Northwestern graduate students may spend anywhere between five and 80 hours per week on NU’s Evanston campus, depending on their program and year of study.

For those who are not required to be a teaching assistant or take classes in a given quarter, their cohort within their graduate program greatly affects their connection to NU. Despite physical distance from the Evanston campus, graduate students express purple pride in a variety of ways.

First-year marriage and family therapy graduate student Racquel Fhima estimated she spends less than eight hours per week on the Evanston campus. Like many others, she spends time in class or in university facilities like the Henry Crown Sports Pavilion. She said she studies either at her apartment or at coffee shops in the Evanston area rather than on campus.

“I definitely felt more connected to my undergrad school,” Fhima said.“While there are a lot of graduate students, the community portion isn’t as emphasized for graduate students because it’s more focused on your professional development.”

Isabel Behrman, a second-year Ph.D. candidate in materials engineering, played varsity tennis at Ball State University. She found community with ease as an undergraduate student athlete, but said it was limited to her team.

Behrman said being a graduate student has afforded her the opportunity to engage with a larger set of people in both her academics and extracurriculars. She plays on the club tennis team and is a member of two other professional development organizations.

“As a graduate you have to actively search for (community),” Berhman said. “It’s not automatically available to you.”

While sports are often a way for students and alumni to connect to their institution, this culture is not as prominent at NU, fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in mathematics Noah Wisdom said.

Wisdom said he only keeps up with NU sports when his grandmother informs him of how the basketball team is doing, but his purple pride does not depend on the University’s win-loss record. Wisdom cited his math department merchandise as his favorite way to show his school spirit and routinely sports NU shirts at the conferences he attends.

Similar to his colleagues in various other graduate programs, he spends most of his time with other graduate students and said he has found a community with them on campus.

“The grad students here are very friendly and sociable and do lots of stuff with each other,” Wisdom said.

He recently joined NU’s Swing Dance Syndicate, a dance group specifically formed to foster a stronger community for graduate students.

Sixth-year Kellogg student José Salas said while he spends time with his colleagues and classmates, his school spirit is nonexistent: he does not own any NU merch — not even a mug.

He attributes his purple pride to the prestige of the University in his field and the opportunities afforded to its students.

Although students reported inconsistent levels of community at the University, each said they are happy with their decision to attend NU because of the educational opportunities the University provides.

“I’m super thankful for the University and the support and everything … Go Wildcats,” Salas said.

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated that Racquel Fhima’s is a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology. Fhima is a graduate student in marriage and family therapy. The Daily regrets this error.

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