thegradstudent

A piece of advice to grad students who (1) are not used to large school populations or (2) have been out of school for a few years: get to know a few likable undergrads on a personal basis as soon as possible. Otherwise you may just come to hate their entire species. I know this sounds harsh. After all, we were all undergraduates once. But trust me, you’ll start to see only the highly visible undergrads – the ones who cackle loudly in the library, obnoxiously infest the bars, wear indecent and illogical fashion, and make statements so dumb that overhearing them might just cause your brain to melt – and you’ll generalize and start to seethe constantly. I was lucky enough to get to know a number of fantastic undergrads last year through sports and tutoring. Now I feel guilty that I would have lumped these friends together into the amorphous and generally distasteful undergraduate stereotype. It’s very easy to do though, especially for the grads who may have been stuck with a difficult class during their first try at teaching. I see a lot of undergrad hating in the intro courses. My friendships with undergrads also let me see the other side when they complain about their bitchy TAs. It’s all been very helpful, especially since I went to a small, liberal arts college, so the undergrad/grad dynamic was all new to me. I might still judge their footwear choices (really? Uggs or painful stilettos but nothing in between?) but I’m pretty sure that with a little effort we can cohabitate in peace.

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