Graduate students balance school work with social activities

To help him unwind from the stresses of school work and a job search, Kelley School of Business MBA student Matt Berman heads to the outdoors.

Hiking, rock climbing and kayaking help to take his mind off of school and relieve stress. The problem he often has, however, is finding time to get away.

Berman, like most graduate students, discovered that graduate coursework can be more challenging and time-consuming than what he experienced as an undergraduate.

Add networking and job searching to the mix, and social activities move down the priority list.

“When you’re a freshman in college, the last thing you are thinking about is ‘Where will I be in four years?’” Berman said. “You’re just happy to be away from your parents. Whereas, when you start graduate school, they’re asking you on the first day: ‘Where are you going to be this summer?’”

Charles Frederick, director of the Student Academic Center, said he believes that finding time to break from studies to recreate and socialize is important for good academic performance and good physical health.

“Students can find themselves in the situation of academic burnout if all they do is work, if their focus is 100 percent on academics,” Frederick said. “Academic performance is absolutely important. But, everyone in their life needs to have a balance of activities to feel healthy and satisfied in a variety of arenas. Students need to be able to relax.”  

Keeping schoolwork in perspective has helped Molly Lyons, an MBA student, take advantage of many different social opportunities. She said upon returning to school, she decided she wanted to savor the experience of being a student again, since life will only get busier once she graduates.

“I’m here primarily to get a job, but I’m also here to make friends and have fun, and I want those experiences as well,” Lyons said. “I don’t have any other responsibilities besides personal and professional development, and that’s not going to be the case ever again.”

Many graduate students find that with increased school work and responsibility, social activities become less spontaneous. Additionally, the increased costs in time and money of being a graduate student tends to incent students to make the social time that they do have as effective as possible.

Shildes McCaslin, a student in the accelerated Master of Public Affairs in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, said he sees moving from an undergraduate to a graduate level of study much like taking a job.

“I feel like there is more of a time commitment with school now,” McCaslin said. “You take more responsibility, whereas with undergrad you might be more willing to blow off studying to go out. My education is my first priority, before finding time for social life. I look at it like a job. I work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., then take the rest of the night off.”

To make that time more effective, graduate students often eschew many of Bloomington’s more raucous venues and focus on places that allow them to talk in intimate groups and make connections with classmates.

Ultimately, the goal of socializing for graduate students is to allow them to unwind from schoolwork and to build relationships that will last. For some, this means hitting the bars; for others, just spending time in the outdoors.

Kelly Roses, an MBA student, looks for places where she can talk intimately.

“I look for places where I can actually have a conversation with people,” Roses said. “Going to a place like Sports on a Friday or Saturday night is fun if I want to dance, but I’m most likely not going to meet anyone there. I would much rather go to a place like Grazie and have wine and hang out with my friends and just socialize. I’m not looking for the hottest place in town to hang out.”