School and I never got a long well, in the more formal sense, however.....
My perseverance in Archaeology dwarfed what undergrads were attempting and given, I couldn't help but to hope to keep a conversation going unless I attempted to take it over, only in hopes I can get to some kind of (theory?) (my nature to do so, conditioned) end point, or more likely question I am (was) working on, well...they would get lost in my twisting, which made complete sense in hind sight, along with my back thoughts trying to get them caught up to speed...it just didn't work well till I started teaching them, but not formally (that is actually wrong later, part of my job at the end was teaching the new comers what the real world of contract arch was and not the school version, but by then I was a supervisor). I never got real comfortable until I had worked my way into the pro field, at least trying to keep the conversations going well, but by then, the kids had been weened out and those that really had an interest were in place and had their own fields of expertise. Degrees didn't matter as much, if at all, by then. Good thing, I never got one, but I should have written it up.
Not sure this will help, but I tried to explain it. I also met my second wife, of twenty years doing this. We're separated now, but it was a very successful and for the most part, happy relationship. She was pretty damn good at it (Archaeo-whore = we do it for the money ) too, but don't tell her I said that.