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[a_salika]

Hello everyone,

I am new here and am very happy I found these forums, I hope they prove to be useful. Anyway, I am in the first semester of my MA in a private (and expensive) American university in the Middle East. The university primarily comprises undergrads, there are about eight grad students in my department.
Anyway, I still feel like I am an undergrad, the dept. doesn't treat us like grad students and there is absolutely no support. There are no lectures, meetings, parties, or even a simple department get-together. We don't even have a lounge or anywhere to hang out! The professors seem overworked from their undergrad courses and don't seem to have a lot of time to speak with grad students. There are a lot of interesting courses listed in the catalogue, but in terms of what is actually offered, there's almost nothing that falls under my specialization and I ended up taking random courses that won't help me much.
I feel as if the university doesn't care about my dept. (I'm in humanities, all of the nice facilities are in the science, business, etc. depts) and neither do the professors.
What can a humble grad student do in this situation?
thanks very much

[psychle]

Just out of curiosity, what made you decide to go to this university in the first place? (i.e., What were the attractive features?)

[thisismyanon]

What kind of orientation did you receive?  Is it possible that there are services about which you don't know?  If not, funds for such may be limited, and some of the first cut, probably under the assumption that grad. students are adults & should be able to "fend for themselves." 

[zharkov]

Many grad programs got founded on the cheap, at least in my view. The marginal cost of offering an MA is pretty low if you already offer a BA in the field.  You already have the faculty, and just need to add some courses and thesis advising.  Ditto for some PhD programs.  "Since we already offer MA's, then PhD's are just another step....."

I went to an OK-ish grad school, but let's say we didn't have tea and cookies every afternoon like they show in the movies.  I think there was a yearly reception for grad students, but that was about it.

[a_salika]

Thanks for everyone's reply. I chose the university because my speciality is Middle Eastern studies, can there be a better place to study this subject than in the Middle East?
It seems like funding for my dept. is very low. The professor I work for, for example, has a 10-year-old computer and printer. I guess I will just have to fend for myself and hurry up and graduate to get to a university with a good PhD program.