Little fish in an enormous pond

juillet
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:34:47 +0000

1. Most schools have some kind of activities fair in the first weeks of school, where you can learn about clubs and organizations that you can be a part of. Go to the fair and learn about them, then maybe pick 1-3 that you feel like might be a good fit. Those will organize smaller groups of students that you can meet in a less overwhelming atmosphere who also share interests with you.

2. Go to professors’ office hours. In a 200-300-person introductory lecture class, I would be willing to bet money that fewer than 20% of students actually visit professors during their office hours - and most of the remaining 20% visit just when they are struggling with homework or before a big exam. Visit the professors for other reasons, too - to ask questions about the material, to engage in discussion about it. The same goes for teaching assistants, if you have them in your classes - visit their office hours. They’re often sources of valuable information about research opportunities and graduate school/careers, if you ask them.

3. Classes that are offered at unpopular times (generally before 10 in the morning or after around 4-5 pm in the evening) are often smaller than classes at popular times (especially classes in the 10 am to 2 pm range).

4. If your big lecture hall classes don’t already have recitation sessions, think about organizing one. You can approach the graduate TA for help in doing that. Gauge some interest from your classmates. A small enough recitation session just becomes a study group, but that’s fine, too.