Your Room: The Hangout

<p>I was wondering from those of you in college, what are the biggest things that draw other students into your room to socialize? That room that everybody was hanging out in all the time, what kind of crap was in it?</p>

<p>Was it a nice TV or xbox or something like that? Share your experiences!!</p>

<p>Big TV and video games is the easiest way to go. You need to be well liked for your room to be the hangout beyond the first few weeks at school, but people aren’t going to be hanging out in your room if there is nothing to do.</p>

<p>To be a somebody, and not require a gimmick like an Xbox or a tv to get people to be around you. </p>

<p>You being the center of the attention; that’s what draws people to be in your presence. Being a somebody. Rather than the nobody with the Xbox.</p>

<p>People were constantly in my room, even though we had a terribad tv and no video games. At times there would be 8-10+ people in our small double.</p>

<p>The other room we hung out on the floor was my close friends with the huge HDTV and all three video game systems between the two of them. </p>

<p>Huge juxtaposition but really it’s about a few key things:</p>

<p>If you’re a guy be cool with everyone. Between our room and our friends we knew 90% of the people in our building, if we threw parties at the beginning of the year people would come from other dorms to our floor.</p>

<p>If you’re a girl and your even fairly attractive you probably won’t have to worry about this, girls love dormstorming for some reason plus guys want to hang out with girls to meet more girls.</p>

<p>If you’re a guy, also try to surround yourself with girls for your guy friends, and guys that are chill and interesting so that you don’t look like an idiot if your friend starts laughing at a fart or something.</p>

<p>I think Cboe put it the best if not kind of cliquish lol, i knew people who started with a ton of people in their room in the beginning, but by the end of the year there were just a few rooms known as the spots to chill out in, whether it was because half of your hall might be in there or the other has A/C.</p>

<p>We had a room in the center of the hall, and our door was always open.</p>

<p>TV and XBOX 360 (PS3/Wii too, but 360 is by far the most popular) are good to make a room a hangout. You’re room probably won’t be a hangout spot if it doesn’t have those two things.</p>

<p>Also, don’t blast horrible metal music that you think is the greatest music ever. That’s a good way to get your room isolated. </p>

<p>Also, try to keep your room with some level of cleansliness. </p>

<p>If you don’t have a great HDTV and video game system or anything of that nature, don’t stress about your room not being the hangout spot. You can go hang out at the hangout spots in the dorm.</p>

<p>I think for the most part, most people’s dorms become some type of hangout spot once people begin putting together their core group of friends. Once you have some good, close friends, you’re all going to be hanging out in each other’s dorms at some point.</p>

<p>We had two hangout rooms back when I was living in the dorms. One was my room, with a smallish TV and my PS2. I was the only one on the floor with a TV and DVD player, so a decent amount of time was spent watching new shows or sports games or whatnot.</p>

<p>The other room was kept completely spotless with tons of room for people to crowd in. We’d usually go there when we were looking to play non-video games.</p>

<p>I’m not in college yet, but I was at Harvard last summer for summer school. There were 2 main hangout rooms for the first 4 weeks, and just one for the last 4 weeks. For the first half, 3 of the more ‘popular’ kids were in the same room, plus they had a gamecube. So that brought alot of us there. The other hangout room was our room - my roommate had a 360, so that drew alot of people. Plus, me and the guy with the 360 were always having intense political/philosophical debates and that drew people in. My best friend from HSS lived down the hall, but in essence he lived in our room because he couldn’t stand his roommates. He was really politically charged, too. It kind of became normal for the evening political discussions to be held in our room, with 4-8 people rotating off and on the 360 while the rest of us debated. After 4 weeks, the people in the first room left (they were only there for 1 semester), and new guys moved in, so our room kind of became THE hangout spot (which sucked when I wanted to study and the libraries were closed, but whatever). </p>

<p>So this kind of echoes what everyone else said, but you can be the tv/video game people, or just be really chill. Also, two of the guys from down the hall practically moved into our room, and they had loads of snacks all the time. So people came to eat, too. Having food draws hungry people in.</p>

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<p>Only at Harvard… :P</p>

<p>From people I know at Harvard that actually doesn’t happen much, people there are basically typical college students but smarter.</p>

<p>It’s because they were summer school students.</p>

<p>TV and a futon.</p>

<p>Always have a web browser window opened to internet forums on your computer. People in college love an all-star webboard poster.</p>

<p>And don’t even try to hang with the popular kids unless you got 1,000+ posts.</p>

<p>

I can attest to this. When I did Girls State last year, my mom packed practically a suitcase full of snacks that I barely even touched. But soon (after we started to get to know each other), I had literally 10 girls stuffed into my dorm, eating junk food, sharing stories, and just plain hanging out every night. </p>

<p>But that’s something you could try. But I wouldn’t stress on trying to make your dorm “the hangout spot”. It’s something that just happens, imo.</p>

<p>This was my room my freshman year. We were right by the door people walked through to get in the hall and our door was always open. One person would stop by, then another, then another and pretty soon it was full.</p>

<p>No idea why. We had no games, no tv, hardly any food, no music, nothing but some good conversation. =-)</p>

<p>However, it can be very annoying, and forget about ever studying in that room.</p>

<p>Uhh, be sociable and have your door open. </p>

<p>If people are coming to use your tv and to get food, then they probably really don’t like you. Don’t go that route.</p>

<p>Just play dungeons and dragons. Everyone loves that game…</p>

<p>Haha.</p>

<p>My sibling freshmen year at Michigan State University, she claim her room became the hangout on their floor… May have mainly been due to her roommates materials etc… Her roommate had a HDTV, Guitar game ( not sure of name), and playstation ( I think it was playstation 3, not sure).</p>

<p>U just need a few hot chicks in your room…</p>

<p>Reasons people congregate in certain dorm rooms

  1. Techology. Wii, XBox, Large Flat-screen TV, Guitar Hero/Rock Band etc are all going to get you “friends” at least at the start of college. And once you’ve already made friends, any of these things are sure to get people to keep coming to your room in search of entertainment
  2. Food. I always love people with food…but maybe that’s just me. I like to appreciate the finer things in life.<br>
  3. Door open. People love to drop by and say hi (and invite you to things). Open door = open invitation to come in and chat
  4. Having parties/alcohol in your room. Word of a dorm party spreads like wildfire. Will only get you so far though…<br>
  5. Roommates that get along. This is key…if you and your roommate get along great and hang out often, this makes for a good dynamic. People appreciate a tension-free environment without “oh, we can’t be too loud, my roommate will kill me if we do ___”
  6. Being awesome. Well…sometimes, if you are an awesome, friendly person, people gravitate toward you. It’s as simple as that! :smiley: And if you have more than 1 of the above, your room is likely to be a prime hangout spot.</p>