Making friends in first year of college / university

Hey everyone! I'm sure a lot of people on here are going into college or uni soon and I wanted to share my own experience making friends and some advice from what I have learned in my first year. 

1. nobody has friends

okay, so when you start out you are in the exact same boat as everyone else, short of a few people who came with their highschool friends. the point being that as lonely as you might feel at first remember that most people also just want to make friends as well

2. put yourself in social situations

this was very hard for me to do at first but please get out of your room and do things. go to the events that your uni is hosting, go to the meetings that are associated with your major, talk to people in your residence building. it can seem scary but its the easiet way to make friends

3. get contact info

when you meet someone who you get along with or you have something in common with get some sort of social media so that you can stay in touch with them. then once you do that, recah out a couple days after meeting them to hang out. you can ask to get food, or go to the library to study or go to a frosh week event with, just make sure that you are contacting the people you know beacause thats how friends are made. when you do this you also have the chance of meeting their friends and maybe even joining a friend group!

4. find people with common interests

this is one mistake that i made is that i didnt try to find people with similar interests and hobbies. for example if you play a sport, join the intrameural for that sport, if you don't know people to make a team with you usually can sign up to join a random team and those people will likely be people you can be friends with. alternatively you could join a club that shares a common interest, just keep in mind that as courses ramp up you dont want to join too many things as you might get overwhelmed

5. have standards

this last one is something to live by but eventhough you might feel pretty desperate to find friends please don't hang out with people who treat you in way you aren't comfortable with. In my first year i hung around a few people who would talk shit about me and i let them do it because i was scared if i said anything they would leave and i would be back to square one but just remember that you have value and that the right people will make you feel valued and loved

if anyone else has any advice or questions to share please comment! good luck!