First-year students are easily spotted, tramping down Rugby Road on weekend nights with their entire dorm.
Second and third-year students clog the libraries and infiltrate the leadership of CIOs, determined to be involved in as much as possible before their time at the University is up.
Fourth-year students are found socializing on the Lawn and can be picked out in other locations by the sad gleam in their eyes, realizing they only have one more semester left at the University.
But what about graduate students in the College? Sure, every student has interacted with them as teaching assistants, but undergraduates often forget their TAs are also taking classes and pulling all-nighters.
The University has 10 graduate schools and close to 6,400 graduate students. Although these students attend the same University as undergraduates, study in the same libraries and interact with the same professors, still, some of these graduate students feel they are not connected to the same community.
First off, graduate students are at a different time in their lives than undergraduates.
"When you're 22, 23, 24, you learn so much about yourself," said Christine van den Toorn, a graduate Arts & Sciences student. "I feel like I relate to undergraduates really well, but there's a barrier because of my experience after graduation, so I have a different perspective."
Graduate Arts & Sciences student Daren Ray said the biggest difference between graduates and undergraduates is the career-oriented nature of graduate students.
"As an undergraduate, you're kind of exploring and seeing what interests you," Ray said. "Now I know what I want to do, and I'm going for it."
Graduate Arts & Sciences student Jesse Rhodes emphasized the differences between graduate students and undergraduates are not as great as some would think.
"Overall, I don't think the differences are gigantic," Rhodes said. "One of the only things I could think of is most graduate students ... are in academics for academics sake. That distinguishes graduate students from undergraduates, who are more pragmatic."
Additionally, the typical workload for a graduate student is different and, in some cases much harder, than an undergraduates'.
"I have to spend more time doing reading," van den Toorn said. "You're taking different things out of the reading because it's a much more concentrated topic. This is what I'm interested in, so I want to spend more time on it."
Rhodes noted the demands of a graduate student are different from those of an undergraduate.
"The main difference between undergraduate and graduate school -- this is what makes grad school hard -- in grad school you're ultimately expected to generate new knowledge," Rhodes said. "You not only have to understand what you've read, but you have to identify something new, something that hasn't been studied."
This amount of work is one reason why graduate students can potentially feel isolated from the undergraduate community.
"I feel like it's innate to a grad student," van den Toorn said. "You're either doing your own work and the extra time you have you spend it with people you meet in the program ... Grad students are just there to do their work."
Rhodes said, though graduate students do have social lives, their free time is spent differently than free time of an undergraduate.
"There's a less intense social life" for graduate students, Rhodes said. "On the whole, it's fair to say we're fairly nerdy. We spend a lot of time with our noses in books or trying to write stuff."
Because van den Toorn lives on the Downtown Mall, she said she often studies there, only coming to Grounds for her classes and lectures.
"Really, I don't feel an allegiance or affiliation with" the University, van den Toorn said. "People say, 'Oh, you go to U.Va.!' And I say, 'Yeah, but I'm just a grad student.' I study here and I take classes here, but my work I do on my own ... I don't have a U.Va. sticker on my car."
Ray, who said he found a sense of community in Charlottesville through his church, said he is not necessarily looking to share the same community with undergraduates.
"I don't live on campus -- there's a big difference," Ray said. "I had to ask someone what a 'Hoo was ... I'm not out there trying to look for a community. It's different for me [now] than an undergraduate coming into college."
Yet contrary popular belief, graduate students are not stuck in a tiny bubble only with their theses and dissertations.
"Most grad students identify most closely with other grad students," Rhodes said. "I think many graduate students see themselves as part of a graduate student community, particularly in their own department."
Rhodes said he met many of his closest friends in his first years of graduate school.
"One of my groomsmen in my wedding was one of my buddies from grad school," Rhodes said. "One of the things about grad school is there are very like-minded people in the department. They're interested in the same kinds of things, so it's pretty easy to make friends."
Ray also noted that, while graduate school may isolate students from the general community, it is a valuable resource in meeting new people.
"At the same time, [graduate school] puts me in contact with people I wouldn't meet otherwise," Ray said. "You have to really develop your own ideas in grad school, so it pushes you to reach out and meet people that can help you understand what you're studying."
There are some programs that link graduate students to undergraduates. Both Rhodes and Ray said they played on intramural teams, which are open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Becoming a TA also provides a connection to the undergraduate community.
"Overall, TA-ing I've enjoyed, because it does allow you to interact with undergraduates, which is always fun," Rhodes said.
Van den Toorn said her experience as a TA also made her feel closer to undergraduates.
As a TA, graduates have "more interactions with undergraduates," van den Toorn said. "It makes me feel more connected to the student body in my classes. I've enjoyed TA-ing. It's made me like U.Va. more."
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