If you are an incoming freshman planning on attending UNH from anywhere other than New England do not go. In high school I was very popular had lots of friends played sports and got excellent grades. However after arriving at UNH, it was not so easy. Unless you are planning on being a pervert in a fraternity for 4 years or you are on a sports team, don’t expect to make a single good friend. All the kids were mass holes who just wanted to hang out with their local friends and were very mean about it. Not a good place considering the academics are average at best.
I am sorry to hear about your experience. My son is planning on attending this Fall. He will be in the engineering program. He is not playing sports. We visited twice and thought the campus had a good positive vibe. Is it the kids in your program, or dorm that are difficult? Very concerned and would appreciate any further feed back you care to share.
So sorry. Opposite story: My daughter came from San Diego knowing no one. She has loved it from the moment she got there. She did a pre-orientation (PAWS) which I recommend to meet people right away, and she loved it. She got the dorm she wanted, Handler Hall, which is all science and engineering kids, and loves it. Loves her room mates and hall mates and couldn’t be happier. She does not go to frat parties or party at all, but there is always something to do- she goes to acapella concerts, on-campus shows, on-campus movies, hockey games, etc. She always says she can’t believe how friendly people are there, and I have found the same to be true while visiting. Kids on the grass playing frisbee will just ask random kids walking by- want to play? Kids hold the doors open for each other, and she has easily made study groups with kids in her classes. Advisors go out of their way to be helpful, and her profs are great. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience for her and she feels really lucky to have made so many amazing friends.
Im sorry to hear about your experience. My first year I was put into a dorm hall where about 90% of people were freshman and it was a small dorm hall so everybody wanted to meet everybody in the dorm. We were all friends for about 2 weeks , we even had hall dinners every night but then everybody found their own groups and decided to stay in those groups. I was able to find a group of great people to this day and we are still friends. I do get what you are saying in that fact of people staying in certain groups. I have seen people hang out with a kid one year and then shadow him/her out the next because they didnt think he/she was cool enough to be apart of their group. Alot of kids want to drink ( like every other college ) so if you are one of the few of your group who doesnt drink you will probably get ditched during friday and saturday nights because your friends want to hang out with people who do drink.UNH is a great school and if you find the right people you will have a great time. It is a school where people stay within one group so I understand where you are coming from. I was lucky enough to find a great group of friends. Assuming that you are still at UNH I hope you could find some great people and your opinion may change. Some frats have had trouble but in the last few years after the cops raided a frat house and tore down the house last year frats have been more safe. Like tolstoy2 says the people here are usually friendly enough to make friends during study sessions or walking through T-Hall lawn or the fishbowl to invite you to play football or frisbee and there is always something to do even if you dont drink. They had free movies last year, hockey/football games , concerts , plays , gameroom , etc. I feel like when it comes to weekend nights some people want to hang out with certain people(drinkers) and during every other time they like hanging out with anybody they find cool. Me and my friend group would leave the dorm door open just so that the people walking by could stop and say hi. I hope you can have a better experience in your time left at this amazing school.