Moving away from home and making friends at University can be a daunting idea. Research shows it takes about 40 to 60 hours to create a casual friendship, 80 to 100 hours to develop an established friendship, and about 200 hours to become “good friends.”
Making friends at University
Stepping out of your comfort zone can be stressful even for the most confident among us. Here are five tips on how to create new friendships and find your new best friend for life!
1. Join a club or a society
It could be a fitness club or the photography society. Attending these groups gives you plenty of opportunity to meet like-minded people with the same hobbies as you! RGU Union offer a wide variety of clubs and societies that you can sign up to.
2. Cook for people
If you happen to share a kitchen with other people in your flat why not organise a Friday night meal and cook for everyone? Having a communal area to eat is a great way to get everyone out of their bedrooms and make introductions.
3. Hang around the communal areas
Grab a cup of coffee and hang around the communal areas of the campus or your accommodation. RGU Union even has a gaming room with video and arcade games, a pool table and plenty of couches for you to hang out with other students. Spend some time there instead of staying in your bedroom, and don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to people. You’ll be surprised to see how many things you have in common. There are a variety of different cafes and social spaces you can utilise in RGU as well as RGU Sport.
4. Don’t be judgemental
Don’t limit yourself from meeting new people by thinking they are not your ‘type’ or the kind of people you would normally hang around with. Part of the university experience is to learn to expand your horizons by trying new things, making new friends is one of them.
5. Never stop meeting new people
Be conscious about university friendships, especially in the first few months of your student life – they might go as easy as they come. It’s great to have friends to talk to and rely on, but sometimes friendships fade. It’s always good to have an open mind and remain open to meeting new people.
Don’t forget with every friendship you have you need to put the time in to make it work. Make the time to meet and have fun together. Let us know if you have any tips about friendships and tell us how you made new friends at RGU.