Nontraditional graduate student socializing
>> Saturday, May 9, 2009
One of the realities of graduate school - whether one is a nontraditional student or not - is that there are a lot of opportunities for socializing.
Part of the challenge I face, especially with living so far away from school, is figuring out which events I should get off my butt and go to and which ones I can miss. Me, I am not so very social ...so I usually don't want to go ...even moreso now that I am on a diet and can't eat most of the free food anyway. The only reason I do end up going, most times, is because hubby insists I make the effort.
So yesterday, we went to the graduate students reception.... it was nice enough; free food, and several other students from my program so there were people to talk to... but we could have easily gotten away without attending; just not that many profs, and no one that I recognized from the program I'm going into, either.
But whatever... I showed up, we had a good time, and we came home. Am seriously irked that I forgot to take my library books back though ...and also forgot a pile of exams I meant to take to be stored in the English department office. Had them in my hand, but that must have been before hubby nagged me to go find less baggy pants to put on.
I also am not so social.
I was social during the first two years, but only with a very small group of fellow 'mature' students. All of us had children and all lived at least 45 mins drive from the uni on several different directions. It was good & supportive to meet every so often for drinks or a theatre trip. However, once they all left & I carried on part-time that stopped. I did not socialise at all until this year, and then only with one or two mature students. Part of the nature of the experiance of a part-time or mature student is the rush into and out of Uni each day or week. Factoring in different module times, work or family commitments means that only about two days a year coincide when we can all make the same evening or lunch date. This has been a problem for me and one I intend to address on my next (post-grad) course. My children are older (in high school) and I intend to make more of an effort to 'socialise' with my fellow students. This will not be easy as I will have a two hour drive each way but I am sure it can be done. Social networking sites like Facebook come into their own in situations like these, I am already on Facebook and hope on this new course it will be used more enthusiastically than the one I have just finished. An online forum was set up, but was mainly used to complain about the lack of parking!
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Good practise for when you are a Prof!
So did you pick up your marks and how were they?
We always had a pot luck dinner for our new graduate students each year. I think that was a good social event for them to attend as they got to meet their fellow students and all the profs. Other than that, nothing formal that I would have advised them to attend.
Kindly delete the first comment. There are some corrections. Thanks.
That could be stressful. Re-computing grades is never fun. One would rather check papers than re-compute. I'm glad you were able do it. Paper work is the reason why some people don't want to teach. Lecturing is cool, but when one sits down and attend to the paperwork, then....it becomes a tedious process. lol...
I am glad that I clicked on your card. You remind me of me. I am also non-traditional. Have a good commute to school and will forget anything. I miss out on the social scene too, lazy I guess. I will be stopping by often.
Thanks