Meeting people outside of your program....

[headindownsouthyall]

I will be attending William & Mary in the Fall. As only 1 of 8 in my program, I am wondering how difficult is it to meet people outside of your program? Any suggestion on how to do this? I haven't really been able to find an all grad student organization to get involved in...

[LittleDarlings]

Ohhh good question I need to know this also:)))

[rising_star]

It's as easy or hard as you want it to be. There are loads of suggestions here about ways to meet people: meetup groups, taking a class or attending events that you're interested in, joining an activity club in the town/city, groups for young professionals, etc. I'm not sure why you're limiting yourself to all grad student things though...

[RunnerGrad]

It's as easy or hard as you want it to be. There are loads of suggestions here about ways to meet people: meetup groups, taking a class or attending events that you're interested in, joining an activity club in the town/city, groups for young professionals, etc. I'm not sure why you're limiting yourself to all grad student things though...

 

Agreed!  Join a club or organization that interests you.  Take non-academic classes that interest you (i.e. dance, fitness, martial arts, painting, photography, etc. - whatever you enjoy).  If your university has a grad student lounge, you can hang out there to meet people as well.

[bsharpe269]

The above comments are great. I am working on my masters now and have not met people outside of the department at all. Of course, you will not be limited to only those 8 people since you will also get to know people in other cohorts as well as undergrads in your department. I have become good friends with people in both years of their masters, undergrad seniors who are taking advanced courses, and phd students in all years.

 

I have not made much of an effort to do things outside of the department though (and I dont have time to at all!).

[fuzzylogician]

Isn't William and Mary predominantly an undergraduate institution?  I don't think it makes sense here to only limit yourself to graduate students from your institution. You got some good suggestions about meeting people outside of your school, and if you search the forums you'll find more extensive threads with lots of detailed advice on this.

[pears]

I started branching out by living with a group of complete strangers (at least when I moved in). I didn't know a single person here when I moved, but only one of my housemates is also a student, & he's an undergrad in a different department. So, my housemates themselves have become my friends, but since they're all involved in different social circles, mostly through their work & past housemates, it's been a nice way to not let grad school totally eat up every aspect of my life. That said, my program/department is huge, so I never socially claustrophobic. I don't go out much anyway, but I almost prefer meeting up with my classmates; we can empathize about academic frustrations, talk through paper & thesis things, whine about tuition, & so on. It's basically a support group that has an early bedtime & a taste for local brews.

[Torque]

I joined meetup.com groups in the area that I am moving to.  In my town already, I use it to meet people with similar interests like hiking, running, board games, salsa dancing, or photography.  There are so many interest groups out there and it's a great way to meet new people.