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New year- new oppurtunity for making friends

  • Thread starter Thread starter DG
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DG

DG

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I have decided the only way you make life-long college friends is by living in the dorms or on campus housing in general, or by joining clubs/orgs maybe.

I plan on joining the Program Council at my college which puts on all the fun events at the school. The only other program that does events that are somewhat similiar is the RHA and since my school is over 85% commuters we have way bigger scale events for the commuters than the residents. We have a formal winter ball, tons of comedians, etc etc. Hopefully I make some cool friends.

Im also joining the PRSSA..which is the daughter org. of the Public Relations Society of America. I hope to meet other likeminded people my age, and network too.

I would love to join volleyball team sinceI played in high school but I am not as good as I used to be. I think sports is a good place to meet friends too. I would LOVE to join the ski/snowboard club but my fiance thinks I am spreading myself thin as it is which is true.

Do you plan on joining clubs/orgs/sports? How do you make friends otherwise? Do you think if you arent 'involved' on campus you arent getting as full of an experience. I truly wish I had lives in the dorms at one point just to gain the life experience.
 
I only lived on campus one semester, but even then I didn't find my friends on campus, and after moving off campus never made a good friend from school. All of my friends came from my workplace (retail jobs) or through people that I met through going out and other friends.

I think it's great to be involved on campus, but it just isn't something everyone can fit into their schedule. I missed out on a lot of activities in undergrad b/c they tended to happen during the week while I was working (evenings), but I did get to hang out with my friends and do my own thing on the weekend. I do find myself making up for the missed time now with everything that's offered to me at my current school.
 
I've never had any trouble just meeting people in class. Some never move past the acquaintance stage, but there's a few I would consider lifelong friends.

It certainly depends on how your classes and course is structured, though. My first degree only admitted about 30 people per year, and everyone did their classes together and got to know each other really well. Going back a few years later to study something else, I found myself in classes of 300-500 people where you can go the whole semester without seeing the same person twice. It makes it an awful lot harder.

I'm kind of the reverse of fizzygirl....I initially got really involved in the social life on campus, but now I work almost full-time and just don't have the chance. It's never bothered me because my social life is pretty full as it is, but I'm sure for many people university can be a pretty lonely and isolating experience.

People at my university can be a bit stuck up and precious too, which doesn't help. I heard a girl studying there call up a radio station a few weeks ago and tell the announcer she had no friends there and was really lonely. They started getting people to call in to talk to her. It was all in good fun, but sad at the same time. :\

Although most of my good friends have been uni friends, the vast majority of the other people I hang out with I've met through work. Having a job is a great way to meet people, particularly if it's a big workplace that tends to employ students.
 
Well I can explain why I feel the need to make more 'college' friends...I used to party a lot. I had a lot of friends and was never home on any given night. I ended up partying too much, my grades went down, I stopped going to school for a semester and a half and slowly I realized I should stop partying every weekend. Little by little I dropped out of my social circle, I no longer "party" all the time and because of that I lost most of my friends.

I am starting at a new college right now and I want to make friends. I am in a Communications/PR/Graphic Design area and most classes are capped off at 15-18 people. I just started this week so maybe I will meet friends within class...Im very outgoing and smiley. In the case it doesnt I hope the clubs will work in that way :D Jeez this sounds like a journal entry.
 
With classes that small, I bet you'll have no problem meeting people.

I would imagine that in a communications/PR course there'll be plenty of people wanting to make new contacts and network too.....although hopefully its not too competitive. I've been in classes where everyone tries to undermine everyone else, and it's not a lot of fun.

Having partied too much has its advantages, because you'll have a good eye for other ex-burnt out students. I've found the people I get along with best are usually those that have taken a bit of time off to sort themselves out, then come back really motivated to do well, but also up for a good time now and then.:D
 
My only really close friends are the guys I went to highschool with. I have a hard time making new friends because I'm weary of most people until I spend enough time with them to really sort them out.

Being that I'm 24 and a second degree student most of my friends are done with University and I'm a good 3 or 4 years older than everyone in my classes. This can make it a little difficult to relate to most of them as I feel I'm in a different headspace or point at a different point in my life.

I've never lived in residence, it's about a 15 minute drive from my house to the campus. I find I make friends the easiest when I'm forced into some kind of group. I need to be pushed otherwise I tend to just do my own thing with the people I already know. I'm also picky about who I'm friends with, I like to hang out with like minded people and I haven't found that many people that I really click with, which has it's drawbacks in the dating world as well. My largest classes are a few hundred and my smallest is a bout 40 so it's easy to get lost in the anonymity of a campus of thousands and thousands of students.

I'm a reformed "partier" as well, while I throw myself into my work I still like to party pretty hard, I just pick my moments. life is all about finding the balance.
 
I've sorta been in your boat for a while now dream. I go to a commuter school too and all of my friends I hang out with party a bit harder than I'd like to at this point in time, so I end up not having the amount of friends that I'm used to having. I'm going to graduate next fall if everything goes according to plan, so after this semester I'm planning on moving closer to school.

There are other reason's I want to move, but a lot of it has to do with wanting to meet new people. I'm sure you will now that you have smaller classes and are joining clubs and things. Good job on actually making an effort to meet people. A ton of people just whine and complain without ever trying to do anything about it. :)
 
wizekrak said:
I'm a reformed "partier" as well, while I throw myself into my work I still like to party pretty hard, I just pick my moments. life is all about finding the balance.
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Oh so true :)

Update: I have gone to the PRSSA and I got elected by vote to be the Secretary...thats the position i spoke for anyways. If I like it and do well then next year (senior yr) I will go for VP maybe! This will look really good on my resume :D

I am making new accquanitances and they may turn into new friends. So far everyone is nice and I like it a lot. I do feel awkward in the dining commons at lunch seeing as I dont eat the same time some people I have met do but thats ok...thats what my ipod is for lol.
 
Do you plan on joining clubs/orgs/sports? How do you make friends otherwise? Do you think if you arent 'involved' on campus you arent getting as full of an experience.
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The dorms are a good way to meet people, but there is no guarantee as to who you'll meet - it could be a bunch of jerkoffs on your floor, or you could meet some lifelong friends.

I don't really involve myself with on-campus activities because I'm never on campus - except for when I'm in class. I'm just too busy with studying and/or hanging out with other friends/family.

I don't think you need to really dive in to on-campus activities and live in the dorms to have a good college experience. I think my college experience was very nice...and it consisted mostly of sitting in the library or the lobby of the science building doing chemistry problems and memorizing bones or muscles with study-group partners.

For me, working on my science homework with other people in my labs has been a good way to meet people. Other than that, I don't really meet a lot of people on campus.

I consider college to be a place to learn things....and I don't think there is anything inherently "special" about the college social scene.

I played in a band with 2 other guys who do not attend my college....and some of my best friends are people I knew from high-school. I would say...don't feel pressured to immerse yourself in the "college lifestyle." Just chill out and make sure you get A's :)
 
Yea this is my first year in college and I'm having a lot of fun because of all the people you meet in the dorms and in clubs. I've met a ton of people through playing lacrosse and I'm glad I have a sport.
 
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