<p>Can anyone speak to the anonymity of a big school like UW? I hear that most of the social life is off campus and that there is essentially no community within the school aside from when the Huskies are playing. Has anyone struggled with this or can give me any insight?</p>
<p>It’s not that hard to make friends and have a social life if you live in the dorms.</p>
<p>I’ve heard the same thing as the OP (don’t attend UW yet myself either) but I’ve also heard that getting involved in Greek life alleviates some of these issues. Maybe someone else who attends can confirm/deny that.</p>
<p>Living in the dorms your first year will make your experience very comparable to a social circle at smaller colleges. You’ll make a core group of friends and, if you want, you can get involved with student clubs, sports or government, which each make the campus seem smaller and smaller. During my undergrad years, I consistently ran into friends on campus daily, and had no trouble with anonymity. That said, if you don’t make an effort, don’t expect to make instant friends, but that’s true no matter where you end up.</p>
<p>I’m a commuter (4th year) and through joining RSOs and being active in my own department, have made a lot of friends/connections with some close circles of friends. I joined RSOs where I had a genuine interest and was immediately surrounded by people with similar interests or excitement about certain things. </p>
<p>In general, be proactive in making connections and as rabbitstew said, don’t expect to make instant friends. However, once you start seeing people more often and find common interests, it’ll be easier to make friends. You’ll also start finding that you make friends with friends-of-friends, so it gets easier down the line.</p>
<p>Before I came to the USA, I attended a large public university (35k+ undergrad students) overseas. I was a commuter and I didn’t participate in any extracurricular activities on campus for the majority of my time there. It was a pretty lonely experience. I saw people in class, sure, but since I didn’t make an effort to be friends with them, I never saw them any other time. I went a year without really having any friends. </p>
<p>I am a loner by nature so I found this perfectly tolerable, but it is true, if you don’t make an effort, friends won’t just fall into your lap like they did in high school.</p>