<p>Ok, so I have people I can eat with when necessary. BUT, come lunchtime, they are in classes while i have my break, so I'm alone. I don't know that many people yet, so I probably will not just "bump into" someone to eat with. My question is, is it weird to eat alone at the cafeteria? Will people be open to letting me eat with them?</p>
<p>look for a friendly face, preferrably someone else sitting alone or a pair of people and just go up to them and introduce yourself. it sounds ridiculous but i've done it and met some cool people in the process.</p>
<p>if you really do want to sit alone, take a book/newspaper of sorts and just read that while you eat, if you don't want to look "weird". but definitely approach people, that's how you'll make your friends.</p>
<p>I ate alone over half the time, when I was eating in the cafeteria. Honestly sometimes you just want to go and grab some things to eat and be done with it, and not sit there for 45 minutes like you'd do if you went with a bunch of people. I never really got some people's obession with 'oh but I have no one to eat with, what will I do?' If anyone thought I was weird or stared at me, I didn't really notice. People probably would think you're weird if you just go and plop yourself down at a table full of strangers, though. Better to make a connection with someone before you actually sit down, unless you are semi-acquainted with the people you're going to sit with.</p>
<p>Many of the people sitting alone in the cafeteria are doing so because out of fear to take that "first step" in talking to someone. Just find someone who looks interesting to you and ask if you can join him or her. If they say no (they probably won't say that), just sit somewhere else.</p>
<p>College is a time to meet new people and the dining hall is a perfect place for that!</p>
<p>especially during the first few weeks. all freshman are out to make friends. take advantage of that.</p>
<p>It's fine to eat alone, but there are also many students who eat alone because they have no one else with whom to eat. Ask to sit with them. I've met nothing but nice people from this. They're practically waiting for someone to join them.</p>
<p>Watch out for the ones who really just want to be left alone though; they are usually reading a book.</p>
<p>yeah if your freshmen and having all meals alone.. find people.</p>
<p>if your rushing from class to class? get over yourself. its fine to eat alone. nobody cares that you're eating alone. dont inconvience urself just to look cool.</p>
<p>Most definitely. Eating alone does not look "weird" at college at all. People do it all the time.</p>
<p>yeah. in high school maybe its a different story. but nobody gives a crap in college. half the people i saw around campus were by themselfs anyways. people have their own agenda with thier own buisness, and others know that. no one is gonna gawk or stare at you for eating alone. tons of ppl do it. its not high school anymore.</p>
<p>On my college visits I've seen tons of people sitting alone, and I don't think it's always because they just don't have anyone else to sit with. College cafeterias look more like a big fast food restaurant or Starbuck's, where it just looks normal to be reading a book and eating something quick. Lots of times people are working on their laptops or doing homework. So I wouldn't say people would think you were weird for eating alone.</p>
<p>BUT if a person doesn't look occupied, why not start up a conversation, esp. if it's in the first few weeks?</p>
<p>Even in HS when I'm sitting alone in the hallways after school doing work, strangers will stop to ask what I'm reading and try to start up a conversation. It's really annoying b/c I'm trying to work, but at the same time I appreciate the effort so always look kindly on them for it ;).</p>
<p>I never like to eat alone. I always look for someone I know, or just an aquaintance if a friend is not around. When I'm really desperate, I think about something school related and go up to someone I met who would know something about it..and I'll talk about that.
But sometimes I'm too lazy so I jsut eat alone and stare at people.</p>
<p>If you're going to the cafeteria after a class, ask someone you were chatting with "Hey, want to go get some food?" Or else, the book idea is good. Eatting alone isn't the worst thing. If you did it every meal, every day, that might be a problem.</p>
<p>I don't think you can assume that people would be open to you sitting with them if they are also alone. It might just be the uni I went to but I and others I know have asked and been told no, go away. I ate alone a lot in uni and while I wouldn't have told someone no I probably would not have been very thrilled to have to talk to someone when I preferred to read a book or study.</p>
<p>Since noone knows who you are in college, there is no pressure to look cool all the time. For some colleges, it's not unusual to see people who aren't even students eating and walking around on campus. If you're eating alone because you're a loner rather than because of schedule differences, then it's a problem. I wouldn't want to look desperate or weird by forcing myself onto a table and talking about the weather just for the sake of not being a lone for a few minutes. Maybe if they're acquaintances you know from class or somewhere else, but I've never actually witnessed total strangers asking to sit down since middle school.</p>
<p>Eating in college is nothing like high school... In high school, it would be unusual for someone to eat by himself/herself, simply because you have lunch at the same time every day with the same people. In college, everyone's schedule varies, and you may be eating lunch at a different time everyday. It's hard to get out of the "can't eat alone" mindset we had in high school, but it's really not an unusual thing. Like others said, bring some books and schoolwork with you.</p>
<p>Dinner I almost always eat with friends, I'll go out of my way to make sure that happenes. However a lot of the time lunch is on my own, just because nobody is able to eat at the same time.</p>
<p>Aren't the freshmen pretty much the only folks that eat in groups all the time? Same thing for walking around campus.</p>
<p>I dunno, but it seems to me that freshmen travel/eat/etc. in packs while everyone else is just doing their own thing...or with only one other person.</p>
<p>katho11-Yup, that's how you spot the freshman at my school. All the upperclassmen mostly live off campus and just go to campus for class. If they have breaks they are studying in the library, or go to the student union to eat lunch maybe--a lot talk on the phone, read a book, or maybe meet up with one other person to do that. But, they don't travel in packs!</p>
<p>I eat by myself all the time because i like just grabbing something and getting out of there... and just to relax. Most of my friends schedules never match (it took us 3-4 days before we could have lunch together bcuz we had really different schedules... and i ate lunch at 2 o' clock at that. bleh)</p>
<p>I eat dinner with my friends sometimes because they don't wanna go alone but i don't really care if i go alone... so i usually just get up and leave to eat some food. <em>specially on weekends</em></p>
<p>There are awhole bunch of people eating by themselves all the time and I always take a book/ newspaper with me to lunch/ dinner.</p>
<p>It was different in high school. I mean even when i went out to eat, i always hung around with my friends and went out with them. In college... everybody's schedules are different so we are all like whatever.</p>
<p>personally I don't care either way - generally I eat when I want to and if I see someone I know who is also alone I'll join them</p>
<p>i've been told i can be odd though</p>