<p>I know there is a lot more work and intensity when going to grad school, but do you get the same social feeling as being an undergrad? Do you feel like you are part of that college and campus, or are you basically just a grown-up attending a special program within the college with little free time? This would be a factor if I wanted to choose a school whose atmosphere I liked and wanted to be there.</p>
<p>i know that a friend of mine at georgetown med school has no connection to the culture of the undergrad campus…</p>
<p>i’m guessing it depends on what kind of school you go to…are we talking big state sports schools?</p>
<p>I don’t really feel a connection with the school I attend, just with my research group, especially now that I’m not taking classes and I’m exclusively doing research in my lab. Grad school feels more like a job to me than it feels like school, albeit a ridiculously time-consuming job.</p>
<p>I felt a connection with my incoming class (MS at a state school), and the department took measures to create a community among us.
You may be isolated in one department, a lab, your office and some classrooms most of the time, but you will get to know 10-15 people really well (depending on where you go/how big the class & dept. is) but if you’re considering going to a school where sports are a big draw, it would be almost impossible NOT to be a part of that energy and excitment.
But you will probably just feel older and not involved with the mass undergrad experience. If you make good friends with a professor or two, they will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about the “politics” of the school and department.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is how I’ve felt during my post-bac. The university that I attended for my post-bac has an extremely different culture from that of the one that I attended for undergrad, and so the campus and the undergrads still feel alien to me. I’ve tried to get involved in the community by helping to run the Women in Computer Science group (which is mixed grad/undergrad). It doesn’t help that I’m a part-timer, so I’m not immersed in campus, and also that post-bac programs don’t really have cohorts.</p>
<p>For my (still part-time) MS, I’m going to a school that is a little more culturally similar to my undergrad university, and I’m hoping that that will help. I got a nice vibe wandering around the campus. And I’ll have more of a cohort, since it’s a bigger program and a real degree program. I don’t need my life to revolve around campus, but I’d at least like to feel like a part of things. Not everyone cares about this, but to me, it matters.</p>
<p>When I was an undergrad, the grads ranged from being totally part of campus life to being completely oblivious to it.</p>
<p>I wanted to go to a campus that does have a good atmosphere, such as a big sports school, so I wanted to know if you feel like a part of the campus as a grad student at a big campus, and if not then I would reconsider where to go for grad school.</p>
<p>This is going to be dramatically different depending on where you are. Grad students at universities that sequester their health science campuses away from the rest of the school, do not have as vibrant of communities. Choosing a graduate school with the health science campus integrated into the rest of the university was very important for me.</p>
<p>I guess a lot depends on what school you go to. I know that here at Notre Dame, the University puts much effort into making graduate students feel included in campus culture. I’m not sure the same is true for the big state schools.</p>
<p>Hm. I do feel a connection to my school - I go to Columbia, and I’m proud to go to Columbia, and most of the other students I know are also proud of Columbia. We have several inter-school grad student events per year. I feel like an in-betweener – not quite an adult yet but certainly not an undergraduate. (But I am only 22 and I just graduated last year.)</p>
<p>I feel more connected to the graduate students and the professors than the undergrads, which is of course the way it’s supposed to be. I speak with professors as colleagues and acquaintances (and yes, they will tell you more about politics than you ever wanted to know).</p>
<p>I also really wanted to go to a big school with a big sports culture like Michigan or Penn State, but ultimately I came to Columbia because of the prestige and the perfect perfect fit.</p>
<p>As belevitt said, our health sciences campus is sequestered away in “scenic” (lol) Washington Heights, where I live, whereas the main campus is in beautiful Morningside Heights (and where the other Ph.D students live). However, I’m in a joint program (psychology/sociomedical sciences) so I spend a lot of time on both campuses. This semester I was downtown more than I was in Washington Heights.</p>
<p>Even though there are more grad students than undergrads here at Caltech, the undergrads definitely set the campus culture. There’s the really strong house system which unifies them, and a ton of undergrad traditions which pretty much just confuse grad students.</p>
<p>There are events which integrate grads and undergrads, but it still feels like there’s a general disconnect between the two groups. The only undergrads I’ve really felt were comfortable around grad students were those working in my lab.</p>
<p>I go to a big public (Texas) and frankly, I feel a strong connection to the university as a whole. Socially, not much has changed: I live in an area near campus almost exclusively populated by students and walk to class everyday, I often study in the library, eat lunch and sometimes dinner on campus, walk to the bars (work permitting) on the weekends, etc. Of course, I spend a lot more time in the lab than I did as an undergrad, but I hardly consider myself “isolated” from campus or the social scene. I will say that there is some divide between undergrads and grad students here, but with 13,000+ grad students it’s been easy to meet friendly people. Some students don’t feel the way I do–certainly, your experience partially hinges on your own desire to meet people and develop a social life at your new university.</p>
<p>My undergrad was a tiny LAC in Northeast. It had D-1 sports.</p>
<p>My grad is huge. So I indeed felt disconnected from the campus as a whole. I try to make friends with whoever comes across my path. I don’t many undergrad friends- I knew them through family. Otherwise, I stuck with my department and graduate student groups.</p>
<p>I felt as if I was still going to school, but it’s much more tailored to what I really want to get out of my university education- more seminars, more research, more faculty connections. A lot less of drinking, a lot less of student organization commitments, a lot less of Greek life- all the elements that made up my undergrad experience. </p>
<p>Grad school is about specializing in doing what YOU want to do. It’s all about you and nobody else. I don’t mean it in a self-centered way but it’s actually up to you to blaze your own trail with your education to pursue your goals in order to get the jobs that you want.</p>