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What is the typical approach to making friends at Southampton?

I'm coming from Australia for an exchange programme at Soton university.

I'm fairly extroverted and at my local university I formed my social circle by walking up to people I recognized from my lectures and chatting with them. Eventually, we all just came together and formed a group.

Could I pull this off in Southampton?

I've heard it is uncommon to talk to strangers in the south and doing so will make people think you are a serial killer
Reply 1
Original post by DanielPerfect

I've heard it is uncommon to talk to strangers in the south and doing so will make people think you are a serial killer
That did make me smile. My son is in his first year at Southampton and whilst the students there are really friendly he said the locals are not so. No one seems to make eye contact and if you accidentally almost walk into someone in the street at home you would both say sorry, smile and just carry on. Not there, they just carry on walking.

My son has made friends with his flatmates, friends with friends of his flatmates, through societies and students on his course. I wouldn't say he's extrovert but he's not shy and does initiate conversation. That's all it takes sometimes.

Join a few societies and if someone asks if you want to go for a drink say yes. If you're going to Highfield then you'll find most of the bars and pubs in Portswood cater for students. That's where the local shops are too. Couple of miles on the bus - if you're staying in halls then you should get a free unilink bus pass.

Southampton is a nice place, small for a city but has a decent shopping centre, good bus service, reasonably safe and good train connections to London for a day out.
On campus at the University of Southampton
University of Southampton
Southampton
Visit website
Original post by DanielPerfect
I'm coming from Australia for an exchange programme at Soton university.

I'm fairly extroverted and at my local university I formed my social circle by walking up to people I recognized from my lectures and chatting with them. Eventually, we all just came together and formed a group.

Could I pull this off in Southampton?

I've heard it is uncommon to talk to strangers in the south and doing so will make people think you are a serial killer


Probably not, because Southampton is a fairly small university in comparison to the city at-large (circa 25k students vs. 350k residents) so you would have a hard time doing that. The university is fairly spread out around the city and afar (five campuses in Soton, two outside, one in Malaysia) so it's possible but don't 'count' on it.

There's plenty of bars and pubs in Portswood which is the closest shopping area to the main campus, and there's also plenty of clubs and bars in London Road which is where most people descend for the weekend.

Yes, it is uncommon to talk to strangers. Not quite the London tube-type no-talk zone, but you'd be quite weird to go up to people in general. As bad as Surrey.

Yes, student-locals relationship is terrible.

However there's plenty of events and societies for you to join, including coffee mornings etc. where your type of attitude would be fine and common. Though tbf you could probably go into a local pub and approach someone you know.

Also @ above it's not a couple miles from Highfield to Portswood. We're talking a 10-15 minute walk. Barely half a mile. I've never heard of anyone using the bus to go from the campus to Portswood. Must be really lazy.
(edited 6 years ago)
I'm coming in January, will this be an obstacle for joining societies?
Reply 4
Original post by Bart12345
Also @ above it's not a couple miles from Highfield to Portswood. We're talking a 10-15 minute walk. Barely half a mile. I've never heard of anyone using the bus to go from the campus to Portswood. Must be really lazy.
If you've got a free bus pass why not. I was actually talking about from halls to say Jesters which is definitely a couple of miles. For cheap food shopping the bus pass is a godsend.

@DanielPerfect join the Students Union. There is a list of societies on their website but there are many other societies not on that list. Maybe go to their advice centre for more info.

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