Ask HN: I'm making like 0 friends at college, how to fix it?
Making friends often takes some deliberate effort unless you&#x27;re a social person by default.<p>- Clubs. Find more general clubs or groups. A club often forms around a singular topic or activity, which is great for finding people who share <i>that</i> interest with you, but may not be enough to become friends with them.<p>- Campus events. If you&#x27;re living on campus or near enough to go on campus for them, participate. If you&#x27;re invited by someone, accept the invitation and hang out with them.<p>- When invited to something, say yes more often than no. If your objective is to make friends, anyone who shows interest in doing things with you is a potential friend. If you do like one of my old roommates in college and, in response to an invite to dinner with a group or a movie, say, &quot;I&#x27;m installing Linux&quot;, you will almost certainly not get a second invitation. It&#x27;s the &quot;I have to wash my hair&quot; answer for nerds, intended or not it conveys a lack of interest in the other person or people.<p>- Actively form a group. If you find people that you like, start inviting them to social activities. Hang out, go see a movie, grab dinner, cook dinner together, host your own Halloween party. Whatever it is. The <i>best</i> way to make friends is to actively cultivate the friendships. If you passively wait for friends, you will have a harder time of it.<p>Also, assume a lack of generosity on the part of others. As I said above, if you say no often enough you won&#x27;t get more invitations. Assume that this is true, so sometimes meet people halfway. It doesn&#x27;t matter that you don&#x27;t enjoy picnics in the quad. If the group gathers there every week, go every once in a while if your intention is to form real friendships. On the other hand, if you take an active role in starting activities and inviting people, be generous. If they say no every time, keep inviting them. Don&#x27;t count on them, but invite them. It&#x27;s frustrating, but if you&#x27;re not generous you may miss out on a good friendship later on.