<p>Remember many male and female students are in a similar position. Look for some of the quieter students and make an effort to get to know them.</p>
<p>College clubs where you share a mutual interest are the easiest places to make friends.</p>
<p>I know this would depend on the school, but what are the usual types of clubs that exist in Universities? Because I think this could really help me and my social life…</p>
<p>Well here’s a list of all the registered organizations at my uni:</p>
<p><a href=“https://stars.umd.edu/orgs/[/url]”>https://stars.umd.edu/orgs/</a></p>
<p>Some of those are fraternities/sororities and ROTC but otherwise they’re all just… clubs. Not sure how many are active/meet regularly but there are all sorts of clubs for pretty much anything you can think of.</p>
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<p>I’m quite shy (or at least quiet) and very much reserved. As such, I’ve found that the college environment is much easier for making friends than the high school one, because even mundane daily events (eating, etc) are shared experiences. You don’t have to make an effort to make plans and then transport yourself there; everything and everyone is in walking distance. If I want to watch a movie, I knock on my neighbors’ door and ask if they want to join me. If I want to get coffee, I ask my suitemate, who’s usually studying in our common room. Etc. </p>
<p>I do recommend that shy/reserved students make one or more outgoing friends. They will force you to attend pregames/parties, tell you to get off your arse when there’s a group of people playing pool (or whatever) in the lounge, etc. In other words, they do the leg work of meeting people and then they introduce you to those people. It’s an easy way to expand your friend group without having to go up to people yourself.</p>
<p>glassesarechic —> Thank you for the great advice. You just enlightened me with the “knocking on your neighbor’s door”, I think that’s one thing that even as shy and reserved as I am, I could see myself doing. It isn’t seen as strange in the first weeks, to go knock on dorm neighbor doors to introduce yourself, right? I guess I’d have nothing to lose, and they might be great dorm neighbors I might become friends with.
I’m starting to feel a little better, and hopefully the school where I end up going will give the option to choose your roommate.</p>
<p>ThisMortalSoil ----> Wow that is a lot of clubs! Is there a limit of how many clubs you can be involved with?</p>
<p>Technically, no. In practice, yes, simply because at some point you won’t have enough time in the day to be able to attend every meeting of every club ;)</p>
<p>e: Also, no, it’s not seen as strange at all. In fact I know a lot of unis try to have an open door policy for the first few weeks of school where they encourage residents to keep their doors open when they’re there so they can meet everyone on the floor.</p>
<p>Ah yes, of course! 
Well I think I’ll try and include myself in a handful of clubs, possibly. And hopefully that will be a gateway for making friends.</p>
<p>Is the open door policy truly effective? One thing I’m wondering about college, is about the “open mindedness” of the students? I have a bridge piercing, and in High School in the US it’s always been kind of a means of judging me for the people who don’t know me, and I guess I’m wondering if being a bit “different” (though honestly other than having a piercing, I’m pretty basic), will cause me to perhaps be “ignored” or disliked by other students/dorm neighbors/roommate…</p>
<p>Only time I lived in a dorm was when I was going through some tough personal times and as such I was pretty anti-social. So I can’t speak praise for it from personal experience. But from what I’ve heard, it does help you meet people, whether or not they become good friends is entirely independent of that though. If you don’t click, you don’t click, that’s that haha. But it at least opens up the opportunity to click. </p>
<p>Most students at most unis are pretty open minded. It might be less so at a small small school but I’ve seen folks of all types here.</p>
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<p>Not at all, especially since they’re unlikely to have people to, say, eat in the dining hall with either. In fact, many people leave their dorm rooms open exactly for that purpose. In those first few weeks, even the more outgoing students are unlikely to have a good group of friends established, which means people are very open to meeting new people. </p>
<p>Personally, I don’t have a huge group of friends at school, but some of my best ones are my roommates and my neighbors because of those first few weeks and because of the community of living near each other.</p>
<p>I mean, I don’t feel the need to have a huge social group, honestly, being friends with my roommate, a couple of her friends, and a few dorm/floor people would be an absolute dream and awesome time…if it could possibly happen. I need to get over my fear of rejection haha :D</p>
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This is good advise.</p>
<p>Hopefully that shouldn’t be a problem, I usually always end up friends or “close” to very outgoing people, very few of my friends are reserved like me. I’m praying this will continue!</p>
<p>to the OP,</p>
<p>College is a great opportunity to bring shy people out of their shell. I was pretty shy throughout high school and played low-key for all four years, which led to my solidarity and lack of friends. But it all switched in college. I realized that now that I’m on my own, I can be myself and not worry about a certain stigma being attached to me for being “weird,” “stupid,” or whatever it is. Plus, in college, you just have to put yourself out there to make connections and do well such as forming relationships with your professors, making good friends, forming study groups, joining clubs, etc.</p>
<p>My friends I’ve made in just one semester in college are much, much better than the people I grew up with my whole life. It’s amazing the great people you will meet in college. Yes, there are those that aren’t different from high school, but most people in college are generally more mature and interesting. Joining clubs will also definitely put you out of your comfort zone. I joined my college student-run newspaper and it really, really helped me more communicative, brave, and honest.</p>
<p>Thank you for sharing! The maturity was a concern of mine as well, I’ve been afraid as I said in previous posts, that it would be just like high school, with the immature people that just won’t give you any time or consideration. But all these posts make me feel real better about the whole experience, so thanks! :)</p>