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With Fran Northcutt, Honors Adviser, Hunter College of the City University of New York
HoH Video
of the Week
Making Friends Your Freshman Year
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Fresh Friends
HEAD Start
Will it be high school all over again, with the cliques, the clubs, the pain? You survived it once, and you'll miss the good friends who survived it with you. But now there are a few thousand new people just dying to meet you. Scary.

There's a reason TV shows and movies about college life are all about the social and NOT about the academic. Not much drama, or sexiness, in the scholarly pursuits of undergraduates. And don't forget that college years are when we make some of our best friends for life.

HEAD Lines
  • Go to your college's New Student Orientation - don't decide in advance that it's dumb and blow it off. Don't prejudge the people you see there because of what they're wearing; They may change their styles now that they're in college, and so may you. It's OK to be nervous about meeting new people, but don't let fear paralyze you. If you're paralyzed, you lose. So just introduce yourself and see what happens. Tell yourself it can't get any worse.

  • When you're at the Freshman Wilderness Extravaganza or whatever the event may be, turn off your cell phone! Don't be that person having an endless talk with her mom or her high school friend while all the other students are actually meeting one another! You may think you look social - hey, it worked in high school - but it just makes you look unapproachable. What a waste.
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From Other HEADS
TRY TO BE AS OUTGOING AS YOU CAN. All the people that I'm friends with now I met the first two or three weeks. You end up being closest with the people that you meet early on - because you're all in the same situation, going through the same thing. You're all in a new school, no one knows anyone.

-- CHIP JONES
HAMILTON COLLEGE


I HAD A BATTERY-CHARGED, PORTABLE BLENDER. It was super. It cost $50. I was dorm shopping with my dad, and I said, "I need that blender." He was like, "You don't need a portable blender for college." I was like, "No, no, Dad, I need that. Take the comforter out of the cart. I need that." So we got it. And I made everything in it. A blender helps make friends.

-- CASEY
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY


Web Resources
Tips for Overcoming Shyness
www.more-selfesteem.com/overcoming_shyness_tips.htm


HoH Tips
  • Make yourself attend the organizing meetings of at least two groups or activities that interest you. Tell yourself you don't have to follow through if you don't want to, but at least check out who else is at the meeting.

  • Get on Facebook for your new college (you'll probably do that even before orientation), and follow up with the school's own social networking site as soon as you can. Start connecting now - you can always block people later.
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