<p>I know that undergraduate study in the USA is a great experience: you live with your classmates, your whole life is about your college, etc.</p>
<p>But what is it like when you are a graduate student?</p>
<p>I would like to find this out because I might go to undergraduate study in a different country where it is a bit different to be an undergraduate. However, I am thinking of going to graduate school in the USA and I wonder if that experience would be any similar to the undergraduate years which I would miss.</p>
<p>Grad students do not usually live in dorms like UGs, they generally live off campus. However, the are often on campus Intl. dorms with many grad students and ‘married student’ housing which is more like small houses or apartments.</p>
<p>The grad school experience can be as much like the undergrad experience as you want to make it. Many institutions have graduate housing, and/or hire grad students as Resident Advisors for undergrad housing. Some fraternities and sororities admit graduate students as members (and there are some that are only for grad students, or hire them as house parents. You will get student rates for the football/basketball/name-your-sport-here events. Depending on your specific program, there may be a sizable number of undergrads in some of your courses. Not to mention that most grad students end up working as Teaching Assistants for undergrad classes. Even living off campus, you should be able to pay for a meal plan and eat on campus if you wish.</p>
<p>My best grad school friends were my grad-dorm roommates and neighbors. I even ended up married (22+ years now) to one of them. I recommend living in graduate housing if it is available because you will meet people from other departments in the university and from all over the world. If you live off campus, it is easy to end up only knowing people from your own department and your home country.</p>
<p>That is great! I had always thought that graduate years are more like “students living in their own apartments and occassionally popping into a lecture, which is by the way at a unviersity they don’t really feel connected to”…or something like that:D
But what you said sounds pretty good, thank you for your replies!:))</p>