Struggling making friends at uni

Exactly in the same boat as you. I think societies are your best bet - just pick something completely random one! I’ve joined one for the uni newspaper, mental health awareness, Marxism and fundraising just to give it a go and meet people. I’m considering doing caving aswell since it has trips thus is super sociable, pretty cheap and a lot of people will be entry level.

As for lectures, I’m gonna try and work into conversation with my acquaintances that my flatmates are no good and that I’m struggling to have plans with anyone and hopefully that brings about some invitations!

What uni are you?

Let's start with my flat mates - they're predominantly international students, which I don't have an issue with, but their English isn't brilliant so there's a huge language barrier; 5 of the 8 of them are from the same country, and they seemed to have already knew eachother before coming here - so it was hard trying to socialise and make friends with them.

I've tried speaking to people on my course, and that's been okay but I'm not really making friends - and haven't been speaking to people that much since friendships already started to form.

All the events at freshers week seem to be heavily for people who drink, and stay out late ect so I didn't go to any of the events because honestly I don't want to be out until early hours of the morning - and there haven't been many events for those that don't think, and if there were, they were a while away from the accommodation.

There are also lots of societies, however none of them seem to interest me - and the majority of them are for international students ie meeting other people from the same country as them.

I honestly don't know what to do, my parents keep going on at me about making friends and how "it'll be good for me" but I'm trying and nothing seems to be working.

There are societies that have events that don't place a big emphasis on drinking. When I was at university, they had events like bowling, cinema trips, day trips, dinners, games night, etc. If you are open to joining more societies, you will experience a wide variety of events and meet more people. Even if you aren't particularly interested in a society, it never hurts to try new things (and you never know, you may develop a new interest) - Fresher's Week is usually a good time to do this. If you don't like a society, you can always stop going. Not all societies are made for international students, there is usually a lot of different activities/interests - particularly at a university like Manchester!

You also mention that you haven't really made friendships with your flatmates - have you spoken to other people in your halls? You could introduce yourself to neighbouring flats, or if you have a common room or shared space, you could get to know other students in your accommodation.

I know exactly how you feel - I was in your position last year as well (even the same university!) and as someone who doesn't like staying out late or socially drinking, making friends was really tough - especially being in a hall where I felt I didn't really click with my flatmates (there's always an option to transfer halls if you really feel that strongly about it - it was one of the best decisions I ever made last year). I promise you it gets better though!

As previous replies have said, joining a society is probably your best bet at meeting some similar people to yourself. I was fortunate enough to be in the position that I played an instrument, so joining orchestras was the most obvious way for me to socialise. If you're into music, there are loads of casual choirs/ensembles to pick from, if not, there are societies like tabletop games, board games, anime, archery etc which tend to have regular meetups that aren't focused on staying out late and getting hammered. I'd definitely recommend browsing the SU website to see if any take your fancy. I know its difficult showing up to a new society on your own, but trust me once you do it you won't regret it - there are loads of other new people too and the society wants to make sure its new members feel welcome .

Also if it's free or you're up to paying, it's probably worth joining your course society as well - most of them host lectures/trips/events and there's hopefully something you like in there.

If you have any questions I'm happy to help