It seems like no matter where and when you go to school and how old you are or how advanced your degree, somehow the students are all the same. There’s always an over-sharer, a confrontationist, and a know-it-all. You know the type.
The other day my younger sister stopped by for a mid-afternoon chat on her way home from school. She is an occupational therapy student getting her master’s degree. As I was asking about her program, we couldn’t help but laugh as we reminisced about the quirks of my former and her current classmates. So, we developed a list of the personalities you can expect to find in your nurse practitioner or physician assistant program. Which one are you?
1. The Over-Sharer
There’s a student in every class who gives a few too many details about their private life. The opportunity for inappropriate over-sharing is particularly ripe when you’re a student in a healthcare related profession. For this student, the temptation to divulge the details of their every ailment is just too much to bear. Oh yeah, and, they have a story about everything. Keep the tales about your aunt’s mother’s friend’s private parts to yourself, thank you very much.
2. The Corrector
This is the student who knows more than the professor…in every class. They are constantly raising their hand to separate fact from fiction wasting precious time. Their corrections typically regard the minutiae of the material at hand rendering them completely unhelpful
3. The Over-Studier
You’ve got to have a life while you’re in school, right? Not the over-studier. These students spend a little too much time at the library. And, without fail, a few minutes before a test begins they inevitably spout out irrelevant details about the material making you feel inadequately prepared for the exam when it’s already too late.
4. The One Who Asks Questions to Sound Smarter
Along the same vein at ‘The Corrector’, each class contains a student who raises a hand periodically (and by periodically I mean more than once a class period) to ask a question. This question is not meant to be answered but rather to display the student’s superior intellect. Insert big word here.
5. The Suck Up
Complimenting your professor may be called for on occasion, but these instances are rare- unless you’re the class suck up. There’s always one brown noser in each class who let’s the teacher know just how amazing they are to the point of making other classmates just plain nauseated.
6. The Sit in the Back and Facebook
While the most annoying classroom participants tend to be those who make themselves known a little too often, there are also the under participators. These students sit in the last row of the lecture hall pouring over the latest Insta photos and updating their Facebook status. Periodically they begin talking to their neighbor about the latest social media happenings to let everyone else know they are too cool for school.
7. The Confrontationist
There’s probably someone in your nurse practitioner or physician assistant program who should have selected a career as an attorney. They argue about the answer to every test and quiz question, more for the purpose of being right than to rack up a few extra percentage points. Give it up already.
8. The Transfer
The Transfer randomly shows up in class after the holidays having moved from a different program. They continue to maintain a low profile throughout the year and no one really ever knows who they are or where they came from.
9. The Online Student
You’re exempt. You don’t have to deal with anyone but yourself.
10. The Old One
Most grad school programs are chock-full of students in their 20’s and maybe even early 30’s. But, every class seems to have their token 50 year-old-plus student. Not that this is a bad thing, just know that if this is you, you’re defined by your age.
11. The Parent
You know those people who can’t stop talking about their kids? That’s ‘The Parent’. If you’re ‘The Parent’, your classmates, of course, think your kids are cute (sort-of), but they can only oooh and aaah at pics of them on the potty so many times…in one day.
12. The Stress Ball
Some nurse practitioner and physician assistant students get super wound up. They live a stressed-out existence at all times. If their homework assignment were to watch an episode of Law and Order while eating a bowl of chocolate ice cream, they would, somehow, find a way for said assignment to cause them an inordinate amount of worry.
13. The Procrastinator
Most of us claim to be procrastinators, but what I’m talking about here is those people who really procrastinate. My roommate and classmate during my NP program used to start writing 15 page papers about 4 hours before they were due. That’s true procrastination.
14. The Tardy
You know that student who’s always late…everyday…for a 10am class…when the sun is shining and there’s no traffic.
15. The Sickly One
It seems there’s a student in every class who’s sick all the time. Whether it be a cough, a cold, or a surgery on an unnamed part of the anatomy, each class has a sickie. Let it be noted, however, that the symptoms of these ailments are never visible or identifiable externally in any way, shape, or form.
16. The One No One Wants for the Group Project
Getting picked last doesn’t end in elementary school. There’s always a student (or two) who is unwelcome when it comes to group project participation. Whether it’s the fact that the student always wants to call a group meeting rather than correspond over email (shout out to efficiency!), is a control freak, or simply just isn’t that smart, there’s always someone picked last when it comes to choosing group project teams.
17. The Romantics
Grad school is a great time to meet a sig-o, except it can be awkward when the enamored pair shares each and every one of your classes. While holding hands under the table may be technically allowed in grad school it’s so not cool. If you’re dating a classmate, everyone is talking about you. I promise.
18. The Well Adjusted
That’s you, of course…or so you think.
What other student stereotypes have you witnessed in your classes?
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