But the group's intensive six-week program, at a fraternity house in Colorado, and its global, tight-knit student body may be.
Old friends shouted greetings and delivered tight hugs; students clustered in the stands, snapping photos with their cellphones.
When you are searching for vacancies in Clearing, time is tight and students have been known not to check out all the things they should have.
Because money is tight, graduate students often have to take on a range of responsibilities beyond bench research.
Add to that, foreign students who bring in billions but as a result of tighter rules for student visas are going elsewhere, according to Universities UK, and £2.4bn may be lost to the British economy over the next decade.
At the same time, it notes: "Recent research has suggested that the number of students graduating in the UK is likely to fall further following tighter restrictions on student numbers, with 15,000 fewer higher education places in September 2012 compared with the previous year and around 25,000 fewer places in English universities".
The biggest losers were education stocks, which tumbled on concerns federal regulators would impose tighter controls on student loans.
Less than six months after the British government announced tighter restrictions on student visas, at least one university has said it is being forced to close one of its campuses as a result of the new regulations.
If this is true, said Lee Kin Mun, a leading political blogger who calls himself Mr. Brown, the government should "take a leaf from school exams, where security seems to be tighter" and where students must be escorted to the bathroom.
While a small school model allows whole-school assemblies and lends itself to a tight-knit community, greater student numbers could mean more variety.
