Tips For Making Friends In Grad School?

[spearmint]

I've just finished my first week of my MPH and I feel as though I'm having a very tough time meeting people. My classes are very large (about 200 people) but if feels as though everyone already knows each other and has friends. I have noticed that there are a few people who, like me, seem not to know anyone. My problem is that I simply don't know how to approach these people or how to meet people in my program? Is it worth signing up for student organizations and events? How did you meet your friends in grad school? Will it take longer than a week to meet people?

I'm a naturally shy person but I usually don't have trouble making friends. It's leaving me feeling uncomfortable and slightly out of place. I don't know if it is because I'm a couple of years older than most of the other students; most seem to be 22/23 and I'm 27. I also don't know if it is because I don't live on campus (although very few people do). I did not move cities for school, so I do have a lot of other friends to spend time with, etc. It'd just be nice to be able to have some friends at school. Any advice would be very welcome!

[Concordia]

When I did the MBA-equivalent, we were divided into orientation groups that stayed more or less intact for core classes.  They became de facto study groups, which was helpful especially in first term.  Perhaps you can put out feelers (on screen or verbally) that you want to start a similar thing, well before midterms come up.  You do learn a lot about people when you argue with them about reading and problem sets.    

The main thing is to structure it well enough that it is convenient and doesn't benefit free riders.  But as long as you're not actually handing in group projects, that shouldn't be so hard.

 

[klader]

Yes, start with study groups, and they'll probably naturally evolve into "hanging out" groups. This is a lot harder when you have such big classes, but start by maybe talking to the people sitting next to you. If you sit by the same people often enough, ask to exchange phone numbers for class, ask to study, etc. Hopefully this can happen smoothly and then progress to friendship.

I don't think it's necessarily an age thing... I'm one of the 22/23 year-old grad students and one of my closest friends here is 30 and we hang out with the other 22/23 year-olds and have a lot of fun. It probably has more to do with the size of the classes. It's definitely a lot easier to make friends in super small seminars, but that's not the only way.

Good luck!