Last Updated on September 1, 2021 by David Shaw
College is the time where students can meet the most people and discover their interests while having fun. While a positive and fun college experience can be subjective, there are definitely certain ways and actions you can do or get involved in to make the most of your time in college while making fun, entertaining, and full of memories.
Before college, fun activities and opportunities might knock up on your door first, but the opposite might apply in college mainly because everyone’s treated more like an adult. Starting in college, taking initiative to find your ideal community and sense of belonging will definitely help you get better control of a healthy and fun social life.
Like they always say, navigating college doesn’t come with a guidebook, so let’s discuss ways you can transform your college experience and make it fun in this article.
Join a Cultural Club or Event
In college, everyone enjoys a fun social gathering activity especially during the weekends to catch a break from schoolwork. If you’re looking to join a social and fun community, you should try joining cultural clubs because they typically have lots of social activities planned and lined up throughout the semester.
Cultural clubs often do a good job at organizing events involving recreational activities where students gather to chat, play games, eat, and have fun! By joining the right cultural club that you find comfortable being a part of, you’ll discover that you don’t actually need expensive road trips or extravagant gatherings to have a good time if you have good company.
Not to mention, blending into the community of these clubs is often easy as they are mostly very friendly. If you put in a little extra effort and make up a good impression for others, you’re guaranteed to make lots of friends through cultural clubs effortlessly.
Be a Club or Organization Committee
If you really enjoy and like a club, maybe you should step it up a notch by running for a committee position in the club. Being a committee of a campus club or organization is bound to offer you a whole new experience compared to just being a regular member because you are subjected to more opportunities as well as responsibilities.
As a club committee, you’ll be involved in outreach, planning, and coordinating fun events while working closely with your peers. What makes being a club committee amazing is that you basically have the tool, authority, and resources to make your ideas come to life through actions. If you’re creative and enough, maybe you could create a legacy event that is held annually in a college campus club since people like it.
Moreover, being a campus club or organization committee can teach you how to balance fun and work while also learn how to contribute your skills in a collaborative environment. Once you’re good at these skills, you can easily create, influence, or contribute more meaningful and fun events in the future.
Participate in Outdoor Activities and Trip
A big part of college is about networking with people and creating meaningful friendships. If you want to know someone better, joining them on a trip or short vacation can help establish a strong relationship with them. As young college students, you can likely or easily take advantage of the “commitment-free” life by going on weekend road trips or a short vacation visiting places or states during semester breaks.
One of the best ways to create fun memories is to go on short trips out of town during semester breaks. By thoughtfully planning out a packed schedule filled with recreational activities while on vacation, you’ll definitely have loads of fun without needing to impress your friends to have a good time.
It is during these outdoor activities where you get to try activities like a bonfire, outdoor camping, barbecue, stargazing, and many cool activities which you can cross off your bucket list.
If there’s a mutual friend that you’d like to befriend or know better invite or join them on trips together as a friendly approach to create friendships with them. Lastly, remember to cherish and make the most out of these opportunities in your college, as they will be hard to come by after you graduate.
By spending time with friends doing outdoor activities, you create and establish a strong and good relationship with people in college through going on trips. Ultimately, you leave more room to create more meaningful and fun memories with people while in college.
Apply for Internship or Summer Programs
Instead of wasting the next Summer break binge-watching movies the next Summer, perhaps you should join a summer academic program or internship.
Getting yourselves involved in productive summer activities like internships or campus programs could potentially be the golden opportunity where you can network with professionals working in the industry. Other than that, you can also learn certain soft and life skills taught outside of your classes in college by involving yourself in many cool projects.
Try your luck on Handshake, which is a free online job-listing platform specifically made for students in college and universities. Sign up easily and link yourself to your campus if available, and start firing away your application and resumes!
It’s totally fine if you can’t secure an internship opportunity over the Summer, taking an accelerated program over the Summer instead could also be a productive way to spend the Summer. Not only are you possibly investing your time in learning something new, but you could also be developing yourself intrapersonally from the different people and social environments.
