Making Friends in College
Happy Thursday! I hope you are having a wonderful week!
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: my college years have been some of the best years of my life. I strongly believe a lot of my good experiences have been thanks to the amazing friends I’ve made here.
With all the changes being made to the campus experience this year, making friends will be just as (if not more) important, but it may be a little more challenging. I want to encourage all of you to go out there and make friends, no matter how awkward it is. They’re worth it. 😉
Summer
Get to know your roommate. If your college is still assigning roommates, reach out and get to know them. My freshman year roommate and I had so much in common, we became instant friends. And even though she transferred to a different college after our first year, we’re still great friends two years later. And it all started the summer before we got to campus!
Browse the roommate finder. Okay, not to sound stalker-ish, but you can learn a lot about people from their roommate profiles! I reached out to a girl wondering if she’d be interested in being my roommate, and even though she said she’d already gone random, she proposed being rock-climbing buddies! We’re now great friends and actually became roommates sophomore year!
Take advantage of social media. Chances are, your class has its own Instagram, Facebook, GroupMe, Snapchat, and/or Discord. Join them! You likely won’t make friends with everyone, but you might be able to recognize some names and faces in person, and you can find people with similar interests.
Keep in touch with your orientation group. Orientation is literally designed to help you make friends and meet as many classmates as possible! Definitely find some people you vibe with during orientation, but also be willing to engage with lots of different people.
Fall
Time to meet people you’ve only talked to virtually. The best way to do this is to meet up for meals.
Talk to your classmates. Introduce yourself to the people around you. Meaningless small-talk to break the ice is totally acceptable and not as awkward as you think, I promise. And study groups can turn into fun ice cream runs or watching everyone’s favorite YouTube videos!
Join clubs. In my opinion, clubs and extracurriculars are some of the best ways to stay sane in college. You’ll find people with similar interests and you’ll be encouraged to continue pursuing your hobbies, passions, or beliefs.
Make friends with your friends’ friends. Networking, but fun! Half of my friends were only friends of friends a year and a half ago.
Do “things” together. Frankly, your schedule only gets busier as you go through college (more time consuming classes, leadership positions, jobs/research/internships, etc.), so make time freshman year to do regular fun things with your new pals. My friends and I had weekly movie nights (spring 2018 we watched a Marvel superhero movie every Friday to lead up to Infinity War), weekly Bible studies, semi-regular game nights featuring Secret Hitler (a very cerebral, very fun game I am terrible at), and occasional midnight IHOP adventures. These nights are very fond memories for us and when we were able to spend some good time together.
Maybe some socially distant activities you could do with your new pals would be picnics, sand volleyball, and Jackbox games!
What are you looking forward to and what are you worried about for the fall? Let us know in the comments!
Wishing you a fun and safe holiday weekend!
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Written by Holly Lakin on Jul 01, 2020