<p>Do you take classes like in undergrad? Or is it more research oriented?</p>
<p>And do graduate students live in dorms? Or do they find private housing or apartments? Do they have classes in the same buildings as undergrads?</p>
<p>You take classes, generally in the same buildings and, depending on the program and course, often with advanced undergraduate students (get ready to do more work than they do, though!) You also pursue research, depending on one’s chosen course of study. Advanced graduate students do not take any classes - they’re usually fully focused on research and teaching.</p>
<p>Very few, bordering on no, graduate students choose to live in dorms. Some may live in campus apartments, but most live off-campus.</p>
<p>^I have to comment on one point… I don’t know about other places, but for my dept at MIT, like 99% of new grad students do live in grad dorms on campus… so it depends I suppose</p>
<p>MIT must be an extreme exception, likely due to housing costs in the Boston area.</p>
<p>I would much rather have a situation like what eaglesfan90 described. The housing situation at some other schools prevented me from trying to go there as an undergrad.</p>
<p>Just took a look at the MIT grad housing website and it looks like most of their graduate “dorms” are just multi-bedroom apartments. Most of them have some a kitchen as well as private baths.</p>
<p>Generally your first year or so will be loaded with classes, but beyond that you’re an employee of your lab doing research almost 100% of the time (some may be lost due to TA duties).</p>
<p>There is a wide variety of answers for this depending not only on the school, but on the field and program. For instance, my partner’s at MIT and I don’t think anyone in his program lives in student housing/dorms - everyone’s in an apartment or home off-campus. Same thing with my program, I’m not even sure they offer student housing, actually. </p>
<p>In my program, the medical campus is completely separate from the undergrad, so not only are we not in the same buildings, but we don’t take classes together. At my undergrad college, the campuses were connected and I did take lower level grad/upper level UG courses with grad students. My partner has also not had any undergrads in his classes, but they are on the same campus and share buildings. </p>
<p>My program has a heavy course-load the first semester, then a light load for the 2nd. After that, we’re 100% research and our quals are research/presentation based. My partner has an extremely light course load his first year, and they’re allowed to pick whatever classes they want while ours are completely out of our hands. </p>
<p>We both agree that we’ve spent our time about 50/50 this year on class related v. lab related work.</p>
<p>Living in dorms isn’t that unusual, especially for first year graduate students in expensive areas. That’s how it is here at UCLA. Of course, the graduate dorms are in a different area and somewhat nicer (suites/multi-bedroom apartments) when compared to the undergrad ones.</p>
<p>My experience is that first year international graduate students (and depending on your field, this might be most of the class) typically live in university dorms/apartments in any school due to the challenges of finding a private apartment while out of the country.</p>
<p>As others have said, it varies immensely by program. My own PhD program is probably at one extreme and requires around four years of coursework (30-36 courses) before taking exams and getting to the dissertation stage. Others have very minimal coursework requirements.</p>
<p>Do you take classes? Yes. Is it more research oriented? Yes. The classes are a mix of advanced undergrad/grad seminars and graduate only seminars. Usually in the mixed seminars you will do more work than the undergrads (maybe an extra assignment). One of my departments had no undergrads, but there were a LOT of graduate students (MPH and PhD students) so the classes were a mix of large lectures and small discussion based seminars. </p>
<p>After you finish 2-3 years of coursework (that’s the average - but as the post above me pointed out, some programs are coursework heavy and require more), you will take qualifying exams. The structure varies from program to program, but generally these take about a year to complete. Then you will write a dissertation. The dissertation can take as long as you make it take.</p>
<p>In a PhD program, classes are secondary. You will be expected to do research from Day One, and your research is your primary focus. This will be what gets you jobs.</p>
<p>At virtually every school I’ve looked at, the graduate housing IS apartments. But yes, it depends on the school. At my university, the students on the main campus (arts and sciences, education, social work, arts, law, urban planning) mostly live in graduate housing, which are mostly apartment-style housing within a few blocks of the campus. It’s not quite the same as dorms - there are no RAs, usually no lounges, etc. There are one or two options that are dormitory style here.</p>
<p>At the medical center campus (medicine, public health, dentistry, nursing), most students live off-campus because the housing is crap.</p>
<p>This question is so broad because master’s, professional and doctoral students experience different situations. In general, graduate and professional school prepares you for two things: career advancement and scholarly research (primarily doctoral level). The courses involve both theoretical and practical foundations. Doctoral programs is graduate training to become an independent researcher and professor. Internships and field practicums are often recommended–and even required–for degree completion. Some gradate programs require a dissertation/thesis, comprehensive exam, and/or completion of an assistantship. </p>
<p>Some universities provide on-campus housing for graduate students. In high cost-of-living locations (NYC, DC, Boston, etc.), many graduate students take advantage of on-campus housing to save money. In low cost-of-living locations, you can find affordable off-campus housing options, especially if there is reliable public transportation in the region.</p>
<p>Classes are often held in separate buildings (this is very true for professional programs such as social work, education and law). In the traditional disciplines, graduate students take separate (advanced) courses from undergraduate in the same department. </p>
<p>Overall, treat graduate school as a job because the focus is on professional development.</p>