<p>I've heard that grad students have almost no impact on undergrad life ie. they're not involved in clubs, they don't go to parties, and you don't really see them unless you're in a graduate level class with them, or in some circumstances when you're doing research together. Is this for the most part accurate?</p>
<p>Why would it matter either way?</p>
<p>Disagree.
If you are involved with something like the college’s jazz dept., a club sport, drama, salsa groups then you’ll meet people of all ages.
Grad students at freshmen ice breakers or dorm parties is creepy.
Remember they can legally party with alcoholic beverages and may want to hang with other grad students rather than 17 year old noobs…</p>
<p>You are basically right.</p>
<p>Pretty much.</p>
<p>Graduate students are older, and tend to have, well, outgrown the era of crazy drinking parties. Not to say we won’t hit a bar on Friday night, but you won’t find (most of) us with red Solo cups on the street at 2 a.m. Many of us are settled down with stable relationships or even marriages/families.</p>
<p>Graduate students are almost exclusively attached to a single department, and their relationships revolve around fellow students and faculty within their department. Research, teaching and other work duties take up a significant amount of time. As far as club sports or club activities… grad students generally don’t have the time for that kind of stuff.</p>
<p>Being a graduate student isn’t just “two more years of college.” It’s, in many ways, a totally different experience.</p>
<p>
It’s sad if that’s true at your university. At mine, recreational sports actually attract more graduate students than undergrads.</p>
<p>There were a couple grad students at drama auditions, but yeah generally you won’t see them as much.</p>
<p>Most universities have less graduates than undergrads in the first place. And they almost always live off campus and have busy schedules, internships/teaching assignments, and possibly a job as well.</p>
<p>No impact? That’s questionable when you consider that at many schools they’re used as instructors, and are responsible for a lot of the research that goes on at universities.</p>
<p>I’ve had them as TA’s as well as lab and recitation instructors. That’s really as far as they have impacted me. Haven’t seen any in on campus activities I participate in.</p>
<p>I’ve worked with them in labs, taken their help when they worked as TAs, studied under them when they worked as professors, and dated one. They’ve impacted my undergrad life.</p>
<p>^ Dated your TA eh?</p>
<p>I see them at the gym… and in some of my classes… as TAs. That’s about it. They think they’re too cool to hang out with us!</p>
<p>Um, no, we don’t think we’re “too cool.” We just have different priorities and interests.</p>
<p>A grad student socializing with an undergrad is like us partying with high schoolers. Think about it.</p>
<p>I ran a student organization for two years and it was about half grad students. Kind of surprisingly, everybody meshed in pretty well given the other half were mostly freshmen. I was one of only two or three undergrad upperclassmen. It probably just depends on your school and what kind of a circle you run with. Most of my friends have always been older than me.</p>