How to find your ultimate #unisquad

Finding your BFFs is no easy feat, so we’ve teamed up with SPRITE to help you stay cool, calm and cut through the heat.

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Making friends in your first year of uni can be tough. You’re all on your own, separated from your high school friends and all of a sudden find yourself in a room full of strangers.

But once you get past the awkward introductions and forced small talk, you might actually find some pretty awesome people in your course. If you’re feeling overwhelmed about starting uni for the first time and worried you’ll be sitting by yourself in the toilet eating your lunch (à la Cady Heron from Mean Girls), here’s some tips for finding your squad.

Approach fellow first-years at O-Week

We know this sounds daunting AF. But everyone’s in the same boat, too nervous to make the first move. If you see other equally nervous students checking out the same societies as you or gravitating towards freebies, ask them what degree they got into. Chances are they’ll be just as excited as you are to talk about their upcoming degree.

Take that first encounter to the next friendship level by getting your crew to go to the O-Week start of semester party because nothing solidifies a uni squad quite like a bit of music, dancing and partying.

Make the most of those awkward tutorial introductions

You know the ones. You thought you were done with them, but every single first class will involve turning to the person next to you and telling them some interesting fact about yourself – or worse, telling it to the class. You might begin to panic, not being able to think of one even slightly interesting thing. The only thing that comes to mind is the fact you own two cats, which is going to make you sound like more of a crazy person than ultimate friend material.

If you can’t think of what to say, poke fun at yourself and make a joke. It’ll ease the awkward tension of the activity and people will obvs want to be friends with the class clown. Want to talk about your cats? Go for it – tell everyone you’re a crazy cat lady and you’re thinking of adopting at least ten more. It’s about using self-deprecating humour for the win.

Use group assignments to your advantage

Being forced into a group project with five complete strangers probs seems like a pretty uncomfortable situation. But this is one of the easiest ways to score yourself a brand new uni squad – the members have already been assembled for you! Of course, sometimes it helps if you’re able to choose your own group members and you might be assigned total duds who aren’t at uni to make friends. But there might be some hidden uni squad potential beneath those shy and awkward exteriors.

After you get through the first official group meeting, throw out an invite for anyone who wants to have a drink at the uni bar. You know you’ve found your new #unisquad when they’re keen on happy hour!

Join uni clubs for the social aspect

At the end of the day, you might not have that much of a passion for Netball, Chess or Law. But join their society and you might be privy to the exclusive parties they host. Get the low-down from older students on which clubs have the best parties and choose selectively (pro tip: chess society might not be your best bet).

If you do get forced into playing a few games of Netball when you have absolutely no idea what the rules are at least you can have some laughs and bond with your new friends over your shocking hand-eye coordination.

Still not comfortable making small talk? If you’re feeling that awkward heat, you probably #needasprite. Click here to let us help and you could win 1 of 10 x $1,000 cash cards.

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Lauren Piggott

Image: Giphy