Making new friends in college is a daunting task. There are so many people and things to get involved with. Sometimes you don’t even know where to start. Here is a guide to how to branch out and make friends.
Start with your roommate
You may not be able to become super mega best friends with your roommate, but you can at least become comfortable enough to call them your friend. Your roommate is often your first impression of the people at your new school, chances are they don’t know a ton of people at the school so you can hang out a bit and get to know each other.
Branch out to the plethora of people in your building
Your residence hall is a breeding ground for friends. Hang out in the lobby, leave your door open, cook in the kitchen, or join your residence hall intramural team. There are a ton of ways to find friends in your residence hall.
Talk to a classmate
Your classes are another great place to meet friends. Get together a study group, gush about how hot your Biology TA is, or complain about a tough assignment together. You are bound to find a great friend in a class.
Get involved
The next and last way to make friends I am going to discuss is getting involved. Whether that means joining a club or getting an on campus job you will find someone to bond with. Clubs are great because you already have one common interest, and you probably have a ton more. Jobs are also a great way to make friends because there is always a sense of camaraderie between co-workers.
One of the biggest things to remember when you go to college is that you may go for education, but the friendships and relationships you make in college is what binds you to your college. You can say that you don’t want to make friends or that you don’t need them but I promise you will be ten times less happy if you take that approach. Without my friends college wouldn’t be nearly as much fun and I couldn’t see myself truly enjoying college. Sure going to class is intellectually stimulating, but I need that downtime and I need those Cinemark movie dates and too much Mexican food to balance everything out. I need my friends to keep me sane in college.
