Joining Student Organizations

[SPSY2014]

I will soon be moving to a beautiful, mountainous area of the United States this August to begin graduate school, and I thought it might be fun to join an outing club, since I'd be more likely to go on adventures with others than merely by myself. Knowing that student organizations are generally dominated by undergraduates, would it be strange for me to try and join the club? I am only 24, so that isn't a tremendous age gap, but if the club is solely composed of undergraduate students, I'm not sure how odd it would be to add a grad student into the mix. Thoughts?

[VulpesZerda]

You might be surprised! My school is small and our grad student population is very small, with only a couple of programs even available. Yet, several clubs have grad student participation (some more than others, of course). Even if you were the only one, it shouldn't stop you from taking advantage! I'd bet the undergrads in the outdoor club are pretty cool

[Rolling Circles]

I've had grad students join clubs that I was in charge of. It's not strange at all really. 

[bakalamba]

Not strange at all. I went on a three day national park trip with an undergrad group. It works if grad students step down from their high horse before joining.

[WriteAndKnit]

Do it! There may already be a decent range of ages in the undergrad group, and a 24-year-old undergrad might be happy to have someone closer to their age. Especially since so many military veterans are getting bachelor's degrees after they finish enlistments (and there's a HUGE age range there). Just find that middle ground between not acting superior and not trying to be BFFs with the 19-year-olds, and you'll be good. 

[SPSY2014]

Thank you all for the feedback! I don't have any negative feelings toward undergrads, so hopefully I'll mesh well those in the club.

[Secret_Ninja]

Our school has many graduate student only clubs that are not focused on academia