<p>I’m a Freshman. I came to this school mostly because I got into the business school and I wanted the Big Ten sports scene. This has been the worst year of my life so far and that has to do with my interactions with people at this school. It seems that this school is 65% jock ■■■■■■■■■ idiots, 20% music/theater dorks, and 10% chinese. If you go here you have to admit this is fairly accurate. I have found it very hard to establish relationships. I hung out with a group of guys for the 1st month and a half because I forced myself to. When almost all of them joined fraternities (that is “what you do here”, apparently), none of them bothered to ask me to hang out with them again, even kids whose phone numbers I had and played football with . What a joke. I know there have to be kids like me who arent loud and obnoxious but are normal people but I havent found them. Forgive me for bashing on this school so much but it is very frustrating. If you have any advice I welcome and appreciate it, otherwise please dont comment. Thanks. </p>
<p>its college, you have to make an effort to hang out with people unless you form a close group of friends. im assuming that most freshmen are looking for a party or something to do on the weekend so unless you bring something to the table, your going to have to be the one that calls them. your friends that joined fraternities are probably hanging out with their “bros”, thats pretty typical and makes sense. </p>
<p>Try joining some clubs or talking to people in your classes </p>
<p>It can be tough, but freshman year is definitely the easiest year to get to know people. If traditional fraternities are not your thing, have you considered trying to pledge a business fraternity in the Fall?</p>
<p>These are your problems:</p>
<p>1) It looks like you have excluded 95% of the students. It would not be easy to make friends with 5% of the population.
2) You had to force yourself to hang out with a group of people. Why would you do that? Is that a right group of people?</p>
<p>Besides what nico and hkem suggested, do you have a study group? If not, you can ask around and form one. Many I-core pre-reqs have team projects. If is very natural to form study groups with other classmates. DS3 went through this too. He was scared not being able to be accepted into a few clubs/organizations the 1st two months. Now, he got into so many that he has to limit his participation. You can also go working out, join a club, and take a couple one-credit courses (Department- SPH). You will meet a different group of people. </p>
<p>I am on this thread because my daughter has chosen IU and I think that it is a great fit for her. 30 years ago I was at my large state university and I felt a little like you do now. I realized that it was not the right fit for me and transferred to a small liberal arts school and am having a reunion with my closest 50 friends from this school next month. Try what everyone else has suggested…if that doesn’t work you may be at the wrong school and should research what might be a better fit for next year. Good luck!</p>
<p>My daughter is an IU senior in Kelley and had similar problems getting to know people her freshman year because she was not at all into the party scene and it was hard to meet quieter people because, well, they are quiet. Like ace said, group projects in classes are good ways to meet people. She also took a job at the rec center and joined the accounting fraternity. Although she did no sports in high school, she became interested in running because the campus is so beautiful and last year ran in the little 5 running race as part of the little 5 events. She focused on her own physical fitness, and studying hard to get excellent grades, because after all, you are there to learn, and over three years, she made friends with peers from her classes who she studied with, one of whom, was in her group presentations class freshman year. You have to be patient and keep trying to meet people, friendships don’t happen instantly usually. However, when you are trying to meet people and become friends, I suggest you don’t refer to all Jocks as idiots, musicians as dorks, and all Asians as Chinese! I understand you’re frustrated, but try not to stereotype an entire student population.</p>
<p>Agree 100% with Michhoos…first step is to be open minded to meeting all sorts of people. You might be surprised that you have things in common with students that you prejudge as different than you.</p>
<p>I would suggest joining some student leadership groups. I loved SAB when I was there. It is the behind the scene marketing group for all of IU athletics. Still are in contact with my SAB friends 20 years later! SAC is also a great student group to be involved in. As I tell my kids, you get out of school what you put into it. If partying isn’t your scene look for groups which develop student leaders. I remember Union Board (can’t remember the name exactly) was a good group as well. The beautiful thing about a big school is that there are so many opportunities. The bad thing about a big school is that they don’t come finding you, you have to search them out. It is a good life lesson, go after your goals/dreams. There are so many awesome kids at IU. I’m sure that the ones who are out partying seem like they are the funnest etc but I guarantee there are many many other kids like you who are wonderful kids looking for friends too. </p>
<p>My daughter is a Freshman at IUB also and has had the same experience. She is living at McNutt because she entered as a Hoosier Link student and had to live there. As an alumni I knew this was the wrong place for her but she really had no choice. She is on the quiet side and very into Art and music (Art Education major) so the party/greek/intolerant/destructive culture at McNutt is extremely disturbing to her. If I can convince her to stay another year (she wants to transfer to Columbia in Chicago) she will move to Collins. She eats there all the time and has found some friends there. So OP, I feel your pain and hope that you continue to search peers who are not into the party/destructive/intolerant scene.</p>
<p>I guess the “stereotypes” of each neighborhood hold some validity. My brother, who is very social but does not drink, found a very different situation in Central neighborhood. He tells me there is a mix of all types of people there and has enjoyed meeting people different than him. </p>
<p>We were told that the Kelley LLC will be McNutt next yr… maybe it is this year?! not sure. But anyway, we were told they moved the Kelley kids into McNutt to tone things down … nice. Now known as the party poopers.</p>
<p>My daughter has said she has heard that all of the instate students are in the central and southeast neighborhoods and they empty out on the weekend…and that most of the out of state students are in the northwest…can anyone comment on this? She will be out of state and originally chose central as her neighborhood preference, but is now thinking that she should change the preference to northwest so that she won’t be alone.</p>
<p>As far as I know, the Kelley LLC has always been in McNutt. I have never heard it was moved there to tone things down, but who knows… However, I doubt the Kelley LLC students are known as party poopers. There is a wide variety of students in the Kelley LLC just as there is a wide variety at the university as a whole. I heard the Kelley LLC is expanding next year, so if it really does “tone down” McNutt then maybe will will be toned down some more next year! But there are certain buildings/floors dedicated to the Kelley LLC in McNutt, so I guess it would only tone down those floors.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s true that more in-state students live in Central and Southeast than Northwest. But even if it is true, none of the dorms “empty out” on the weekend. Even most of the in-state students don’t go home on the weekends. My daughter is an OOS student living in McNutt in the Kelley LLC, but there are many in-state students in her building.</p>
<p>In-state students definitely don’t empty out on the weekends at all, and they’re scattered amongst all 3 neighborhoods. She’ll be fine if she ends up in Central </p>