As someone new to UCL, one of your first worries is probably how to make friends. Well, here's a few anecdotes from people who've been in the same situation as you and have made friends.
Jong-Chan Li (JC)
BA History
Making friends at university is daunting regardless of where you’re coming from. For the first time in your life, you have to go out of your way to talk to people you’ve never met before. However, keep in mind that making good friends can be completely circumstantial. At the beginning of my first year I got lost on my way to my first (and only) Model UN session at UCL. By chance, another person was lost too and I struck a conversation with her. It turns out we got along quite well. Two years on we are still friends despite not having any classes in common.
Emma Cheung
BA English
On my first day of lectures, the first person I talked to is now one of my flatmates and closest friends. We were both tentatively navigating the Cruciform to get to our introductory lecture and I asked her if she was trying to find the same place as me - as it turned out, we were about to go to the very same place for the next couple of years. The good thing about London is that you’re not limited to a close community – my advice would be to see what the city has to offer and meet people outside of university at meetups, volunteering, gigs, courses, and also learn to enjoy solitude. Once you master being alone – which isn’t difficult in such a big place – you might find that making friends comes more naturally.
Farida El-Kafrawy
BSc Social Sciences with Quantitative Methods
When I started at UCL, I clearly wasn’t ready for the large amount of time I would be spending on my own. With only a few contact hours per week it was difficult for me to make friends in my course. Getting involved in societies, signing up for volunteering projects and working part time was a life saver for me. I volunteered with Coachbright as an after school math tutor, joined CodeFirstGirls in UCL to learn basic coding skills, took evening classes in Arabic and Documentary Storytelling and also joined UCL’s SAVAGE journal as Film Section sub-editor. I attended many society events where I met lots of new and friendly faces and listened to talks by inspiring individuals. There are so many opportunities around and as a rather shy student who had no set plan, I’ve learned a lot about myself and what I might want to do with my life after graduating.
Louis Marhino Fernandes
MSci Physics
My very first evening in halls was a memorable moment. I had just arrived in London and I was a bit anxious about meeting people. However, two of my flatmates introduced themselves as soon as they saw me and asked me to join them for a card game in our accommodation's common room. They were so warm and friendly that my fears disappeared and I gladly accepted. That night, I met a lot of the people who would later become my close friends. Everyone seemed so eager to know me, and they made me feel very comfortable. I was surprised how easy it was to break the ice.
Folakunmi Pinheiro
LLM Law
Making friends can be tough and a bit nerve-wracking but I believe that being yourself helps make that journey easier. During my induction week, I was speaking to a guy on my course about some of the stuff I like doing. I remember telling him about a book I was reading at the time and, as he had read it previously, we bonded over the book and other works by the same author. This was on the first day of the induction and, 9 months later, he is one of my closest friends on my course. Even though I was nervous about meeting new people, being my authentic self helped me form genuine friendships.