I've spent 8 semesters at Rutgers. In fact, having started work in my lab in the summer of '05, and continuing it now, I've spent considerably more time at Rutgers than at Case Western Reserve.
So why is it that I still feel new at Rutgers? As if I'm a visiting student, or finishing my first year. By the third year in Cleveland, I was one of the "old guys" in the fraternity, by the fourth I was dying to escape. I feel less of a connection to the University and the town than many of my undergrad friends express, certainly less than I felt at CWRU.
Possible reasons:
- I was younger then. Youth made me impressionable, which malleability I have since outgrown.
- I am from Central Jersey. As a true outsider in the heavily-Ohioan population at CWRU, I needed to adopt the city to fit in. Having grown up near Rutgers, I have no desire to adopt it - on the contrary, I've always been more than happy to express my disdain for the Dirty Jerz.
- I'm a grad student now. Grad students aren't supposed to feel at home. A graduate student who feels too comfortable is less inclined to write his thesis. We're supposed to graduate, so that we may go forth and prosper. For seriously, I think it's in the orientation manual.
- Full-blown certifiable insanity
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I completely understand the feeling. I still feel as though I'm getting my feet wet in Baltimore, but this is the end of my 3rd year here. By this time I was completely indoctrinated and was happy to leave the fraternity/sorority house I had occupied for 3 years to move to the other end of campus. I was utterly comfortable and a part of Case, looking forward to a new experience somewhere else, although slightly unwilling to leave what was a very familiar place. I was going through orientation advisor training on Monday and a part of it explained trying to enroll "unaffiliated" new students in the First Year Experience classes whenever possible. Unaffiliated meant they weren't in honors or an athlete or had some other strong tie to the university as an incoming freshmen. They try to suck you in for undergraduate education, make you a part of the university. Graduate school wants none of that. Get in, write, get the heck out.
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