Making friends in college can be a difficult task, and it can also be tricky to maintain older friendships from home. I’ve picked up a few habits in my time at college to keep my long time friends close while forming new bonds as well. Here are a few tips that might help you too!

By: Alexandria Frank ‘21

As a more formal introduction, my name’s Alexandria Frank and I’m an exchange student at USC from Howard University by way of Corona, CA. I’m born and raised in California but as far as my college experience goes, it’s been East Coast and it’s been Black. That’s because Howard is a historically-Black college/university (HBCU) located in Washington D.C. In other words, it’s very different from USC.

By: Alexis M Peters ‘20

You may think that this process is no different than making friends as a freshman, but you would be wrong. Any transfer student knows that making new friends at your new university is not always an easy feat. Maybe as an incoming freshman at your previous college, there was a welcoming committee ready and willing to help you move into your dorm in a flash. There was a long welcome week full of events and activities specialized for you to mingle, make friends and assimilate into college life. There are mixers and events to get you integrated into your dorm community. And sure, they’ve got welcome week at USC, but as a transfer student, it’s just not the same. You’re older than a freshman, and should therefore be able to figure out USC life yourself, right? But coming from another college can be challenging in many ways, and one of those is making friends. As a transfer student myself, I understand how difficult it is to start over from scratch at a whole new university. It might be tough, but it’s not impossible. Fear not! Here, I offer tips to making friends as a transfer student easy as pie.