at my uni there was an event every night, and I'm pretty sure every uni does that.
first night it was freshers only at the bar, and then the rest of the week it was anyone but freshers got free priority wristbands.
I only went out three times - the first Sunday as it was a welcome party, the Tuesday because it was a comedy night, and the Pub Quiz the next Sunday. The other nights I stayed in with two of my flatmates watching films and eating chocolate and just getting to know each other.
On the Wednesday night it was like I'd known them for a year even though it had been three days.
Didn't really go out but still made friends, although I did start going out from about November because I did feel I missed out a little, and it took until January for me to become good friends with people on my course simply because I wasn't very confident. As soon as I was confident enough to talk in class it was a hell of a lot easier to make friends haha
In freshers' week, it's basically "hey, I'm [first name]. I'm studying [subject]. You?" then "oh cool, where are you from?". Easy to take a conversation from there.