I will be a freshman at a large state school this fall, and my birthday comes only a few weeks into the school year. I will have a few high school friends when I get there, but none of them will be living in my dorm. Luckily my birthday falls on a Saturday this year so I will probably just celebrate with my family who lives a couple hours away from the school, and I don’t plan on partying hard in college anyway. But I’m curious to know how you handled birthdays in college!
One of my friends took me to a restaurant on campus for my birthday and I did the same for his birthday.
I have a summer birthday so I celebrate it with my family. This summer I’ll be celebrating my 19th birthday on a family trip to Italy.
The library 
I had a huge exam the next day.
My birthday was in the summer as well, but I was on campus doing research at the time. My friends took me out to the Blue Talon restaurant, which gave you free food on your birthday, so naturally I ordered steak and shared some with friends. I usually don’t make a big deal out of my birthday, so the celebration was a really pleasant surprise. We went out, explored the city, had cake, and watched a movie afterwards.
Other friends that have celebrated during the school year, they have done something similar. Some RAs got cupcakes or other treats for birthdays. But yeah, make a couple of good friends, and I am sure they will be more than happy to celebrate your birthday with you. It’s surprising how close you can get with people in less than a year
my friend had her birthday the day before, so that night we baked cookies for both our birthdays & the day of my birthday was a snow day and we just sat around & played guitar.
By underaged drinking.
My birthday will be 1 day before move-in day at the college I’m going to.
My birthday was the day before we went back for spring semester. Next year it will be the very day I move back in. So in short: I didn’t really. We had an early family dinner before I left. Nobody at school knew or cared.
I suspect birthdays in college get celebrated in all the same ways as other times in your life, and it can run the gamut from not at all to any kind of lavish celebration that you can imagine. Most probably do spend time with friends, a meal or cake, a small gift or two, and maybe a drink if you are a drinker.
My freshmen year I just drove home and had dinner with my family. I’ve never really done much for my birthday, so this was pretty typical for me. Next year my birthday is on Easter so I probably won’t do anything at all since we’ll be doing Easter stuff.
My friends and I got drunk and ordered a large cheesy bread. My birthday wasn’t until April, though, so I was sufficiently bonded with my friends by then.
I pretty much just don’t celebrate my birthday. It’s just another day to me.
@comfortablycurt If I didn’t celebrate my birthday in some fashion, I’d most likely forget that I was a year older and tell people the wrong age, lol.
Well it was finals week, so my friends and I took a study break, sat on the floor with a box of cupcakes my mom sent me, and watched Friends. Nothing special, but none of us had time to go do anything.
My parents live close to my college, so they took me out to dinner. It also happened to be parent’s weekend, so there were some activities on campus I did with them. My roommate decorated our door and left a balloon and cupcakes in our room.
my birthday was the first month of freshman year too. My parents had a big cake delivered to me (I forget if it was coordinated through the student services at the school or just a local bakery). Anyway, I told an RA to email our entire dorm that I was going to have this huge cake and give out slices in front of the dorm on my birthday. Invited my high school friends who were at Brown with me and some other people I already knew from classes and such. One of my friends cites it as the day we met and brings it up occasionally. One of my high school friends who went to Brown also brings it up regularly. Whenever it gets brought up, others frequently chime in that they remember it too.
This birthday will be 10 years ago this coming fall.
My best friend came to college with me so me, my roommate and her and her roommates had a little party with a giant cookie and a candle. And then I took 16 shots throughout the day, and was belligerently drunk ( also had my first hangover the next day), that was Friday night, Saturday I went into town and got my ear pierced and on Sunday my parents came and we got lunch. Seems like I’m the only non-/CC like kid here lol
Celebrations like @Jazzii’s are the most common, OP. CC doesn’t really give a representative sample
To all high schoolers reading this, in college almost everyone takes 16 shots throughout the day of their 19th birthday. If you’re not already training for this day you’ll probably be ostracized by your peers.
Keep in mind this applies to both people with weekday and weekend birthdays. Your professors will understand coming into class “belligerently drunk” if you just tell them it’s your birthday.