Social Life in Divinity School?

[ThomasJefferson1776]

Hello all! First time user, long time lurker  I was just curious of the experiences of others during their time in divinity school. Quick bio about me: 21 years old, graduated a year early from undergrad (large public school, also a top 10 party school) this past spring and will be attending divinity school in the fall (HYPC). In general I am nervous/interested in social life of divinity schools. While I love school and work very hard, I also enjoyed going to parties and bars on the weekends with friends during undergrad. I was curious if this occurs in divinity school, or if I should look for other avenues (outside of the department) to do these sorts of activities. I know there are normally department functions throughout the year, but due to the overall diversity of divinity school I am worried about the number of people that are in similar situations to me (straight out of undergrad and not looking to go into ministry). Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated, and have a wonderful evening!

[marXian]

As you allude to in your post, the big difference is that as an undergrad, the age range of the vast majority of the people you're around is limited to 18-22 with very few exceptions. In div school/seminary and really grad school in general, that changes. You're going to meet some people who are your age and some who are 5, 10, 15+ years older than you. But that doesn't mean that you won't be able to establish friendships with those people. If you share common academic interests, you'll have something to talk about. In general, many people are amenable to drinking socially. I wouldn't worry about whether you'll find people in exactly your situation. Some of my favorite people from my first two MA programs were a bit older than me. I hung out a few times with a dude in his 60s when I was in seminary. You just meet people through coursework, study groups, group projects, etc.

But regardless of age, most people are also in a different mindset in grad school. The work is more challenging, some students have aspirations of PhD work, etc. so the interest in drinking is, in my experience, rarely about "partying" in the undergrad sense (though maybe sometimes....) Doesn't mean you can't find those people at a large div school, but that isn't the culture of any grad program generally.