If you’re interested in how you can benefit from Summer classes, check out this article about maximizing Summer classes.
Join Company and Campus Tours
While studying in a university, you might have the opportunity to participate in company or campus tours that are near to your campus if you know where to look for them. Typically, a campus club or department division that has connections with people from a company or a university can organize tours for students on campus to join. These tours are usually free or require just a small registration fee, but they can be a valuable and eye-opening experience to you as a college student.
If you’re studying in the US, well-known companies like Tesla, Apple, Facebook, Google as well as universities allow people to physically tour their company or institution. If you dreamt of working or studying somewhere, you should always look out for touring events created by your campus. These places are populated with role models, inspiration, and have an environment that motivates people to thrive and give the best version of themselves.
I remembered attended college back in California, I was able to tour Facebook and Google’s headquarter in Silicon Valley as well as visit top institutions like Stanford University. I was so motivated and inspired by the people I meet at these places after every visit. The people you will typically meet in these places can often connect you with quality information, programs, and contacts that are not easily known or accessible to just everyone.
People and representatives you will meet through these tours often will give you candid information and insights for the questions you have. By participating in these tours, you’ll likely be rewarded with the advantage to connect, learn, and get informed about their institution or company which might help land yourself an intern position or research opportunities at these places.
Organize or Join Mixer Events
Mixer events are by far the easiest and most beneficial social events you can join or organize to meet up with awesome and interesting peers in college. University students or faculty love to organize mixer events, as they are fun, productive, and usually have good participant turnouts.
Mixer events come in both physical and online setups and can have many different themes. Most universities typically hold mixer events to connect seniors and juniors, weekend hangouts, outreaching activities with other campuses, or just casual meetup sessions for participants to hang out.
Joining mixer events easily lets you connect with peers of similar interests and unique personal qualities from all places and universities. You can definitely find friends that you will get along well with through joining mixer events and create many fun memories. Just remember, next time you stumble across mixer events, don’t be shy to join as you will likely be meeting a lot of aspiring young individuals who have something different to offer if you create friendships with them.
Study Abroad Programs
If you dream of studying in a foreign country while still gaining credits towards your academic program, then study abroad programs are for you! In fact, study abroad programs are more common than you think among universities and are commonly offered in the Summer.
By participating in study abroad programs, you have the opportunity to learn about a whole new culture in a foreign country that fascinates you. Study abroad programs are unique because you are studying a subject and learning new things while being on a vacation. Some universities even allow you to earn credits towards your degree progress while you’re on study abroad programs.
With study programs, you will not only make friends with people from other countries through exchange programs, but you will also establish a close relationship with your teachers as well. Essentially, when you’re overseas with a bunch of college students and teachers, you are bound to create an endless and valuable amount of memories.
Be Open to Making New Friends
Circling back to square one, the major contributing factor of making your college or university experience fun is finding the right group of friends. Not all our high school friends will attend the same university, so always be open-minded and on the lookout to embrace new people in your life while in college.
To get started, take initiative to join social gatherings or convention events starting in college. Don’t limit your social circle to just college students, make friends with people of all backgrounds which involves people outside of campus as well. By networking yourself with working professionals, veterans, and entrepreneurs, you can learn about all kinds of different experiences as well as social etiquette which universities otherwise won’t teach you about.
You don’t have to be a pro at socializing to make many friends. By simply being active enough through joining activities, you can certainly create many friendships if you’re open your boundaries and insecurities to do so.
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.”
Maya Angelou
By simply making friends and broadening your social circle, you passively learn the skills and tricks to create friendships with all kinds of people. When you simply have a large network of social connections, missing out on fun activities should be the least of your worries in college. When you manage to establish a large social circle, you can even join more exclusive events, enjoy high-end recreational activities, and indulge in unique and fun experiences even while you’re still in college.
