult learners engaged in higher education. Many are catching up after previous choices to delay their study. Others are discovering their degree interest for the first time, or they realize from their life experiences the value of going on to second or even third degrees to fulfill their aspirations. By the mid-1990s, persons over age twenty-five constituted almost 44 percent of higher education enrollments. If the criteria of adulthood were broadened beyond age alone to include younger persons whose lives include adult characteristics, the proportion of adults rose to well over 50 percent. The opportunity for many of these persons to study arises from recent innovations that make degrees more feasible for them. It is fair to call this an adult degree revolution.