How to Make Friends at Your Community College

by A Guest Author

I went to community college for the first two years of my college career. Overall, I had a great academic experience as a community college student. I took classes from great professors, worked on a number of intellectually stimulating projects, and got good grades. My first year as a community college student was difficult, however. It was necessarily academically difficult (although it was challenging). It was more so difficult from a social standpoint. I had a lot of friends in high school, but most of them moved away for college. So, I was left alone in my hometown, and I discovered that making friends at my community college was hard.

Unlike students who attend four-year universities, I wasn't able to make new friends in the dorm or meet new people on a sports team. All of the people who attended my community college commuted there. Like me, most of them worked part-time and didn't have much time for social activities after school. I don't think I made a single friend during my first year at community college.

Sure, I talked to people in my classes, but we never really became anything more than acquaintances. To make matters worse, two of the classes I took my first year were online classes offered by my community college's distance learning program. These classes provided me with the flexibility I needed as a working student, but they made it even more difficult to meet people.

Before I started my second year as a community college student, I vowed to make new friends. After putting forth a significant amount of effort to meet people, I discovered that it is possible to make friends at a two-year college. In fact, during my second year of college, I made a handful of friends who I still hang out with regularly. If you're feeling a little bit lonely at your community college, I feel your pain. Here are some tips to help you meet new people and develop lifelong friendships:

  1. Join or start a study group. There were a few different study groups at my community college, but I decided to start one for people who were taking science classes specifically. I met a lot of like-minded, intelligent people in my study group, and we had a lot of fun learning together.
  2. Join or start a club. I didn't belong to any clubs in high school because being on the soccer team took up a lot of my time. My community college didn't have a soccer team, and I missed being a part of a group like that. Joining the technology club at my community college was the solution for me. I definitely recommend checking out the clubs your college has to offer and joining a few that interest you.
  3. Carpool. I put up an ad on the bulletin board in the main building of my community college that let people know I was looking for people to carpool to and from school with. I got a few responses to the ad, started carpooling to school with some really great people, and even saved gas too! Carpooling can be an excellent way for you to get to know some new people too.
  4. Spend some time at the quad. There's probably a main quad or meeting area at the center of your community college campus. Go there to study every once in a while and say hi to people. After a while, the people who regularly visit the quad will recognize you, and they'll probably start talking to you. That's what happened to me. I met a whole lot of people at the quad at my school, even though going there made me pretty nervous at first.

These are just some of the things that worked for me when I was trying to meet people in school. I hope you'll try some of them out and make a whole bunch of new friends this year!

About The Author

Stephanie Brooks is a former English teacher who now gives her expertise in education to review the top online universities in the country. She also enjoys covering business-related topics such as marketing as well as topics relating to health and fitness.  Feel free to leave comments.

 

This post was written by A Guest Author

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Greg October 18, 2012 at 4:24 am

Great tips!

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Chad Agrawal October 18, 2012 at 9:21 pm

Thanks Greg

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