Meet A True College Senior
Nola Ochs Is Earning Her Bachelor’s At 95 Years Old Alongside Her Granddaughter
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Play CBS Video Video The Most Super Of Seniors Only On The Web: 95-year-old Nola Ochs will soon become the oldest person ever to finish college. She talked with Steve Hartman about the long road she took to earn her degree.
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Video Nola, The College 'Senior' Steve Hartman met with Nola Ochs, a 9- year-old college senior who is finishing her general studies degree at Fort Hays University In Kansas at the same time as her granddaughter Alexandra.
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Meet Nola Ochs, the 95-year-old college senior. (CBS)
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Her name is Nola Ochs and she’s 95 years old.
"I came up here as a senior,” she told CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman for Assignment America.
“I know you did,” Hartman said.
“A college senior," Ochs explained.
Ochs came to Hays last fall for the final leg of what has been the longest college career in history.
To see exactly how long, you have to go to the basement of the administration building, where you’ll find a little 3 x 5 card that shows Nola Ochs – then Nola Hill – started a correspondence course called Directed Study April 19th, 1930.
That’s 77 years ago.
"There's a great satisfaction in completing what you started," Ochs said.
Nola was born in 1911 in Jetmore, Kansas. She always loved learning but after that first class, she got a little sidetracked.
"I lived on a farm. I was a mother, grandmother, great grandmother,” she said. “I had plenty to do. But the yearning didn't go away."
So after her husband died in 1972, she started taking correspondence courses again, slowly plugging away at her Bachelor’s Degree.Only On The Web: Nola Ochs shares more of her story.
“I just say Nola is the poster child of a life-long learner," said Joleen Briggs, Nola’s advisor.
Nola has spent the last year in a dorm for non-traditional students working on her general studies degree.
"I'm real proud of my apartment," she said.
Outside of class she’s made a lot of friends.
"I feel like just another one of them," she said of the traditional college students.
But she has a favorite fellow student – perhaps because the student is also her granddaughter. Alexandra and Nola were even in a class together.
“I skipped class, which I felt terrible about — my grandmother being in class,” Alexandra said.
“I didn't know she was skipping. I thought she had a legitimate excuse," Ochs said.
They say it has been a truly wonderful year, which will draw to a close tomorrow, when Nola and Alexandra graduate together.
"It is with great pride that I walk across that floor Saturday," Ochs said.
The Guinness Record Book will now list Ochs as the oldest person ever to finish college – if you can call it finish.
"The first class I'm going to take this fall…” Ochs said.
Wait, she’s going back to school again?
Sure, Ochs said. She said a Master’s Degree is not out of the question – in fact, she’d like to accumulate as many degrees as possible.
“And I’m going to use them too, when I get old,” Ochs said.
If her spunk is any indicator, that won’t be anytime soon.
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- This is a great story. How can I purchase a copy of the video?
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- What a delightful, inspirational woman. Please congratulate her for me. It is wonderful to see a happy story that gives us all hope and brightens our lives at least once a week. Thank you!
C. A. Hurley, MD - Reply to this comment
Only On The Web: Nola Ochs shares more of her story.




