<p>I'm a shy asian girl who takes a long time to get comfortable around other people. I'm not very outgoing either..</p>
<p>I want to know if a majority of students are very well-rounded people with strong personalities?</p>
<p>I'm very insecure and I've had a hard time trying to fit high school.. I hope it's not like that.. is it?</p>
<p>Is CMU full of a large diversity of people? are they mostly middleclass? Is CMU a party school or are there also geeks and nerds like me? Is the school small enough so that I could make close friends instead of in big schools where you always encounter different people and could get lost in the crowd?</p>
<p>I’d answer this, but I think you’d get a good idea if you read the collegeprowlr profile for CMU. They have fairly accurate demographic data. I will say that you will probably not get lost in the crowd here, it’s not really a huge school. People generally walk across the entire campus, and you tend to see the same people every once in a while. There are plenty of geeks and nerds here also :)</p>
<p>Just a suggestion…If nobody from your high school attends CMU then you can start fresh. You can have whatever personality you want and people wont know you used to be shy</p>
<p>Realize that you will be a freshman this fall and almost every single freshman at every college will know nobody and will be looking to make friends. You’re all in the same boat. You will have a freshman roommate. You will probably be on a floor with other freshmen. There will be clubs you can join. There will be parties you can’t avoid. It’s not like high school where you might have considered yourself the outsider. All freshmen are outsiders. Have pity on that shy freshman boy who used every ounce of his nerve to ask if you wanted a cup of coffee after class. It’s just coffee!
Good luck!</p>
<p>Make it your only goal for the first week of college to say hi to five people you don’t know and to have a conversation for a least a minute. If you’re shy, it’s going to be hard as hell, but just fight through it. Once you see how easy it is, it will be MUCH easier. </p>
<p>Trust me, I used to be pretty shy also, but all “reformed” shy people (not that it’s a bad thing to be shy =P) have said that once you learn how to talk to just a few people, it gets much better.</p>
<p>And if that doesn’t work, just try to put yourself in a situation where outgoing people are likely to come to you. If you can’t go up and talk to random people, at least don’t close yourself off and make yourself look unapproachable.</p>
<p>Excellent Post!
"Realize that you will be a freshman this fall and almost every single freshman at every college will know nobody and will be looking to make friends. You’re all in the same boat. You will have a freshman roommate. You will probably be on a floor with other freshmen. There will be clubs you can join. There will be parties you can’t avoid. It’s not like high school where you might have considered yourself the outsider. All freshmen are outsiders. Have pity on that shy freshman boy who used every ounce of his nerve to ask if you wanted a cup of coffee after class. It’s just coffee!
Good luck! "</p>
<p>A tourguide once told us that freshman year first semester is your golden opportunity… everybody says hi to a lot of people because there are so many new faces. Everybody is a little shy, but a little excited too.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. Your suggestions could help any shy person in any college.</p>
<p>but i also wanted to know what kind of people attend CMU; Is CMU full of a large diversity of people? are they mostly middleclass? Is CMU a party school or are there also geeks and nerds like me? Is the school small enough so that I could make close friends instead of in big schools where you always encounter different people and could get lost in the crowd?</p>
<p>Lots of different kind of people attend CMU, though most of them have a somewhat nerdy/technical slant.</p>
<p>I think CMU is mostly middle and upper middle, though there’s certainly plenty of people from wealthy families (I remember seeing a lot of BMWs and Mercedes being driven by students). People don’t judge you based on what brands you wear or how much money you can spend on things, though.</p>
<p>CMU has parties, though they’re certainly not the center hub of social activity there. Heck, there are even nerd/geek parties. The Capture the Flag with Stuff game the CS lounge used to put on got a pretty good turnout back when I was there.</p>
<p>There’s around 1200 people in your year, so depending on your high school it may or may not feel huge. I recognized a lot of people in my year by the time I graduated, though through my four years I mostly hung out with a group of guys from my freshman hall and the people from my major (tiny department, 15 people in my year). It’s large enough where if you always want to meet new people you can, though. Just go to different parties, different clubs, take different classes, or anything like that.</p>
<p>My interviewer told me that the social scene is exactly what you make of it. Enough people are there from the mix of programs that you’re guaranteed to find a group to mesh with.</p>
<p>SCS majors are apparently the weirdest though =p Tepper '14 hopeful!!!</p>
<p>1081736, just try to keep your door open whenever you’re in your room and be willing to tag along with anyone for a meal during the first few weeks. Generally what happens during the first semester is you start off by going for meals as an entire hall. After a week or so you realize you start sitting with mostly the same 5-10 people, so only the bunch of you start going out to dinner. Then you’ll start to become more familiar with each others’ schedules and you’ll wind up having a person or two you wind up going to dinner with every night.</p>
<p>If you’re like me and have a hard time making friends, the 5-10 people in your hall you eat with occasionally are the ones you hang out with at night and on weekends, and the person or two you always eat with wind up being your roommates for the next three years. :)</p>
<p>(Though, like I said earlier, I was friends with almost everyone in my department. It’s kind of necessary when you’re in a technical major as going through those homeworks alone is unthinkable.)</p>
<p>For those students who want some social interactions but aren’t sure about the party scene, consider joining Alpha Phi Omega. It’s a coed service fraternity without a house, friendly brothers (every member is called a brother; actually it’s mainly female) and plenty of social get togethers. [Alpha</a> Phi Omega National Service Fraternity, Kappa Chapter](<a href=“http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/aphio/]Alpha”>Alpha Phi Omega)</p>
<p>The odds are in your favor, being female. So if you end up at CMU, please take a chance and just pay attention to those guys that are not so outgoing too.</p>
<p>My son is rather introverted…and is really, really happy at CMU. He says the girls are very interesting there (I think not being the outgoing “girly girl” type and being smart and interested in gaming, technology, non-traditional females as a positive). </p>
<p>If you just give it a chance, smile at people and get involved in activities-the guys will be very happy and you will have more male attention than you might expect.</p>
<p>I want to know if a majority of students are very well-rounded people with strong personalities?</p>
<p>no, most people here are heavily lopsided in some amazing way, with very strong personalities.</p>
<p>I’m very insecure and I’ve had a hard time trying to fit high school… I hope it’s not like that… is it?</p>
<p>**** no. It is the opposite of this. Everyone seems to be friends with everyone, from experience.</p>
<p>Is CMU full of a large diversity of people? - yes.
are they mostly middleclass? you have a few people that are very poor and on heavy financial aid, and a bunch of people who have family total income of around 100k. There are a few with slightly more.</p>
<p>Is CMU a party school or are there also geeks and nerds like me? -no one i know “parties”. There are a few under 21 clubs here that i know freshman go to, such as club zoo.</p>
<p>Is the school small enough so that I could make close friends instead of in big schools where you always encounter different people and could get lost in the crowd?</p>
<p>I see the same people close to every day, but not in a high school way.</p>
<p>crap. strong personalities? no insecure people? are they the type of people i would find in like ivy leagues where the ppl are like… perfect/arrogant?</p>
no insecure people? are they the type of people i would find in like ivy leagues where the ppl are like… perfect/arrogant?</p>