As a freshman there are countless opportunities to make friends on campus, but some freshmen would like to meet someone that could potentially become more than a friend. However, it can be difficult to find a date when students are new to the campus social scene. Rumor has it that Tech students tend to be a different and rare breed of human, so here are some tips to help find that special someone who can share your love of Samurai sword collections and would love to dress up with you as WoW characters at DragonCon.
Get involved in as many activities as possible. There are so many things to do on campus that there is almost no excuse to not be busy almost all nights out of the week. The best way to meet new people and scope out potential crushes is to get out of your dorm room and participate in the great activities Tech has to offer. If you do find that special someone you will already have an activity in common to talk about. When it comes to getting involved, pimp yourself out to the max. The more exposure you get the better. Around here, this rule often applies to girls and their clothing.
Be yourself. It is a major turn-off for people of either sex to discover the person they are into is not who they seem. If a person is really interested in you then they will really want to get to know the real you and not the person that you think they want you to be. Be yourself right up until the point you hear the words “I once played WoW for 48 hours straight without bathing” coming out of your mouth.
Become a good listener. You don’t have to have a Ph.D. in psychology to know that people generally appreciate when you listen to what they have to say. To show that you are interested take an active role in the conversation.
If for some reason you get lost in what a person is saying, a good tip is to repeat the last word the other person said to show that you are paying attention. For example, the other person just remarked on how much they love pudding. Hopefully you’d be able to come up with a way to use the last word of the sentence to show that person you were paying attention.
Listening to people also helps you to discover what common interests you have and can help you determine if you actually like this person or not. This might be a good time for guys to “fake it” until they “make it.”
Don’t be afraid to make the first move. Once you have found someone that catches your eye and shares your interests the next move is to ask them on a date. Some people are simply too shy to approach someone that they like and ask them out, so don’t take it as an insult if they don’t ask you first. If you’re shy also maybe a good way to help break the ice with this person is to go on a group date before asking them out solo.
When looking for a date activity, try to do something that interests both of you when choosing date activities. Since money is usually tight for college students try to find some activities that are relatively inexpensive and allow for time to talk and get to know one another.
Dealing with rejection. Rejection is something we all must face in our lifetime. The key is to not take it personally; the other person is really missing out. Realize that the rejection may have nothing to do with you. However, when you unfailingly convince yourself that you or something about you did indeed scare off that special someone, try not to go too nuts. No one likes a stalker.