UT is my top choice school right now. I live in Houston, so several people I know will also being going there. But for the most part, I will be on my own. For someone who is pretty shy, this is terrifying. I’ve been considering rushing, but I really don’t feel like I am suited for a sorority environment. How easy is it to get involved? What opportunities are there? Any experiences from someone who is also shy?
Some things about me:
Your RA should have some mixers, so living in the dorm is a way to meet people.
Join a religious group related to your denomination. There are all kinds of choices. That will give you an organized base of people to meet.
There are some non rush coed social groups. I don’t know more about them, but will find out. I have known some kids who joined those to meet people.
Your major likely has a student group.
There are also club fairs you can go to and see what else exists. I walked through one a few years ago and was amazed. Sports, music, ethnic groups, religious groups, special interest groups, you name it, UT has it.
During the year, groups will be on Speedway promoting their causes, so you can find a new group or interest mid year as well. Groups that stayed in my mind: people running the Longhorn 10K and people riding bikes to Alaska.
You will have to take that initial step of putting yourself out there, but once you do, you will find something to do and someone to do it with.
I’m not outgoing but I had minimal trouble making friends. I did struggle to make friends in my classes but I found it a lot easier to make friends in student orgs, particularly student orgs that require communication/cooperation between members for the org to operate. I cannot speak on rushing. I can say that you can find a list of registered student orgs here: https://utexas.collegiatelink.net/Organizations
There’s multiple advertising organizations as well as Christian orgs. There’s probably around 1,000 student orgs so you would be able to do pretty much anything and there’s much more that you may like. There’s nothing tough about joining an org. For most orgs you just show up to a meeting and usually the first meeting they will tell you how to get on the email list and how to get in their database. Even if you miss the first meeting, you can still show up and talk to an officer before/after the meeting to get set up. Some orgs have dues that they want you to pay for being in the org (most are free). A few of the orgs have requirements, for example, one org I know of is a dance org and performs at events around campus and they have try-outs.
I was very shy in high school, too, but I had no problems making friends at UT. One day, a girl followed out of calculus class all the way back to the dorm, because she thought she had seen me in the dining room (she was correct). We became fast friends. I talked to another girl in my dorm the second day I was there, and the two of us ended up rooming together our second through fourth years in college. There is just such a wide variety of people - it makes it easier to find your “tribe.” When I went back for a high school reunion, I found I had much more confidence and was not intimidated by the ex-cheerleaders, football players, and bullies! A couple of the bullies even came up to me and told me how much they had admired me in high school. So it is possible to come out of your shell!
A few questions back at you @nberry1996: Are you auto admit (top 7%)? Have you been accepted already? Have you sent in your housing deposit? (Important if your heart is set on San Jac.) And how did you settle on Advertising as a major? (initially I thought “that is an interesting choice for a self-proclaimed shy person.” I would think that the advertising field requires a good bit of selling and lots of public speaking in presentations in front of groups." Anyway, my questions are relevant to some suggestions, but I need more information.