<p>Particularly at schools where general admission as an undergrad isn't very competitive, but getting into a strong grad program at the school is almost insurmountably challenging? </p>
<p>Speaking in terms of grad students who aren't TAs for courses. </p>
<p>There is a friend who wants to hang out at festivities oriented toward freshman before/during the first week of classes but I think he would stick out like a sore thumb, horrible strategy.</p>
<p>Of course he’s going to stick out- all grad students have to have “GRAD STUDENT” tattooed on their foreheads on the first day of school (just like undergrads do).</p>
<p>Or, in case you’re in the real world, nobody cares because nobody can tell. Most of the grad students I know personally are fresh out of their undergraduate careers and therefore look the same as the seniors. I don’t know of anyone who who would be weirded out by dating someone going for a graduate/professional degree.</p>
<p>(Although personally, I think it’s creepy to hang around events geared towards other people in the hopes of getting laid. Of course, that could just be me)</p>
<p>Well, you’re both adults (assuming you’re 18), so there’s nothing wrong with that. But you mentioned “hooking up” in the title and “hanging out” in the post. There’s a big difference between the two…</p>
<p>^Not necessarily. Depends on where you’re from. Because I say I want to hook up with friends all of the time… and that just means meet up with them for coffee or something. And I know some people who use “hang out” to mean “hook up”. So it’s all up to the individual.</p>
<p>Anyways. I don’t think it’s creepy at all, but my parents are 21 years apart… so, I’m not the best person to ask.</p>
<p>I agree with Rolando, when I first read “hook up” I thought like getting to 2nd base and on…like I think many other college students will think.</p>
<p>However, it actually does seem like you are talking about “hanging out.” It is kind of weird because I can tell when someone looks like a freshman, so you will stick out to upperclassmen a lot but a freshman probably won’t notice and probably won’t care very much since it will be their first or second week.</p>
<p>I say just do it…what’s the worst that can happen? If you get judged by a couple freshman, you probably won’t even them again so it doesn’t even matter. Have fun, get free stuff!</p>
<p>I don’t see a problem with it. They’d both be adults so they can make decisions on their own.</p>
<p>Get the free stuff and get out of there as soon possible.</p>
<p>Nobody at my school cares about relationships like those. There’s too many people for anyone to care. We all do our own weird things.</p>
<p>Grad student here. You’ll be seen as the creeper grad student. Not gonna lie.</p>
<p>I am willing to concede that issues surrounding first-year graduate student relations with upperclassmen, especially if the graduate student is only a few months removed from graduation, is a grey area. But with incoming freshmen? This is a terrible, terrible idea for many reasons. It sends a terrible message to the professors in your friend’s department; these professors are evaluating the new graduate students not only based on academic ability but also on dimensions of maturity. They want to see evidence that their new students understand that graduate school is not simply an extension of the undergraduate experience. Associating with the incoming freshmen would, in the eyes of most faculty, signal a fatal lack of understanding of the graduate school enterprise. </p>
<p>If your friend is concerned about orientation issues or getting to know the campus, there will be events offered through either the department or the university itself that will help graduate students get oriented. </p>
<p>I can’t even imagine what a graduate student in a selective program would even begin to talk about with an incoming freshman anyway. I graduated college early and, despite the fact that the upperclassmen were my age peers, I had absolutely no desire to interact with the undergraduates. Their lives simply revolved around drastically different things than mine did.</p>
<p>It depends on the grad student. Some fresh grad students are only 21-22 themselves, and most freshman are 18-19 years old so there’s only a 2-4 year age gap. But other grad students can be in their late 20s and early 30s - older even - and that’s weird and kind of creepy.</p>
<p>Also, it’s just generally creepy to lurk around the undergraduates’ orientation events for the purpose of trying to pick one up, regardless of age.</p>
<p>I have to agree with SLACFac - I’m a grad student and even when I was 22 and fresh out of college, I had no interest in the undergrads. We were just at vastly different stages of our lives, worried about different things.</p>
<p>My friend is a 25 year old graduate student in a selective program, by hanging out and hooking up he means having sex with as many young undergrads as possible. </p>
<p>His reasons for doing this is because he missed out on the “college sex scene” as an undergrad and he thinks he has a better shot now that he has his own place and supposedly has “displays of higher value” compared to the undergrad male competition with his work experience and research. </p>
<p>I say he is going about this the wrong way, he spent some of his loan money to buy a rotating canopy bed with silk bedsheets and an inflatable hot tub with a bedroom sound system.</p>
<p>As if a horny grad student is going to not have sex with an attractive person just because they’re a few years younger…</p>
<p>Your friend sounds pathetic. You would think he would be more interested in women his own age . He must have a vast inferiority complex. Younger women won’t be any more impressed by him than women his own age . A desperate loser is a desperate loser.</p>
<p>A buddy of mine (was a 2nd year PhD at the time - 24 years old I think) was going out with a freshman (a traditional 18-year old one) at one point, for not very long. Some people kinda joked with him about it but I don’t think it was really that a big deal.</p>
<p>“I say he is going about this the wrong way, he spent some of his loan money to buy a rotating canopy bed with silk bedsheets and an inflatable hot tub with a bedroom sound system.”</p>
<p>I think your friend is in for a rude awakening. Just because he wants to have sex with a bunch of undergrads does not means they are going to fall for a guy with rotating bed…</p>
<p>Tell “your friend” that I’m sure the first woman that sees that ridiculous bedroom will burst out laughing…</p>
<p>I’ve got to ask is this a ■■■■■ thread?.. “rotating canopy bed with silk bed-sheets and an inflatable hot tub with a bedroom sound system.”
Otherwise this is just way to funny, I’m sorry but your friend really is pathetic. It would be easier for him to just bar hop and pick up girls. Unless he has a thing for younger girls, in which case he’s just way to desperate to actually succeed.
^I know everyone is thinking the same thing.</p>
<p>Dedalussayshi, I refrained from responding after the latest update because that update screamed “■■■■■ thread” to me (I should get demerits for taking the bait at all). On the off chance that this isn’t a ■■■■■ thread, all I can say is that I don’t know too many professors who would be interested in working with a student that displayed such a shocking lack of maturity.</p>