What should I do?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I'm a freshman at a small (a little over 3000 undergrad AND grad students), religious university. I'm super extroverted, and making friends isn't hard. However, The friends I've made would rather mope in their rooms than go out and have fun when they aren't with their significant other. I know, the simple solutions to that would be:</p>

<ol>
<li>Make more friends- The only people who want friends are the singles, and there aren't too many of those. While (most) people won't admit it, people choose to come here to find people of the same religion that they can get married to. The singles feel socially ostracized and lock themselves in their rooms- the girls do homework 24/7, and since the dorms aren't coed and I can get expelled for being in the rooms of a person of the opposite gender, I can't make guy friends that way either.</li>
<li>Get a boyfriend/girlfriend- I have one, we're long distance, I'm perfectly happy, and I also haven't met anyone else interesting yet.</li>
<li>Join clubs and teams- I joined so many of those it's ridiculous. The thing is, the clubs only want you for your money and have like three poorly attended meetings a year, if that many.</li>
<li>Go to parties- there really aren't any, and it's not that I'm left out of the loop. Plus you can hear all the stories in the dorm hallways. The kids actually don't party, and if they do, it's like in the rec room or something. There was ONE "college party" in the beginning of the year.. it was so out of everybody's element that one like it has never happened again.</li>
</ol>

<p>I'm not sure if my expectations of college were too high, or maybe what I'm going through is normal, but I really hate it here. I'm from a suburb of DC and I miss the city life. I feel claustrophobic and the only way to do things is to drive 30 minutes to the nearest cities or two hours to Chicago. I don't have a car and getting one would be no problem- I just don't want one because I don't have the friends to go out with.</p>

<p>I want to transfer- my counselor hasn't discouraged the idea, my friends from back home say I should- but my parents keep telling me to stick it out because I'll just become that person who wants to leave whenever and never stick to one place and I'll hate it at every place I go. But I'm just really unhappy and tired of spending Friday and Saturday nights alone. What should I do?</p>

2

<p>Are there any specific extracurricular classes that you can take and meet people in those? Could you possibly get an on campus job? What about volunteering? I think at this point you should follow your gut. If you really feel like you should transfer, then do it because you only go to college once (generally). When looking for another school, try to look for one that’s bigger, but has a good program for you area of interest. You should sit your parents down and tell them how unhappy you are. I think they will understand. As a freshman in high school, my parents put me in a school that I really didn’t want to be at, and I finally convinced them to let me switch to the school I actually wanted to go to and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. </p>