Top 10 Ways for Commuters to Make Friends

Student Lounge College Life
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For Commuters: .

  1. During Orientation, go to as many activities as you can. Talk to people and for those you like, ask them what activities they are going to tomorrow/or are they going to the ABC activity.

  2. Go to the Activities/Club Fair and sign up for a bunch of clubs that are of interest. They may not all pan out, but don’t eliminate anything yet. If you are into music/D&D/running/church/whatever, you can find other people who are interested too. Service clubs are great because you spend time working together.

  3. Join the Commuters Club. Go to the Commuter Lounge and talk to people.

  4. At lunch time, ask people in your next to lunch time class if they are grabbing some lunch.

  5. Adopt a dorm. Maybe some of your friends live in a particular dorm. Hang out with them some nights.

  6. Join an intramural team. Sometimes you can just sign up as a single.

  7. Talk to others in your classes…exchange numbers so that if either of you miss you can exchange notes… Ask what someone got on a homework question (that you did too)…once you get to know them, ask if they want to form a study group.

  8. If this isn’t working, go to the Counseling Center…they are ready to help freshman this time of year. Don’t think you are a loser because you have to go…this is something you pay for! Get the benefit! You may need to learn some new social skills. They may also have group talks on Homesickness or fitting in.

  9. Go to ongoing campus activities…concerts/movies/lectures/sporting events/parties. Invite someone/group of people or just sign up and meet people for activities that might be off campus.

  10. Get an on campus job. This will give you something to do during the day in between classes so you are on campus more. It will also help you get engaged into the campus.

You may notice that all of these things take some action…they are not passive. You have to take initiative. But the risk is small…if someone says no, then just say “Maybe another time”.

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Bump

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Many of these would actually work for residential students as well

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There is a similar post I made for residential students:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19859202

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Bump

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I think a big thing is attitude and perspective. Something that helped me transition from a shy teenager to a more social young adult is realizing that very rarely will people react negatively to your attempts at being social. No one is ever offended at an invitation to go grab lunch. People aren’t going to be upset if you say “hey!” to them in the hallway. Smile at people and they’ll probably smile back.

My “mantra”, so to speak, for approaching new and potentially “scary” social situations is:
“People are just people, they shouldn’t make you nervous.”

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Also the first few weeks of college are the golden time for making friends…everyone else wants to too.