Meeting people in college can be a funny thing. There are many opportunities to meet people, with all of the new people there and everyone in the same boat. On the other hand, a lot of people might feel awkward or anxious about meeting people. Especially if one goes to a large school, college can be overwhelming, and some people don’t take the steps necessary to commence what could be lifelong friendships.
The following is a guide to meeting people while in college.
Interact and talk to people
The first thing you will need to do is make sure that you are interacting and talking to people. If you just keep to yourself and hang out in your dorm room, it may be hard to meet new people. You should be friendly. Start up conversations with others without waiting for them to talk to you. Also, offer to help people. Besides making you feel good for you altruism, this can be a great start to a lot of friendships. People like to be around friendly people, and you will meet more people if you have a friendly and not a standoffish attitude.
Invite people to different events
Sometimes you might have to be the one to reach out if you want to start meaningful relationships in college. It is okay if you are the one that first invites someone or a group of someones to go out to dinner. Someone has to be the first one to do it or it won’t get done. Why shouldn’t it be you? It doesn’t even have to be that you invite them to something where you have to do work. You can just see if they want to hang out or go to a movie or something of that nature.
Pick people to whom you think you might relate
There are many people at college with different tastes, personalities, etc. You may want to try to meet people who have more in common with you, and with whom you think there might be a greater chance of making lasting friendships. Not that you can’t have a friend who is the opposite of you, but you will want to be able to do things with these new people, so you will want to have some of the same interests. Also, we often have better conversation when we relate to each other. By being proactive, you are sure to meet a lot of great people in college.