A handbook of practical advice is offered to adult women who are re-entering undergraduate and graduate programs at Northwestern University and similar institutions of higher education. Interviews with 60 "re-entry women" provide helpful suggestions for organizing time inside and outside the university while balancing other relationships and responsibilities with academic demands. The majority of re-entry women manage a household and care for a family while pursuing a university career. Priorities often need to be reshuffled when adult women return to the university, and time management techniques become crucial in negotiating compromises with husbands, children, friends and relatives. Within the university, adult women students can find useful information on selecting classes, university publications, faculty advice, student responses, scheduling classes, registration, study habits, career counseling, financial aid, discrimination, and relationships with students and faculty. The text is sprinkled with sections titled NU NOTES, which offer practical details specific to the Northwestern University campus. A brief final section on "Making the System Work For You" counsels adult women students to seek help and advice from professors and younger students rather than feeling isolated because of their age. A short bibliography is included. (DC)