Written by Shan Tian
Graduate school is very different from undergrads. It is even harder if you just leave all your close friends and relatives to another country. When you are new to a place, and unfamiliar environment, how to build up a network for you is crucial to your new life. In graduate school, life is not just running in between classrooms and dorms. It is easy to get isolated if you want, but there are ways to meet people and be friends with them. This post will list the preparations that you may need and ways to get to know new people!
Making new friends: Get prepared!
Keep an open mind.
Again, graduate school is different than undergrads, especially when you go to another country for grad school. People you meet in grad school can come from a totally different background and life stage. They have all kinds of life experience. Just open your mind, and you will find more value by making friends with all sorts of people.
There are more general tips for graduate students making new friends if you want to check it out.
Take your chance.
It is easy for waiting to be invited to hang out with others, why don’t you just ask them out? The same idea for adding someone’s contact information from a party. Try to invite them to get a coffee and get to know them!
Interest is the easiest way to bring in people together. Nothing is better than having friends to do the things that you like or be friends with people who want to do the same things. Join a club in UCI for sports, dancing or esports! Anteater Recreation Center (ARC) offered a lot of exciting classes. There are cooking classes, sports, outdoor activities! You can easily find courses that you want to try here.
Wondering where to find socials and events?
There are events held by organizations for you to know new people! International Center always have international coffee hours during quarters. They organize road trips to other places sometimes. Associate Graduate Student holds social events every quarter. There are game nights, Karaoke, parties (like Halloween party), etc. Just pick the one that you are interested in and join!
Volunteering!
How great is hanging out with friends while doing volunteering works at the same time? It is definitely an excellent way to know new people. It is a good way to know people different from your field or department too. The school will organize some events like helping pack food every Martin Luther King Jr. day. Keep eyes on the events that the UCI Volunteer Program sent or other programs that you are interested in. There are sustainable programs or professional programs that offer opportunities, as well.
Conferences and groups
Attending meetings that are not specified in your field are a very effective way to build up your network and meet new people! There are a lot of conferences that do not focus on academia but mix a lot of disciplines, you can learn a lot from other peoples’ fields and deliver your own knowledge. Some organizations encourage people to talk about their own research area too.
Activities of your community
If you live in on-campus housing, there are exciting activities from time to time. Sometimes Palo Verde will hold taste -of- home where you can get involved in making a traditional meal from other counties and get to know new people! There are movie nights and picnics too. Verano Place has all sorts of community engagement activities as well. Check out the newsletter from your community can pick those you are interested in! It is an excellent opportunity to know your neighborhoods!
Apps:
There are apps for matching people with similar interests, you might want to check that out. But keep in mind that if you’re going to make it work, hang out with them.
Keep in mind that close friendship needs time to cultivate and maintain. Do not feel upset if you could not have close friends when you just arrive here. It usually takes people near a year to build a close network. Just keep trying to find people who would be interested in hanging out.