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Dec. 9th, 2005 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaThe latest edition of my college alumni magazine mentioned that one of last year's graduates is now in her first year of graduate school in clinical psychology at the University of Iowa. Reed is a small enough college - about 1,200 students - that having another Reedie follow my exact educational path seems like quite a coincidence.
The transition from Reed to Iowa was a terrible culture shock for me. At Reed people always used the line that it was "like a graduate school for undergraduates" - the curriculum included a qualifying exam in one's major and a required senior thesis involving original research; the classes were based on rigorous (if not to say vicious) discussion and deconstruction of primary texts, rather than textbooks; and students tended to take themselves very seriously as scholars and as adults who were solely responsible for their own private lives.
If Reed was like a graduate school for undergraduates, the psychology department at Iowa - at least for first-year clinical students - felt a lot more like an undergraduate college for graduate students. Our schedules were dictated to us, with no choice of courses. Our courses tended to be lecture-based and heavy on memorization; in the rare class that had a strong discussion component, students tended to address their comments to the professor rather than to each other. (That ethos was so strong that I once had a student stop me after class and ask me to stop responding to her comments. I wasn't being harsh, or anything, she just felt that I was putting myself above her by taking the professor's role of evaluating what students said.) At my first psych department party, someone tried to pressure me into drinking more beer than I wanted to. And I was the only person in the department who was openly not straight, as well as the only person with a disability. I was also one of only a very few people who were... outside of the very center of the midwestern American cultural mainstream. Things got much better as time went on, especially the classes - but let's just say that my adjustment was rough.
I don't know if this other Reedie is feeling any of the same things that I did. But just in case, I dropped her an e-mail telling her who I was, mentioning that I had struggled with the transition, and offering to be a friendly ear if she wants to talk to someone who's been there. I hope it's some help to her.
The transition from Reed to Iowa was a terrible culture shock for me. At Reed people always used the line that it was "like a graduate school for undergraduates" - the curriculum included a qualifying exam in one's major and a required senior thesis involving original research; the classes were based on rigorous (if not to say vicious) discussion and deconstruction of primary texts, rather than textbooks; and students tended to take themselves very seriously as scholars and as adults who were solely responsible for their own private lives.
If Reed was like a graduate school for undergraduates, the psychology department at Iowa - at least for first-year clinical students - felt a lot more like an undergraduate college for graduate students. Our schedules were dictated to us, with no choice of courses. Our courses tended to be lecture-based and heavy on memorization; in the rare class that had a strong discussion component, students tended to address their comments to the professor rather than to each other. (That ethos was so strong that I once had a student stop me after class and ask me to stop responding to her comments. I wasn't being harsh, or anything, she just felt that I was putting myself above her by taking the professor's role of evaluating what students said.) At my first psych department party, someone tried to pressure me into drinking more beer than I wanted to. And I was the only person in the department who was openly not straight, as well as the only person with a disability. I was also one of only a very few people who were... outside of the very center of the midwestern American cultural mainstream. Things got much better as time went on, especially the classes - but let's just say that my adjustment was rough.
I don't know if this other Reedie is feeling any of the same things that I did. But just in case, I dropped her an e-mail telling her who I was, mentioning that I had struggled with the transition, and offering to be a friendly ear if she wants to talk to someone who's been there. I hope it's some help to her.
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-09 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-09 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 02:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-09 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 02:20 am (UTC)this sounds like my first year at Harvard. it loosened up the 2nd year, and by the third it was totally different.
i also was the only out person at first. some more people later on, but NO women came out, which seemed odd to me. i mean, in a school of 750, shouldn't there be a *couple* of bisexuals and lesbians? the men were out though. i guess that being a gay man in the design world is just de rigeour or something.
n.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-10 11:18 pm (UTC)